Daeqwon Plowden has finally turned years of G League grinding into a standard NBA contract with the Sacramento Kings, and he’s not the only one in that category. The Kings also have a case to make for Isaiah Stevens, another G League veteran who looks ready for a real shot on the main roster.
Sacramento has already shown this year that it can mine value from the developmental ranks. It began with undrafted signing Dylan Cardwell, who earned a standard contract after the trade deadline in 2026 and is now expected to be a core defensive piece. Plowden fits that same mold, only with a little more runway behind him.
Plowden spent a combined four years in the G League, most recently with the Stockton Kings, and he delivered when Sacramento needed help late in the 2025-2026 season as injuries shredded the roster. That stretch helped push him into his first standard NBA deal, making him a full-time member of the Kings.
The appeal is pretty clear. Plowden gives Sacramento a versatile wing who can help on both ends and still has room to grow. For a team trying to build out its depth, that matters.
Stevens is the other name that belongs in this conversation. The undrafted point guard from 2024 has spent the last couple of seasons mostly in the G League, with the Miami Heat’s affiliate in 2024-2025 before landing with Stockton for 2025-2026. He’s now in position to help fill a need the Kings still have.
Point guard has been a problem area for Sacramento since the trades that sent away Tyrese Haliburton and De’Aaron Fox. That changed when the Kings drafted Darius Acuff Jr., whom they believe can be the starting point guard around which the rebuild takes shape.
But there’s still a hole behind him. After moving on from Killian Hayes, Devin Carter, and, presumably, Russell Westbrook, Sacramento doesn’t have a clear backup point guard. Stevens could be the answer.
His game is built on court vision, high basketball IQ, pacing, and clutch execution - the kind of traits that can steady a young roster. Give him a real roster spot, let him develop alongside Acuff and the rest of the Kings’ young core, and he can grow into the secondary point guard role Sacramento needs.
The Kings have already proven they’re willing to reward G League production. Plowden got his chance. Stevens has earned one too.
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Sacramentos draft history has been impossible to separate from the 2018 miss that still hangs over the franchise, but the front office has at least started to build a different kind of conversation around the future. Under general manager Scott Perry, the Kings have added a fresh wave of young talent through recent drafts, a group that includes Nique Clifford, Maxime Raynaud, Dylan Cardwell, Darius Acuff Jr., Alex Karaban and Emanuel Sharp, giving the organization more runway than it has had in years.
The hope now is that this new class can help shift the focus away from what went wrong and toward what comes next. There is real intrigue around Acuff, and the optimism around the current crop is tied to a simple idea: if Sacramento keeps hitting on these picks, the long shadow of that old draft decision may finally start to fade. [Read more 🡒]
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The catch, of course, is that any real pursuit would have required the Kings to clear major money first, including moving on from Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine and the contracts attached to them. So the fit is easy to imagine and hard to execute, which is why Dosunmu ends up as one of those players who can haunt a fan base in theory even when the practical path never really opens up. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Two Big Debate Just Got More Complicated Than Fans Expected
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What makes the debate trickier is that the early numbers from last season point in a direction the Kings probably cant ignore, even if the sample is thin. Sabonis has tended to lift lineup performance when he is alongside either young big, which gives Sacramento a potential path to more size without sacrificing too much on the floor, but the staff still has to decide which combinations are worth leaning into and how far to push that look. [Read more 🡒]