The Sacramento Kings may not have found their summer league story in the box score.
Darius Acuff Jr. had an uneven shooting stretch. Nique Clifford could have been more aggressive. The raw numbers from eight games across the California Classic in Sacramento and NBA Summer League in Las Vegas will matter in time, but they are not the most important takeaway from this stretch.
What stood out instead was something bigger: the Kings’ youngest players seem to be buying into the kind of team general manager Scott Perry and coach Doug Christie want to build.
That matters in Sacramento, where last season’s veteran-heavy group went 22-60 and missed the playoffs for the 19th time in 20 years. The fan base has lived through enough disappointment. The new message from the kids is that they want to be part of changing that.
“We want to be a competitive, tough, really menacing team,” said second-year center Dylan Cardwell, who went from undrafted out of Auburn to a standard NBA contract last season after beginning his pro career on a two-way deal. “Last year was a down year for us, especially at home.
We had a couple of 40-point blowouts, and it sucked. It stung.
It left a bad taste in our mouths.
“It’s just disrespectful to go out in that way. This is the start of a new brand of Sacramento Kings basketball. ...
I’m not trying to let teams come in here and punk us anymore. We’re tired of that.”
Perry has spent his first 15 months trying to reshape an expensive, aging roster. The market has made it difficult to move Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, Malik Monk and DeMar DeRozan, who was recently released, so the front office has had to wait for the right deals.
While that process plays out, Perry has still managed to stock the cupboard. Sacramento entered the 2025-26 season as the NBA’s fourth-oldest team at 27.3 years old, but the current projection has that number dropping to 25.9. That youth movement is starting to show up in the draft.
Last summer, Perry traded for a first-round pick to take Clifford, used the second round on Maxime Raynaud, who became an All-Rookie selection, and uncovered a useful piece in Cardwell. This summer brought another wave: Acuff was taken with the No. 7 pick, Alex Karaban arrived after another trade for a first-rounder, and Emanuel Sharp may have been another second-round find.
The Kings’ summer results were uneven but revealing. They went 3-0 in the California Classic, then finished 2-3 in Las Vegas.
Acuff played in five games and averaged 20.4 points, 4.4 assists and 3.8 turnovers while shooting 35% from the field and 27% from 3-point range. Sharp finished second on the team in scoring at nearly 16 points per game.
Sharp brings a real 3-and-D profile and earned Big 12 Conference All-Defensive Team honors at Houston. Clifford and Cardwell also arrived in the league with reputations built on defense.
That defensive edge is exactly what Kings summer league coach Chris Darnell says the organization keeps emphasizing.
“I think you have to start somewhere, and these young guys, since I’ve been here, they’ve been super bought in to the program and that defensive identity,” Darnell said. “We tell them every day about it.
They embrace it every day. They know that they’re going to be unaccountable to that, so we’re going to preach that every day.
I think that if you do that long enough, it just becomes part of who they are.
“I think we do have guys that we bring in that already kind of embrace that. Our front office has done a great job of identifying players that take pride in the defensive side of the ball, and then it’s on us as coaches to kind of carry that over to our instruction on the court and hold the entire group accountable to that.”
In Other News...
Kings May Be Overlooking A Summer League Standout Again
Jonathan Mogbos Summer League stint gave Sacramento another look at a player who already had some intriguing traits when he arrived from Toronto. The power forward played four games in Las Vegas and showed the kind of all-around activity that can make a two-way contract look like a bargain, with work on the glass, passing flashes and enough defensive disruption to keep him in the conversation.
The Kings now have to decide whether that showing was just a strong summer run or something more meaningful for the regular season picture. Mogbos defensive versatility and rebounding are the sort of tools Sacramento has been trying to stockpile, and his performance has at least made the front office pause before treating him like just another depth piece. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Suddenly Face A Russell Westbrook Decision Fans Wont Ignore
Russell Westbrooks one-year stop in Sacramento is already shaping up to be a short chapter. After going unsigned in free agency before the 2025-26 season, he landed with the Kings and gave them the kind of veteran presence that can steady a young locker room, which made his fit easy to understand even if the arrangement was always temporary.
Now the question is whether there is a next step at all. Kings GM Scott Perry has made clear the club sees Westbrook as having outplayed a minimum contract, but Sacramento can only offer that level of deal, and Westbrook is believed to be looking for more. For a player with his rsum, that leaves the market in a tricky place and the Kings weighing a future without a familiar backup presence. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Are Bringing Back A Beam Era Feeling Fans Missed
The Kings are heading into the new season with a younger roster and a familiar kind of energy, one that leans as much on personality as production. A returning group known as The Beam Boys has become part of that vibe, with Nique Clifford, Maxime Raynaud, Dylan Cardwell and Precious Achiuwa helping push the kind of playful fan engagement that made the Beam Era feel bigger than the standings.
Sacramento has not hidden the reality that the win-loss record may bring its share of bumps, but the atmosphere around the team is still being built with intention. Between the nicknames, the celebratory traditions and the idea of fans joining in with sunglasses during beam-lit wins, the Kings are trying to keep the connection alive even while the on-court results remain a work in progress. [Read more 🡒]