DeAndre Hunter enters the Sacramento Kings’ 2026 picture with a simple calling card: he can score, he can rebound, and he can defend on the perimeter. After a 2025 stretch that was cut short by an eye injury, the Kings are hoping a healthy offseason gives him a cleaner runway into training camp.
Hunter’s path to Sacramento has already been a winding one. He was drafted No. 4 overall in the 2019 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, then had his draft rights traded to the Atlanta Hawks on draft night in a deal with a lot of moving parts.
He opened his NBA career in Atlanta and stayed there from 2019 through the first half of the 2024 season before being dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers at the trade deadline. He spent the rest of that 2024 season and the first half of 2025 in Cleveland before landing with the Kings at the trade deadline.
His brief run in Sacramento last season never really got going. Hunter appeared in only two games after the trade and then needed season-ending surgery because of the eye injury. In those two outings, he averaged 7.5 points, 1.5 rebounds, 0.5 assists, zero blocks, and zero steals while shooting 21.1 percent from the field, 22.2 percent from three, and 83.3 percent from the free-throw line.
That small sample doesn’t tell the full story of the player the Kings are getting. Across his NBA career, Hunter has averaged 14.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.3 blocks, and 0.7 steals per game. He’s been a steady two-way presence, and at 6-7, 221 pounds, he’s built to handle the kind of perimeter work Sacramento needs.
His shooting numbers back up that profile. Hunter is a career 44.7 percent shooter from the field, 36.4 percent from deep, and 82.5 percent at the line. That kind of efficiency gives him a lane to impact games without needing the ball constantly in his hands.
Before the NBA, Hunter spent two seasons at Virginia in 2017 and 2018, where he established himself as a strong defender and a capable offensive player. His college run included one of the most memorable swings in recent tournament history: Virginia became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed when it fell to UMBC in the first round of the 2017 tournament, then answered by winning the national championship in 2018 over Texas Tech.
In those two seasons with the Cavaliers, Hunter averaged 12.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.5 blocks, and 0.6 steals per game. He also shot 50.9 percent from the field, 41.9 percent from three, and 77.3 percent from the free-throw line, which showed how complete his offensive game could be even while his defense stood out.
For a Kings team that finished 22-60 in 2025, Hunter’s value is pretty clear. Sacramento needs dependable scoring, solid rebounding, and perimeter defense, and those are exactly the areas where he has made his living.
Now the question is whether he can stay healthy and carry those strengths into 2026. If he does, Hunter has a real chance to matter for the Kings right away.
In Other News...
Kings Media Day Took An Awkward Turn The Team Can't Ignore
Media day is supposed to be a clean reset, a chance for the Kings to introduce the new season with a little polish and a lot of optimism. Instead, Sacramentos gathering ended up producing the kind of off-camera moment teams hate, with reporters caught on a hot mic making unprofessional comments about Ben Simmons and Zach LaVine, two players the Kings have every reason to put front and center as they try to reshape the conversation around this roster.
The awkwardness lands differently because it is not happening in a vacuum. Sacramento signed Simmons to a one-year deal and brought LaVine in via trade in February 2025, so the franchise has already invested real attention in how both players are received and discussed. It also echoes the recent hot-mic episode in Toronto involving Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Mogbo, which only makes this look less like a one-off slip and more like the sort of around-the-team distraction organizations would rather not keep revisiting. [Read more 🡒]
Chris Webbers Return Brings Something This Kings Team Has Needed
Chris Webbers presence at Kings practice this week adds a little extra weight to a training camp that already has a different feel under Doug Christie. Invited by general manager Scott Perry, the former Sacramento star is expected to remain around the team for the rest of the week, a timely reminder of the franchises most successful era and the standard the organization is trying to reclaim.
Christie has made accountability and higher expectations a priority as the Kings work to move past a rough previous season. With young players needing reps and veterans needing to help steady the group, having a figure like Webber around the building gives Sacramento another link to what winning here once looked like, and perhaps a nudge toward what it needs to become again. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Media Day Controversy Has Fans Waiting For Fallout
Sacramentos media day was supposed to set the tone for a new season, but instead it became a bigger talking point for everything around the Kings than the team itself. A leaked audio recording from the event captured reporter Sara Hodges making disparaging remarks about Ben Simmons and Zach LaVine, and the clip spread quickly across social media, turning a routine day on the calendar into a public relations headache.
The reaction did not stop with fans, either, as former NBA player Royce White also weighed in and added more fuel to the discussion. For now, though, the most notable part of the story is the silence around it, with neither the Kings nor Hodges publicly addressing what was said as the fallout continues to simmer. [Read more 🡒]