The Sacramento Kings’ preseason is in the books, but nobody should mistake that sample for the full story of what’s ahead. This roster is still under construction, and the 2026-2027 season looks built to swing plenty of different ways before it settles into anything resembling a pattern.
A lot has changed since the end of the 2025-2026 season. DeMar DeRozan, Devin Carter, Russell Westbrook, Patrick Baldwin Jr., Drew Eubanks, Killian Hayes, Doug McDermott, and Isaiah Stevens are all gone. That’s a long list for any team, and it shows just how much turnover Sacramento has absorbed.
The front office has tried to fill in the gaps with a mix of youth and familiar names. The Kings drafted Darius Acuff, Emanuel Sharp, and Alex Karaban, while also bringing back Precious Achiuwa and Daeqwon Plowden. They added Leaky Black, Jonathan Mogbo, and Adam Flagler on two-way deals, and Ben Simmons is back in the league as well.
There is still one more bit of roster business to finish. Sacramento needs at least one cut, since it has one standard contract and one two-way contract left to fill.
The team is also carrying 19 players, and only 18 can stick. Recent cuts to Tristan Newton, Elfrid Payton, and Viktor Lahkin at least move things in the right direction.
That roster churn matters because the Kings are also bringing three sophomores into the mix in Maxime Raynaud, Dylan Cardwell, and Nique Clifford. Put that together and you get a team that is younger, less experienced, and still figuring out how to play together with any real rhythm.
That’s why preseason results don’t mean much here. Good or bad, they are not a reliable preview of what Sacramento will look like once the games start counting for real. This group still has plenty of growing up to do, both individually and as a unit.
So yes, expect bumps. Expect losses.
Expect some strong nights too. The source of all that volatility is obvious: this team is still learning itself.
That doesn’t automatically make 2026-2027 a bad season, either. There will be some big moments and some impressive wins mixed in with the rough patches. If Sacramento reaches the postseason, it would be a miracle, but that is not the whole point of the year anyway.
The Kings are in the middle of a rebuild, and this season is one more step through it. The task is simple in theory, harder in practice: keep moving forward. If that happens, the wins should come with it, and as the group settles in, Sacramento can become a stronger force in the Western Conference, if not the league.
In Other News...
Doug Christie Is Quickly Becoming A Serious Kings Problem
Doug Christie inherited a messy situation when he took over as Kings head coach in 2024 after Mike Brown was fired, and his first full season did not exactly offer much breathing room. Sacramento was dealing with a poorly balanced roster and a run of injuries, and even with some roster improvement since then, the early signs around this preseason have not been encouraging for a team trying to stabilize itself.
Christies approach has also reportedly rubbed some players the wrong way, adding another layer to a job that already looked fragile from the outside. Now there is growing speculation that he may not be the coach by the end of the current season, which leaves the Kings facing a familiar question: whether they can find any real traction before the season slips further out of reach. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Enter Opening Night With One New Concern Up Front
The Kings trimmed their roster to get to opening night, waiving Viktor Lakhin, Tristen Newton and Elfrid Payton as they finalized the group that will start the 2026-27 season. Sacramento will carry 17 players into the opener against the L.A. Clippers, a standard enough move at this point in the calendar, but one that also leaves the frontcourt picture a little more fragile than the team would like heading into the first week.
The bigger concern is Maxime Raynaud, who suffered a right patellar subluxation and will be reevaluated in about two weeks. For a team already sorting out its opening-night rotation, any setback up front matters, especially with the season about to begin and the margin for early lineup stability already looking thinner than the Kings probably hoped. [Read more 🡒]
Malik Monks Kings Role Suddenly Feels Far Less Clear
Malik Monks place in Sacramento suddenly feels more uncertain than it did just a few months ago. He has not appeared in the Kings preseason games, with ankle soreness cited as the reason, and that absence comes against the backdrop of a summer in which the team reportedly tried to move him in both the 2025 offseason and during the regular season but could not find a deal.
Monks limited playing time has only added to the questions, especially because there has been no official explanation beyond the soreness. For a Kings team still sorting out its rotation and direction, the situation leaves Monk in a familiar but uncomfortable spot, with speculation about his future lingering even as the preseason moves on. [Read more 🡒]