3. The Kings are woefully bad?
Of all the surprises that took place throughout the 2018-19 season, none were more unexpected than the sudden relevance of the Sacramento Kings. A spirited playoff push that fell short had them rack up 39 wins, their highest total since Mike Bibby and Ron Artest — before he was Metta World Peace — led the Kings to their last playoff berth in 2005-06.
Led by the continuously-developing backcourt of De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield along with a No. 2 overall pick in Marvin Bagley III, Sacramento was expected to cross the 40-win mark this year and contend for the final postseason spot out west.
Only three games into the new season, what could’ve gone wrong has gone wrong for the Kings. An 0-3 start says nothing of the 71 points they’ve been outscored by in those games, nearly double the next closest team.
Losses by 25+ points, 2019-20 season
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) October 27, 2019
- Sacramento Kings: 2
- 29 other NBA teams combined: 0 pic.twitter.com/e60ioqMC9X
Fox is now nursing a sore hip and Bagley will miss four to six weeks after fracturing his right thumb in a 124-95 blowout loss at the hands of the Phoenix Suns.
The biggest concern for Sacramento? Their pace of play. What was last year the third-fastest offense in the league has dropped to 15th so far this season. Fast-break points accounted for a league-high 18.3 percent of their points, capitalizing on one of the youngest cores in the NBA.
The impressionable youngsters could simply need time to acclimate to new head coach Luke Walton‘s schemes, but they don’t exactly have an abundance to work with. The West waits for no struggling squad and Sacramento has 17 of its 27 remaining pre-Christmas games against playoff opponents from a year ago.
That stretch doesn’t exactly provide the Kings an ideal chance to rediscover last season’s magic. With injuries already a factor and their honeymoon phase in the past, expect the longest current postseason drought in the NBA to extend another year.