The Sacramento Kings’ projected starting five has landed near the bottom of the league in Bleacher Report’s latest rankings, but the group is also built to look a lot different than the one that stumbled through much of last season.
On Thursday, Zach Buckley ranked all 30 NBA teams’ starting units and placed Sacramento at No. 29. That’s a bleak slot on paper, but it comes with an important caveat: the Kings are expected to have key pieces back healthy, and their lineup should be far more complete than the one fans saw for most of last year.
That optimism starts with Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis. Both veterans missed more than half of Sacramento’s games because of injury last season, and both are back to form part of a group with more offensive punch around them. Their names also surfaced in trade speculation this offseason, though teams reportedly weren’t eager to take on those contracts.
As Buckley put it, "LaVine and Sabonis would be gone already if they had a trade market," and he added, "The same almost certainly applies to [De'Andre] Hunter, and [Keegan] Murray keeps moving further away from the buzz that accompanied his arrival as the No. 4 pick of the 2022 draft."
Hunter arrived in Sacramento in January of last year, but his Kings tenure has barely gotten started. He played only two games before season-ending surgery to repair his eye injury.
Even with that tiny sample, he still brings something this roster badly needs: defense. Hunter has averaged at least 13 points per game every season since his rookie year, and he’s been an above-average perimeter defender.
For a Kings team that has struggled on that end, Hunter gives head coach Doug Christie the best defender in the projected starting five.
Murray’s path has been bumpier. He appeared in just 23 games last season before a left ankle injury shut him down.
His shooting from deep has also cooled off sharply. After hitting 41.8% from 3-point range as a rookie in 2022-2023, he fell below 28% last season.
Even so, he still projects as one of Sacramento’s better shooters from outside, and that should pair well with the playmaking Acuff is expected to provide.
The Kings made their interest in Darius Acuff Jr. official after reports linked the front office to taking him seventh overall in the draft. General manager Scott Perry spoke Friday on SacTown Sports Radio about what the rookie is walking into, making it clear Acuff will carry a heavy load early.
Perry said Acuff will have a lot on his shoulders as a rookie, but the organization is prepared to live with the "bumps and bruises."
That means scoring and ball-handling responsibilities right away, and for Sacramento, the patient approach appears to be the plan.
In Other News...
Kings Cost Cutting Move Looks Worse With Another Toronto Payoff
What looked like a straightforward cost-cutting move for Sacramento last summer has aged in an increasingly awkward way. The Kings sent Sasha Vezenkov and Davion Mitchell to Toronto for Jalen McDaniels and two second-round picks, a deal that was supposed to help reshape the roster while trimming money from the books, but the return has done little to quiet second-guessing.
Vezenkov eventually headed back to Europe after a buyout with the Raptors, while Toronto turned those picks into Alijah Martin and Jamal Shead, with Shead already landing a three-year contract extension. Mitchell, meanwhile, is now with the Miami Heat and appears to be their starting point guard, another reminder that Sacramentos decision moved on from a useful guard while Toronto kept finding ways to turn the deal into more value. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Linked To Young Shooter Who Could Fit Steve Kerr Perfectly
Jordan Hawkins is suddenly on the market after a fast-moving stretch that saw the former UConn standout, taken 14th overall by New Orleans in 2023, traded to Memphis and then waived. It is a reminder that first-round pedigree only goes so far in the NBA, especially for a young guard whose biggest selling point is still the same one that got him drafted in the first place: the ability to space the floor and punish defenses when the shot is falling.
For a team like the Kings, who have long valued offense and perimeter creation, a player such as Hawkins at least fits the profile of a low-risk flier with upside. Sacramento is not alone in that thinking, either, with Dallas and Golden State also mentioned as logical landing spots for the same reason: each could use shooting, each could give him a clear role, and each offers a style of play that might finally help him settle in as a reliable NBA weapon. [Read more 🡒]
De'Andre Hunter Suddenly Looks Like A Huge Kings X Factor
De'Andre Hunter has barely had a chance to show what he can mean for Sacramento since arriving in last Februarys trade, and the injury that cut his first season short only made the wait longer. With preseason opening on the horizon, the Kings finally have a healthier version of the wing in camp, and Hunter says he is ready to play after spending much of his early tenure sidelined.
For Sacramento, that matters because Hunter brings exactly the kind of two-way flexibility the roster can use, especially on a team trying to get more versatile on defense without sacrificing scoring support. He spoke about that defensive versatility himself, and with an expiring contract in hand, he has a chance to make a strong early case that he can be more than a name in the middle of a trade package. [Read more 🡒]