2025-2026 NBA Western Conference Tour: Walking forward with heavy burdens while struggling and wandering - Kings of Sacramento

40 wins and 42 losses, this is the final result of the Kings' regular season in 2024-2025 season. This result is 6 games less than the 2023-2024 season and 8 games less than the 2022-2023 season. The result is that the Kings are ranked among the playoffs for two consecutive seasons. Coincidentally, the Kings won ninth place in the Western Conference in both seasons. In the play-off competition, the Kings failed to enter the playoffs twice in a row. The retention and change of the

core framework is the theme of the Kings offseason. The team successfully retained Demar DeRozan, a 35-year-old veteran scorer, who averaged 24 points and 5.3 assists per game last season, showing his still excellent mid-range scoring ability and key ball handling. At the same time, the management also chose to continue to build a team around Sabonis. The all-round center delivered a quasi-triple double-double average of 19.4 points, 13.7 rebounds and 8.2 assists last season, providing solid support for the team in support and rebounds. However, the departure of backcourt core Fox marks the end of an era in the Kings, the once high-profile point guard was traded to the Spurs in the middle of the season for assets such as Zach Lavender.

Now the Sacramento Kings are standing at the crossroads of fate. This team that once shone in the West and won third place in the 2022-23 season is now in an embarrassing situation of missing the playoffs for two consecutive years. The Kings retained three core members, DeRozan, Raven and Sabonis, during the offseason. The three were OK on the offensive end, but the Kings' lineup construction strategy seemed to lack a clear direction. The stubborn problems that were difficult to solve on the defensive end were not improved. They were swaying between "winning in the present" and "future reconstruction", and finally formed a lineup combination that seemed to be all-round but actually had obvious flaws.

The Kings won the only NBA championship in the 1950-1951 season. At that time, the Kings had not changed their name yet, and the Rochester Royals were the predecessor of the Kings. The Kings' most glorious moment was in the 1998-2006 season, entering the playoffs for eight consecutive years, reaching a peak in the 2001-2002 season, with 61 wins and 21 losses in the regular season, achieving the best record in the league, and reaching the Western Conference Finals all the way. The Kings and Lakers fought seven games in the Western Conference Finals, and finally lost in overtime in tiebreaks, becoming one of the most classic series in NBA history.

In the 2005-2006 season, the Kings entered the playoffs with eighth place in the West, which was also the last time the Kings entered the playoffs. They lost to the Spurs 2-4 in the first round, and then began a 16-year missed the playoffs, setting the record for the longest consecutive playoffs in the NBA history. In these 16 seasons, the Kings frequently changed general managers and coaches, made repeated mistakes in drafts, and the management was in a mess. It was not until the 2022-2023 season that this embarrassing record was broken. The offensive system is undoubtedly the most eye-catching sign of the Kings. The team's offensive system is based on two pillars: high-speed offensive and defensive transformation and half-field position support. When Sabonis is on the court, the Kings' half-court offense is often initiated by him in the elbow zone or high position, using his excellent passing vision to find a cut teammate or outside shot. Raven and DeRozan offer another offensive option - singles with the ball, especially DeRozan's mid-range back-to-body skills, which are still one of the most difficult offensive weapons in the league.

The King's game style is like two sides of a coin. On the one hand, it is a smooth and gorgeous and efficient offensive system, and on the other hand, it is a defensive performance full of loopholes and ineffectiveness. This extreme offensive and defensive imbalance constitutes the most distinctive feature of the Kings in recent years and is also the biggest obstacle to their transition from mediocrity to excellence. The Kings sent Fox away in the middle of last season and obtained LaVin through a three-party transaction. LaVin's joining should have become the key to the Kings' lineup upgrade. However, the reality is that Lavender and DeRozan have obvious overlap in functions. Both of them are wing players who need to hold the ball and score first, but neither is good at defense or organization.

