The Sacramento Kings are finally getting a little healthier, but Friday night still looks like a steep climb.
After spending much of the early season piecing together lineups with key pieces missing, Sacramento enters its NBA Cup Group Play opener against the San Antonio Spurs with only three players on the injury report. That is a notable shift for a team that has listed at least four rotational players as unavailable in every game so far.
Even with that progress, the Kings are still dealing with major absences. Ben Simmons remains out after right Achilles tendon repair/surgery, and the team is still waiting on Maxime Raynaud and Keegan Murray to get back into the mix. Dylan Cardwell also missed the first seven games, adding to the patchwork start that has left Sacramento with just one win in its first eight contests.
Murray’s situation has been especially frustrating for a team that expected more from him this season. He missed 59 games last year, has only played two games so far, and is now in the first season of his $140 million contract. Raynaud has also been a missing piece after making an All-Rookie team last year, but a knee injury has kept him sidelined to open the new campaign.
The Kings can point to injuries, but the record tells the bigger story. A 1-7 start leaves little room for excuses, even if the roster is trending in a better direction.
San Antonio, meanwhile, comes in looking every bit like the force Sacramento is trying to catch. The Spurs beat the Kings by 27 points in their first meeting this season and have now won six straight heading into Friday’s rematch. They are also carrying extra motivation into the matchup with this being their first NBA Cup Group Play game.
The Spurs are not at full strength either, with new forward Tobias Harris and rookie big man Jayden Quaintance yet to play this season. It has not slowed them down. Victor Wembanyama is driving the charge and has built an MVP case early, capped by one of the most eye-popping individual games of the NBA season: 52 points, 24 rebounds and 8 blocks in a win over the Dallas Mavericks.
Sacramento will need a major answer to slow that kind of production, and it will have to do it in front of its home crowd. The Kings and Spurs are scheduled to tip off at 7:00 p.m. PT in Sacramento.
In Other News...
Sabonis Gives Kings Fans A Milestone To Watch Amid Trade Buzz
Domantas Sabonis gave Kings fans another reason to keep an eye on the record book in the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, pulling down 17 rebounds and moving past Eddie Johnson into ninth place on Sacramentos all-time offensive rebounds list. It has been a career year on the glass for Sabonis, and the pace he is on has him inching toward a far more prominent mark in franchise history.
The timing makes the milestone feel a little more layered, too, with trade buzz continuing to swirl around Sabonis even as no confirmed move has been reported. For a Kings team trying to sort out both its present and its future, his climb up the franchise leaderboard is a reminder of how much production he has already delivered, and how much more history he could still chase if he stays in Sacramento. [Read more 🡒]
Hornets Linked Again To A Star Big Man They Once Passed On
Domantas Sabonis is back in the center of trade conversation as Sacramentos rebuild starts to take shape, and that naturally has ripple effects across the league. The Kings are reportedly open to moving the star big man, which is the kind of development that immediately gets attention from teams that have already checked in before and know what kind of impact he can have.
Charlotte is one of the clubs worth watching again after showing interest last season, when talks with the Kings and Raptors never got over the finish line because of contract and draft-pick disagreements. With both teams stumbling this season, the conditions for another round of discussions are there, and Sabonis remains the sort of name that can quickly change the direction of a front office conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Already Face An Early Question About Their First Round Picks
The early part of the season has already put the Kings in a familiar spot with their recent first-round picks, as Nique Clifford and Alex Karaban have both been kept on a short leash while the rotation settles in. Clifford has only seen brief stretches totaling a few minutes per game, and Karaban has been used sparingly as well, appearing in four games with limited run. For a team trying to balance development with immediate results, that leaves little room for either rookie to show what they can really do.
A recent podcast discussion put the issue in plain terms: when the minutes are this hard to come by, it becomes difficult to judge what the Kings actually have in these two young players. The talent evaluation is happening in the background, but the on-court sample is still so small that every shift feels more like a glimpse than a true test. For now, the bigger question is not just how Clifford and Karaban fit, but when Sacramento will give them enough runway to find out. [Read more 🡒]