The Sacramento Kings are about to spend the start of the season short-handed in a place they can’t really afford to be: the frontcourt.
Dylan Cardwell is expected to miss at least a few weeks with a left calf strain, joining Maxime Raynaud on the sidelines and forcing the Kings to rethink their center rotation before the regular season even gets rolling. For a team that had been experimenting with double-big looks in the preseason, that’s a significant wrench in the plan.
Raynaud’s absence was already on the books after he took knee-to-knee contact from Stephen Curry and suffered damage to his right patella. No return date has been set, and he’s expected to miss time in the regular season. The injury could have been much worse, but it still leaves Sacramento without one of its young bigs.
Cardwell’s situation followed a similar path quietly at first. He felt soreness in his left calf during the Kings’ second preseason game against the Lakers. That soreness was later diagnosed as a strain, and he has been out ever since, though the team only recently made the absence official.
For now, the Kings will have to close out the preseason without either player and head into the early part of the schedule with both unavailable. The hope is that Cardwell’s return comes sooner than Raynaud’s, but both are slated to be re-evaluated after the regular season begins, which means the wait could stretch for weeks.
The good news for Sacramento is that it does have bodies to work with. Domantas Sabonis, the team’s projected starter at center and an All-Star, All-NBA player, remains the anchor at the five.
Precious Achiuwa is set to handle the next spot in line, with Jonathan Mogbo backing him up. That gives the Kings a workable group there, especially with both Achiuwa and Mogbo playing well.
Still, losing Raynaud and Cardwell together is more than just a numbers problem. It hits Sacramento where it already has little margin for error: defense.
Cardwell has been one of the main pieces in whatever defensive identity the Kings have been able to build, particularly because of his rim protection. Without him, that part of the roster looks far less stable.
It also wipes out the double-big setups the Kings had been testing earlier in camp. When all five bigs were available, Sacramento had a chance to use its size as a real weapon. That option is off the table for now, leaving the Kings to lean on small-ball looks and figure out a defensive approach that works without two key frontcourt pieces.
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Simmons also made clear how much the chance means to him after missing last season because of injuries, saying he is excited to get back healthy. For Sacramento, the signing is less about a splash than about a roster bet: if Simmons is right physically, the Kings may have added a useful multipurpose piece, and if he is not, the cost stays contained. [Read more 🡒]