With preseason winding down, Sacramento’s opening-night lineup appears to be coming into focus. The Kings are still waiting to take the court for real, but the five most likely names are already sitting there in plain sight.
Point guard Darius Acuff Jr. looks lined up to start alongside shooting guard Zach LaVine, small forward Ben Simmons, power forward Keegan Murray and center Domantas Sabonis. That group gives the Kings a clear starting five, even if the long-term picture around it is anything but settled.
There’s a catch, of course: at least two of those starters are on the trade block and could be moved as soon as the right offer shows up. For now, though, this is the lineup Sacramento is most likely to roll out when the regular season begins.
That kind of clarity matters after last season’s mess. Sacramento’s 2025-2026 campaign was a failure of historical proportions, with a wildly imbalanced roster, a rookie head coach and a new front office all trying to make sense of an injury-plagued season. Any momentum the Kings managed to build got wiped out almost immediately by the sheer number of injuries.
The hope this year is simple: get something steadier in place and build from there. That plan already took a hit when breakout rookie center Maxime Raynaud suffered a preseason injury to his right patella. He’s out for an indeterminate amount of time.
Still, the Kings’ current starting group has a different feel from the one that opened last season, when Sacramento’s preseason starters never even logged a minute together because of injuries. It’s hard to build rhythm when the lineup changes every night, and the Kings know that better than most.
There’s also some flexibility baked into this group. Simmons and Murray could easily swap spots, and either one can handle one of the starting forward jobs. For now, though, this is the shape of the rotation fans should expect, assuming nothing else gets derailed by injury.
The bigger question is whether this collection of talent actually fits together. Individually, each player brings something useful. The challenge is turning that into a working unit.
Acuff may be the biggest difference between this version of the Kings and last year’s. In 2025-2026, Sacramento leaned on Dennis Schroder as its starting point guard, and that simply didn’t work. Schroder is better suited for a bench role, something he’s already shown.
If the group stays healthy, avoids an early trade shakeup and finds some chemistry, the Kings at least have a starting five capable of making things interesting. A playoff push still doesn’t look likely, but this roster could outplay the bleak expectations floating around it.
In Other News...
Kings End Preseason With A Problem Fans Cant Ignore
The Kings closed preseason with another rough night, dropping a 126-97 decision to the Spurs and extending a five-game skid that leaves little question about how uneven these final tune-ups were. Sacramento opened with Darius Acuff Jr., Zach LaVine, Keegan Murray, Ben Simmons, and Domantas Sabonis, but San Antonio seized control early and never really let the Kings settle in.
The bigger concern was how one-sided the game became in the areas that usually travel well into the regular season. The Spurs owned the glass 61-38 and buried 17 three-pointers, while Sacramento managed only three, a spread that underscored how far off the Kings looked at both ends. Preseason results only matter so much, but this was the kind of finish fans notice because it exposed the same kinds of issues that can linger if they are not cleaned up quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Preseason Created A Real Rotation Debate Before Opening Night
The Kings left preseason with plenty to sort through, and not much of it was flattering on the scoreboard. Sacramento went 0-5, losing by an average of 14.8 points, but the exhibition slate still offered a clearer look at the roster battle taking shape before opening night. Darius Acuff Jr. emerged as the team's top scorer in preseason action, giving the Kings a promising glimpse at what the rookie point guard might become as the regular season approaches.
Ben Simmons also made a case for more minutes after sitting out the previous season, and Jonathan Mogbo turned heads on a two-way contract with encouraging play. The tricky part for Sacramento is figuring out where that leaves everyone else, especially De'Andre Hunter, who struggled enough that his role could shrink if the Kings lean more heavily on Simmons and the other players who outperformed him in exhibition play. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Face A Season-Long Tug Of War That Could Reshape Everything
The Kings are heading into the 2026-27 season with a familiar kind of NBA tension, the sort that can define a year before it really gets going. Sacramento wants to keep competing, but it also has to make room for its rookies and sophomores, which means balancing development against the realities of a roster built around veterans whose futures are already looking uncertain.
Zach LaVine, Domantas Sabonis, De'Andre Hunter and Malik Monk all sit in the middle of that equation, giving the Kings useful production now while also carrying the possibility of being moved or departing by the end of the season or shortly after. For a team trying to chart its next phase, the challenge is not just picking a direction, but managing both timelines at once without letting either one derail the other. [Read more 🡒]