Laven and DeRozan had a cooperation experience at the Bulls, and this cooperation experience ended in failure. The lessons of the past did not make the king a warning. The problems between them could not be completely solved by a Sabonis. As a two-time All-Star player, LaVin can indeed provide the ability to break through the outside firepower, but in the games where LaVin, DeRozan and Sabonis played at the same time, the Kings' defensive efficiency was only 120.9. How to coexist with the three core players who need to hold the ball, the distribution of ball rights will become the number one problem faced by the new head coach.

The team fired Mike Brown midway through the season because of the poor record last season, but the Kings' problem is not something that can be solved by changing the head coach. The biggest problem with Kings’ lineup construction is the lack of balance. The Kings have multiple ball holders and players with outstanding scoring skills, but they lack real playmakers and defensive experts. On the defensive end, the team does not have a defensive gate that can limit the opponent's arrows, and the ability to protect the frame in the inside is quite limited. This type of lineup that is unbalanced offense and defense, even if it has outstanding offensive capabilities, can only achieve certain results in the regular season and it is difficult to achieve something in the playoff level confrontation.

The Kings want to rely on their existing lineup to enter the playoffs, but they are unwilling or unable to completely rebuild, which has led to the Kings' lineup restructuring path full of contradictions and compromises. During the offseason, the Kings won Schroeder by signing first and then trading, and the two sides signed a three-year contract worth 44.4 million. At the same time, the team renewed Monk's contract for three years and $76 million. The super sixth averaged 15.4 points per game last season, providing valuable firepower to the bench. But these players are all good at offense and cannot solve the team's most fundamental defensive problem.

This swinging team building strategy casts a strong shadow on the prospects of the 2025-2026 season. They are likely to continue to wander in the middle and lower reaches of the West next season, making it difficult to achieve their established goal of returning to the playoffs.. The Western Conference in the 2025-2026 season can be regarded as the most fiercely competitive season in NBA history. The defending champion Thunder is at the top, and powerful teams such as the Rockets, Clippers, and Lakers have been strengthening one after another. It is almost impossible for the Kings to achieve a breakthrough in such a living environment.

The Kings' most direct competitors next season are mainly teams such as the Grizzlies, Spurs, and Suns. Compared with the Grizzlies who have similar situations, the Kings lack new generation superstars like Morant and defensive pillars like Jackson; compared with the Spurs, the Kings lack super high potential rookies like Wenban Yama with the cornerstone of team building; even compared with the Suns, which are also underestimated, the Kings lack top scorers like Booker. This comparison highlights the embarrassing situation of the king in the "arms race" in the western region - he has no current competitiveness and lacks future potential stocks, and has fallen into a typical "moderate trap". The Kings' playoff prospects are particularly bleak in the Western Conference environment. The experience of stopping the playoffs for two consecutive years has proved that this team is difficult to perform at a high level in a high-pressure environment. In the 2025-2026 season, the Kings' best situation may still be to compete for playoff spots, but the ranking of 9th or 10th in the West means they need to win two single-elimination games in a row to enter the playoffs - considering the Kings' history of repeatedly losing streaks in key battles, this task is almost impossible to complete. The more cruel reality is that the Kings not only have difficulty in rushing to the playoffs, but may even fall to the bottom of the West. If the mid-season record is not as good as expected, management may choose to trade veterans such as DeRozan to completely rebuild, which will further weaken the team's competitiveness. In the Wild West, the basketball jungle where the strong prey on the weak, the Kings are gradually losing their living space, falling from the third in the West in the 2022-23 season to the current mid- and lower-level teams, reflecting the failure of team building strategies and the chaos in lineup construction. In the 2025-2026 season, the Kings are likely to continue to struggle at the bottom of the West and become the background board for the winning rate of the strong teams, rather than a real competitor.

The Sacramento Kings' 2025-2026 season is destined to not be dull, either seeking breakthroughs in struggle or completely pushing them back after failure. This team is carrying the heavy burden of past decisions and is struggling to survive in the cracks between the heroes of the West. The road ahead is full of fog but has to continue moving forward. Looking forward to the future of this team, what we see is not a clear path forward, but a wandering figure struggling in confusion. Perhaps the only thing that can be done for loyal Kings fans is to be patient and wait for the next real time to rebuild.