The Sacramento Kings haven’t set themselves up for contention yet, but this season should bring them one year closer to it.
There are two ways to view the fact that the Sacramento Kings don’t have their draft pick this upcoming year. On the one hand, they probably won’t be great, and it’ll hurt to give away a high lottery pick. On the other hand though, it also means that they don’t have any reason to tank this year.
To be fair, coach Dave Joerger has never been a fan of tanking. He played past-their-prime veterans Kosta Koufos and Zach Randolph a combined 45.2 minutes per game last year, after all. Let’s not even mention Vince Carter and George Hill.
Luckily, this year the young players and the more talented ones should be the same players, which means they’ll get the lion’s share of the playing time. There may be some growing pains, as there are for any young team, but it’s necessary if the Sacramento Kings ever want to emerge from the bottom of the league.
Let’s take a look at the new roster, some storylines to watch for this season, best-case and worst-case scenarios and some final predictions.