Sacramento Kings: 3 players with something to prove in Orlando
The NBA plans to restart the 2019-20 NBA season, and there are a handful of Sacramento Kings players who have something to prove.
There is plenty of uncertainty surrounding the NBA in the wake of the league-wide COVID-19-induced shutdown, and the proposed return-to-play plan has experienced plenty of bumps along the road. One of the 22 teams that are scheduled to participate in the continuation of the 2019-20 season is the Sacramento Kings, who themselves have a good deal of uncertainty regarding the future of their roster.
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There are a handful of rotation players whose contracts will expire at season’s end, and it is likely that portions of the Kings roster look drastically different next season. There are also players who have had below-average seasons and have something to prove not only to the front office but to the fan base as well.
Odds are, they’ll have eight games to do it. While the team is certainly happy to be invited to participate in the Orlando event, the Kings find themselves in the middle of a cluster of teams battling for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They’ll have a shot at the playoffs, but the competing teams could prove to be too much. Any rust that the players mentioned in our list had better be shed quickly.
One expiring contract situation that you won’t find on our list is that of Bogdan Bogdanovic. Questions still remain about whether or not the Kings can afford to keep both he and Buddy Hield, who plays the same position. But a shift that replaced Hield in the starting lineup with Bogdanovic was made in January and turned the Kings season around for the better.
Thus, Bogdanovic nor Hield will have much to prove in Orlando.
So which Sacramento Kings players have the most at stake when the NBA resumes play? Here are our top three.