The Sacramento Kings were flirting with a playoff berth for the majority of the 2018-19 NBA season. What led to the team coming up short?
The Sacramento Kings finished the 2018-19 NBA season with a 39-43 record — their best since the 2005-06 season, which serves as a testament to just how bad the team has been for the past decade.
The team has had plenty of opportunities to make the playoffs, but has always failed to capitalize. Players like DeMarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans or Isaiah Thomas could’ve made the postseason during their tenures with the team, but the front office could never build a successful roster around them.
That is precisely why Kings fans deserved a playoff spot this year. Their team’s season has ended in April for nearly 15 years, and they’re getting restless. Despite missing the postseason, the current Kings play a brand of basketball that is foreign to Sacramento. They played at the third-highest pace in the league, and their embrace of youth has ignited hope that the playoff drought might end soon.
Nevertheless, they still missed out this year. Despite flowing between the 7-seed and 10th place for most of the regular season, they finished ninth, nine games behind the 8-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, due to a 9-16 record after the All-Star break. How did they miss by this much? It can be hard to pinpoint what the exact reason is, but here are three factors as to why the Sacramento Kings missed the playoffs.