The Sacramento Kings are entering the 2026-27 season with a pretty clear shape already forming. They still have one to three roster spots left to fill before getting to the 18-player limit, but the heavy lifting looks done, and the rotation may already be locked in before training camp even opens.
If the expected starting five holds, Sacramento will roll out Darius Acuff Jr., Zach LaVine, De'Andre Hunter, Keegan Murray, and Domantas Sabonis. That group gives the Kings a real chance to catch people off guard, but it also leaves plenty of room for things to go sideways. The range of outcomes is wide.
The honest truth is that wins probably won’t be the main story here. Nobody is talking about the Kings as a playoff team, and the more likely outcome is a finish near the bottom of the standings than a run into the play-in. Still, this doesn’t have to be a disaster season from start to finish.
Some projections have Sacramento landing around 20 wins, but there’s a believable path to something more competitive, in the 35-40 win range. That would depend heavily on Sabonis and LaVine looking like the veteran stars they’ve been before, and getting back to their All-Star-level production.
Even so, the real bar for this season is different. Sacramento’s best-case scenario is about development, not the standings. If Acuff Jr. looks like one of the league’s best rookies and Maxime Raynaud, Nique Clifford, and Dylan Cardwell all make sophomore jumps, the Kings would come out of the year with something they can actually build on.
That’s the whole point of this stage for the franchise. The Kings are in a rebuild, and if the young group doesn’t show real growth, the season won’t give them much to hang onto. This year is their chance to prove that the core has a future.
There’s also a practical reason Sacramento needs to stay out of the league’s very bottom tier. The NBA’s new draft lottery format hits the three worst records harder, so the Kings need to avoid landing there if they can. In that sense, finishing outside the bottom three matters more than chasing a few extra meaningless wins.
Based on recent seasons, getting to 25-plus wins should be enough to steer clear of that danger zone, even if teams aren’t openly tanking the way they have in the past.
The nightmare scenario isn’t just a bad record, though. It’s a season where the young players don’t move forward at all.
If the rookies disappoint and the sophomores take a step back, concern will build quickly in Sacramento. The biggest red flag of all would be Keegan Murray still unable to put his game together.
Murray’s five-year, $140 million contract begins this season, and if the offense still doesn’t come around, that would make the whole picture look a lot darker for the Kings.
The most realistic outcome probably sits somewhere in the middle. A 28-win season with some encouraging signs from the young core would fit the rebuilding plan just fine, and for this team, that would count as a solid step.
In Other News...
Kings Fans Just Got Another Brutal Reminder Of Their Team's Climb
The Kings rebuild has already asked for patience, but the last two decades have made that a tough sell to a weary fan base. Since Rick Adelmans departure, Sacramento has managed only one playoff appearance, a stretch defined by postseason droughts, front-office turnover and constant searching for the right direction, even as managing owner Vivek Ranadive has stayed in place for 13 years and GM Scott Perry has tried to push the roster toward something sturdier.
Still, the latest outside view was a harsh one. Bleacher Report projects Sacramento to sit last in its power rankings over the next three seasons, a reminder that progress in this market is still being measured against a long climb. The organization continues to treat this as a long-term build, and Perrys recent draft and roster work has drawn some optimism, but the broader picture remains clear: the Kings are still trying to prove they can turn incremental movement into real staying power. [Read more 🡒]
Malik Monks Kings Role Feels Like A Rebuild Clue
Malik Monk is still in Sacramento, and that alone says something about where the Kings are headed. After trade buzz followed him through the 2025 offseason and then again at the 2026 deadline, he has stayed put, with two years left on his deal and a player option on the final season. For a Kings team that has not made any notable recent moves around him, Monks presence feels less like business as usual and more like a decision to keep one of its more movable pieces close for now.
The question is what comes next, because retaining Monk does not necessarily mean the front office is done weighing its options. Sacramento may be looking at this season as a chance to let him boost his trade value before the 2027 deadline, especially if the market shifts again. No official plan has been announced, but the longer he remains in place, the more he looks like part of a rebuild calculation rather than just a stable rotation choice. [Read more 🡒]
Domantas Sabonis Just Became The Kings Biggest Offseason Question
Domantas Sabonis has become one of the most intriguing figures in Sacramentos offseason, not because of anything he has said publicly, but because of a small change with potentially big implications. He switched agents to Aaron Mintz, a name that has popped up around several recent high-profile NBA trades, and that alone has been enough to send the Kings back into the league-wide rumor mill at a time when every move around the roster feels loaded with meaning.
The speculation has already widened into a few possible landing spots if Sacramento ever decides to listen, with the Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors and Phoenix Suns all surfacing as theoretical fits based on their roster needs and market position. For the Kings, the question is less about whether Sabonis remains one of the teams most important players and more about how much uncertainty now surrounds a franchise centerpiece who has suddenly become the biggest offseason talking point in town. [Read more 🡒]