The Sacramento Kings enter the 2026-27 season in a strange spot: not quite good enough to be measured by wins alone, but with enough moving parts that the details will matter. A jump far beyond last year’s 22 wins would be a surprise, and even the two veterans who loom largest on the roster, Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine, don’t look like part of the long-term picture. Big seasons from them would help, sure, but they wouldn’t really change the bigger conversation.
That puts the spotlight on the smaller stuff - especially how the Kings actually play under second-year head coach Doug Christie.
Christie has made his preferences clear since taking over as interim coach. Defense comes up first, but right behind it is the way he wants the ball to move.
He has repeatedly framed ball movement as a source of energy for the offense and for the team overall. Last season, though, Sacramento didn’t exactly match that vision.
The most obvious number people may point to is three-point shooting, but for Christie, assists and passing may be the better barometer of whether his system is taking hold in his second full season.
Sacramento averaged 25.5 assists per game last year, which ranked 20th in the league. That’s not disastrous, but it also isn’t the kind of number that suggests the Kings were thriving in the area Christie seems to care about most.
The passing volume was even more concerning. The Kings finished with 274.2 passes per game, good for 25th in the NBA. In other words, they were more efficient with the passes they did make than the raw volume might suggest, but the volume itself was still too low for a team trying to build around movement.
There were reasons for that. DeMar DeRozan gave them one of the league’s best isolation scorers and shot creators, which naturally pulls possessions away from constant ball sharing.
Sabonis also only played 19 games, and outside of Russell Westbrook, he was clearly Sacramento’s best facilitator. Westbrook led the team with 6.7 assists per game, while no one else got above five except Dennis Schröder, who was gone by the deadline.
This season should give the Kings a better chance to climb those rankings. Sabonis is healthy again, and Darius Acuff Jr. arrives with vision and passing ability that already stand out for his age. He’s a real point guard who can score and create, and the pairing of Acuff and Sabonis should be good for 15+ assists together.
Still, that won’t be enough on its own if Sacramento wants to push toward the top half of the league in assists and passing. Christie will need everyone to buy in and keep the ball humming. The offense has to look connected, not just occasionally efficient.
That may be where the pressure lands. The Kings may not carry heavy outside expectations, but all signs point to Perry having goals in mind for Christie. If Christie is going to prove he can elevate the team, Sacramento will have to move the ball a lot more than it did a year ago.
In Other News...
Kings Home Opener Change Just Altered The Feel At Golden 1 Center
The Kings 2026 home opener at Golden 1 Center is already taking on a different kind of feel after the league shuffled the schedule, switching Sacramento from a date with the Warriors to a visit from the Trail Blazers on Oct. 23. It is the sort of change that matters in a building like this, where the first home night of the season often carries as much edge and anticipation as any game on the calendar.
Golden State is no longer part of that opening-night scene, with the matchup pushed to 2027 and still set to come to Sacramento later in the season on March 10 and April 4. For now, the Kings are still slated to open the season against the Clippers unless anything else shifts, leaving one of the most familiar Northwest California storylines out of the early spotlight at Golden 1 Center. [Read more 🡒]
Russell Westbrook Just Ended Any Chance Of A Kings Reunion
Russell Westbrooks time with the Kings ended up being a one-season stop, but it left a real imprint on a young Sacramento locker room. He brought energy, experience and a level of professionalism that mattered for a team still trying to grow around its younger players, which is part of why the possibility of a reunion lingered as a reasonable thought for a while.
Westbrook is now closing the book on his NBA career, sharing his decision in a social media video that looked back on an 18-year run. For Sacramento, it removes any lingering speculation about whether there might be one more return to the Kings, and leaves the franchise to carry forward the impact he had without the chance of another chapter. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Fans Can Already See The Big Acuff LaVine Dilemma
The Kings decision to draft Darius Acuff Jr. in 2026 already points toward a familiar kind of conversation in Sacramento: who sets the tone when the game gets tight, and who is best used as a scorer rather than a creator. Acuff is being viewed as a player who can grow into the offenses main engine, with the kind of late-game responsibilities that used to belong to DeAaron Fox, while the rest of the roster has to be sorted around that idea.
Zach LaVine remains the tricky part of the equation because the Kings still have to decide how much of the offense should flow through him if Acuff is the long-term answer at the point of attack. There is already a sense that Sacramento may need to find the right balance quickly, and if the fit never fully clicks, the bigger question becomes whether LaVine is better suited as part of a contenders plan than this one. [Read more 🡒]