Davion Mitchell’s path to Miami’s starting point guard job was built long before he ever put on a Heat uniform. The foundation was laid in Sacramento, where he spent three seasons learning from veterans, absorbing details, and figuring out how to run a team from the backcourt.
Drafted ninth overall by the Kings in 2021, Mitchell landed in a backcourt that included De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton. Sacramento split the ball-handling duties between them, and Mitchell was able to study both up close during mini camps. He said that experience shaped the player he has become.
“Just kind of being a guy that was sitting back, paying attention to everyone,” Mitchell told Morgan Raegan on the "Deuce and Mo" podcast. “Because I knew one day I wanted to be in this position; kind of now I am.”
He took the same approach with Domantas Sabonis after the Kings traded Haliburton for him, picking up on Sabonis’ leadership and bringing those lessons into his own game. Now, Mitchell is set to enter next season as Miami’s starting point guard, a role that will ask him to be the primary organizer for the first time in his career.
That responsibility fits with the work he has been putting in this offseason. Mitchell has been focused on tightening his handle and improving his playmaking, even posting an Instagram video of himself firing cross-court passes with his right hand. The numbers back up the progress, too: the 2021 first-round pick tied Memphis Grizzlies guard Cam Spencer for the best assist-to-turnover ratio among all point guards at 4.22.
Miami will need that kind of precision with shooters like Klay Thompson and Ryan Conwell spaced out in the corners. Mitchell’s job is to keep the offense moving and deliver the ball on time.
His Sacramento years weren’t always smooth, but they gave him a base to build on. Mitchell’s rookie season was his best with the Kings, when he averaged 11.5 points and 4.2 assists in 27.7 minutes per game.
The role shrank after that. His minutes dropped to 18.1, then 15.3 in his final season, and Keon Ellis’ rise in 2023 pushed him out of the rotation picture.
Sacramento eventually moved him, along with Sasha Vezenkov, the draft rights to Jamal Shead and a 2025 second-round draft pick, to the Toronto Raptors for Jalen McDaniels.
His stop in Toronto was brief. The Raptors later sent him to Miami in a five-team trade that also sent Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors to team up with Stephen Curry.
Once he got to South Beach, Mitchell found another gear, averaging 9.3 points and 6.5 assists in a breakout season. Miami rewarded that production and belief in his two-way game with a two-year, $24 million extension last offseason.
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Russell Westbrook Could Still Have One More Kings Chapter
Russell Westbrooks lone season in Sacramento might not end up being just a brief late-career stop after all. After finishing his 17th NBA season with the Kings, Westbrook stepped away from playing and has since shifted into business ventures and basketball-related work outside the league, but his connection to the organization has remained a point of curiosity for fans who watched him bring his usual energy to a new setting.
What makes the Kings interest worth following is the path that opened up at the end of his playing days. Westbrook chose retirement after being asked to embrace a mentoring role behind a rookie point guard, and the idea of him staying tied to Sacramento in a different capacity has already started to circulate. A coaching role would be a very different chapter, but it would also fit the sense that his Kings story may not be finished yet. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Face A Darius Acuff Jr. Debate That Could Shape Both Timelines
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For now, though, the cleaner path appears to run through Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis as the offensive anchors, with Acuff developing into more of a facilitator alongside them. His ability to penetrate defenses and generate assists is the part that could matter most over time, since it gives the Kings a chance to grow him into a playmaker rather than rush him into a role that asks for too much too soon. The debate is less about whether Acuff belongs in the picture and more about how quickly Sacramento wants that picture to come into focus. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Veterans Enter A Season That Could Decide Who Stays
The Kings are heading into another season with an eye on the bigger picture, and that means the veteran layer of the roster is going to stay under a microscope. Sacramento is expected to keep reshaping the team through the 2027-28 season as it builds around its younger core, which gives little one year certainty to players who might otherwise look settled in place.
Domantas Sabonis, De'Andre Hunter and Ben Simmons all sit in that uncertain middle ground, with each viewed as a possible trade candidate or as someone who may not fit the long-term plan. Simmons, at least, has signaled openness to sticking around beyond the 2026-27 season if both sides want it, but for now the Kings are still sorting out which veterans are part of the future and which ones are simply part of the transition. [Read more 🡒]