The Sacramento Kings had more than one major offseason call to make, and Zach LaVine was right at the center of it.
LaVine, a two-time NBA All Star, had been mentioned as a possible trade piece before he chose to pick up his $49 million player option. That decision was hardly a shock.
Given his recent injury history, it would have been tough for him to land that kind of money on the open market anyway. But there was another layer to the story: ESPN Kings insider James Ham reported Monday that Sacramento told LaVine it would help him find a sign-and-trade partner before he opted in.
LaVine’s choice keeps him in a place where he believes the Kings can still figure things out. He was blunt about what went wrong last season.
"As a team, we didn’t do what we were supposed to," LaVine said at his end-of-season presser."Talent-wise, you can put us up against a lot of people. But we just didn't do what we were supposed to."
The injuries piled up and wrecked what looked, on paper, like a team that should have done much more. LaVine, Domantas Sabonis and Keegan Murray all missed significant time, and Sacramento never got the season it expected.
When LaVine was on the floor, though, he still produced. He averaged 19.2 points per game and shot 48-39-88.
There’s also a clear basketball reason his return matters. Pairing LaVine’s scoring with rookie point guard Darius Acuff’s playmaking and shot creation gives Sacramento a backcourt with real punch, especially for a team that had trouble scoring consistently this past season.
LaVine also said there were positives to take from the year, even with the disappointment.
"The camaraderie, obviously. This team was actually a group of really good guys that really got along and never really quit," LaVine said.
"Always tried, always communicated. Everyone was pulling for each other."
He said the group worked harder than others he has been around during his 12-year career and noted there weren’t "many days off" around the training facility.
That same tone is part of why the Kings’ draft picks matter here. Sacramento added Acuff, Emanuel Sharp and Alex Karaban, and all three came out of high-level college coaching environments. Karaban and Sharp, in particular, played for programs led by Dan Hurley at UConn and Kelvin Sampson at Houston, two coaches known for pushing their players hard.
The offensive fit is easy to see with Acuff and LaVine. The bigger question is what it looks like on the other end. Acuff has said he wants to make defense a priority this offseason, but both he and LaVine are clearly built more for scoring than stopping people.
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