The Sacramento Kings’ season opener in Los Angeles comes with one obvious issue staring them in the face: the offense.
That was supposed to be the foundation, and instead it’s been the biggest concern. Sacramento put together the worst offense in the NBA this preseason, finishing ahead of only the London Lions, who played one game against the Portland Trailblazers. The Kings averaged 102 points per game, which was second worst behind the Charlotte Hornets, and the numbers were ugly across the board: 28% from three, 41% from the field, and 20 turnovers per game.
Yes, it’s preseason, and preseason stats always come with the usual asterisk. But the shape of this offense looks a lot more worrying than a normal slow start.
According to Cleaning the Glass, 42.2% of Sacramento’s field goal attempts came from midrange, the highest rate in the league. At the same time, the Kings were 29th in rim frequency at 26.9% and 30th in three-point frequency at 30.9%.
That shot profile is hard to ignore because it runs against how modern NBA offenses are built. Midrange shots, on average, simply do not produce enough value compared to shots at the rim or behind the arc.
Teams need to be extremely efficient there to make it work, and very few players clear that bar. Last season, only Jalen Brunson and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were above 50% from midrange on more than three attempts per game, while even DeMar DeRozan finished at 47.6%.
Sacramento’s problem isn’t just philosophy in the abstract. It’s what the offense is actually generating.
Last season, 43.2% of the Kings’ shots came from midrange, while 25.8% came at the rim and 30.9% came from three, per Cleaning the Glass. That’s not the profile of a strong NBA offense, and it’s not the profile most teams want to live with in 2026.
Doug Christie has made it clear he doesn’t want that drift into long twos. He said the team should not “just settle for mid range shots” with time left on the shot clock. He also broke down the ideal decision-making window this way: “Being first in mid-range in the first 17 seconds of the shot clock is not what we want…” and “Once you get to that last seven seconds, which we call butter or fire, then you settle for the best available shot.”
The Kings do have some personnel limitations, but they’re not short on shooting talent. Domantas Sabonis often shares the floor with another big who doesn’t stretch the defense, and that complicates spacing.
Still, teams around the league make it work with less obvious shooters. Minnesota, for example, got 38.6% of its attempts from three last season even with Rudy Gobert offering almost nothing from beyond the arc.
The real concern is that Sacramento’s spacing problems may be baked into the structure of the offense itself. Watching the Kings in preseason and last season, many of the actions they run don’t seem to create clean three-point looks.
On their first play against San Antonio, for instance, the action involving Zach LaVine and Sabonis produced a tough long two from LaVine, and the rest of the offense barely moved. That has been a familiar theme.
There’s also a bigger drop-off to point to. Under Mike Brown in 22/23, the Kings led the NBA in offensive rating, finished second in effective field goal percentage, and attempted the sixth most threes in the league. Compared with that version of the team, the current offense has been far less dynamic, and the midrange dependence has climbed while rim attempts have gone down.
The bottom line is simple: something has to change. Sacramento’s defense is not going to carry them no matter how it’s coached, so the offense has to be the engine.
Right now, it doesn’t look like a group trending toward respectability, let alone the level needed to escape the bottom tier. The Kings finished 26th in the league last season, and based on what they’ve shown so far, that’s still the concern.
Tonight against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Kings have a chance to look different offensively and give Christie and his staff something tangible to build on. Nobody is asking Sacramento to become the league’s best offense.
But with this much scoring and shooting on the roster, they should be capable of much more than what they’ve shown so far. If tonight looks the same, the questions will only get louder.
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Sacramentos pitch is obvious: there should be minutes available, and a real pathway to carve out a role right away. Minnesota is also in the mix, though, which gives Porter a very different kind of choice, between a team trying to piece things together and one with a clearer path to contention. For the Kings, the question is whether they can make the most of a chance that may not stay open for long. [Read more 🡒]
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Mavericks Suddenly Have A Real Shot At A Guard Fans Know
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Dallas may have the edge on paper because it has a two-way roster spot available and a pre-existing relationship with Clayton, which could make that an appealing landing spot if he clears waivers. Still, the next step may come down to something simpler than team fit alone: where he can actually get minutes, and how that lines up with the long-term direction he wants for his career. [Read more 🡒]