The Sacramento Kings will resume play on Thursday, with 22 games remaining for this season. The Kings went 2-2 after the trade to acquire Domantas Sabonis, inspiring some Kings fans to cast their eyes upon the play-in tournament once again. With another day until games resume, I thought it would be a good time to review the schedule ahead.
First, the big picture. Tankathon has the Kings ranked as the 9th hardest remaining schedule in the league. The Kings have 22 games left, with 12 of those games coming against teams that are above .500 on the season. Of the teams still below .500, there are still several games against teams that are above the Kings in the standings and that will be likely striving to make the play-in as well.
Looking at the schedule as a whole, here is what the Kings have left.
Denver Nuggets
@ Denver Nuggets
@ Oklahoma City Thunder
@ New Orleans Pelicans
@ San Antonio Spurs
@Dallas Mavericks
New York Knicks
Denver Nuggets
@ Utah Jazz
Chicago Bulls
Milwaukee Bucks
Boston Celtics
Phoenix Suns
@ Indiana Pacers
@ Orlando Magic
@ Miami Heat
@ Houston Rockets
@ Houston Rockets
Golden State Warriors
New Orleans Pelicans
@ Los Angeles Clippers
@ Phoenix Suns
If I just eyeball that schedule, I see 7 or 8 wins down the stretch. I think the Kings take one game from Denver, and one game against the Pelicans. They should beat the Thunder, Pacers, and Magic. They should win one or both games against the Rockets. And then maybe they take one of those last two games if the Clippers or Suns (or both) end up resting guys before the playoffs if seeding is set. If there’s something left to play for, those seem likely to be losses.
That would put the Kings around 30 wins, and likely outside the play-in. Could the Kings shock us and play tough basketball and surprise some opponents? I sure hope so, that would be really fun to watch. But as we look at the remainder of the season it seems likely that this team still falls short of any postseason activities.
That shouldn’t be reason to be discouraged though. If we take the front office at their word, the Sabonis trade wasn’t to chase the play-in. I am willing to believe McNair on this simply because the Kings were so far back in the standings that it was always going to be a longshot to make the play-in, no matter what trades the Kings had made.
Where I look for inspiration is the Chicago Bulls. At last year’s deadline the Bulls made a big move to acquire Nikola Vucevic. The Bulls then went 12-17 for the remainder of the season, and finished just outside the play-in tournament. The Bulls then had a great offseason and currently sit atop the Eastern Conference. This isn’t to suggest the Kings will be first in the West next summer, but rather to say that Sabonis is simply the first big step and there’s more work to be done this summer.
The remainder of this season will be about lineup experiments, figuring out which players work together and which don’t, and identifying the remaining roster gaps to address this summer.
Personally, I just hope that the remainder of the season is similar to what we saw in three of Sabonis’ first four games with Sacramento. Aside from the brutal Brooklyn game, we saw the Kings play fun, competitive basketball. I’m not here to praise moral victories, but the Bulls loss was a lot better game than most Kings games had been throughout the season.
I want the Kings to be competitive even in their losses. I want to see evidence that things are different. I want to see a spark that inspires hope for next season. If we get those things, I won’t be too worried about the final win total this season, because that genuine hope has been missing for far too long.
When you’re a bad team, the amount of “schedule difficulty” or “winnable games” is always going to be challenging.
Good article. I appreciate your perspective in the last couple paragraphs.
The Play-in is so dumb. Rewarding a 30 win team with a chance at the playoffs? What is the NBA coming to these days?
It’s gonna blow up in their faces if a team like the Lakers or Nets finishes 7th or 8th then loses the play-in. I’d put money on it if one of the major markets/players loses the play-in as a rightful playoff team, the league scraps it next season.
This league pays its bills via its star players. If Lebron and Durant miss out on the playoffs because of the play-in, it won’t be back.
that’s what happened to the duds last year. They finished 7 or 8 but lost in the play in tournament
They finished 9th and were also out players like Klay and Green. If Lebron and AD are playing and get eliminated in the play-in, I still think the league will end this foolish concept.
Day-Day did play 45 minutes in that game. Memphis won in OT. Klank was out but he had been out all year.
Even if Nets and/or LAL get the 7 or 8 spot (old play off spot) and are eliminated by losing two games the NBA will not give up on this concept.
I can’t get past your ridiculous nicknames, Murr. I stopped reading after “Klank.”
Anyway, I hope they do get rid of the play-in. Half the teams already get into the playoffs, I see no reason to incentivize owners like Vivek to just keep tweaking a broken formula hoping for moderate success only to fall short of that time and time again (but, hey, that’s ok as long as fans keep showing up, amirite…)
No, the Dubs finished 8th. They lost to the Lakers , the 7th seed, and then lost to the Grizzlies at home. Memphis was the 9th seed last year. San Antonio was the 10th seed, FWIW.
Ahhh, when I saw last year’s final standings I saw them as 9th, but I guess that is a reflection of the play-in. I stand corrected.
Au contraire, if this happens to Lebron and the Fakers it will be glorious, simply glorious.
We are going 22-0 the rest of the way!
(See kings win streak after Ron Artest trade)
That was a pretty crazy run. I think it was a 26-14 record after the trade.
Meta was in the building last night, what does it all mean???
Apparently not much, seeing as they lost…
Great perspective Greg.
For me, as a fan who watches every minute of every game every season, I really want to see Sabonis, Fox, and Barnes develop some real chemistry so there is a genuine foundation to build upon on in the off season. I am also hoping to see if the Davion of the last month is a glimmer of the Davion of the future. As a fan, I also want to see Richuan find some rhythm, both to make sure his trade value doesn’t take a mild hit this summer, and because he looks so frustrated with himself.
Put me down for 31-51, 13th in the West, 6th worst record overall. They could finish as “high” as 11th in the West and 8th worst record overall, but I’m not as bearish on Por / NO / SA as I might be at first blush. SA teams have never folded their tents under Pop, the youth in Por is playing hard, and McCollum / Ingram are at least on a par with Fox / Sabonis.
Did you just read the article that Williamson doen’t want to play for the Pelicans any more.
Yes. Did you just read that I noted McCollum / Ingram with no mention of Williamson?
Cynical- he hasn’t played ( that much) for the Pelicans as it is.
He’ll be lucky if he ever plays again, for any team.
Rob- the big bad bottom 4- will take the bottom 4 spots, then Pacers at 5. Dog fight between Kings, SAS, NOP, Portland and NYK. Knicks sitting Walker. Blazers lost Nurkic for 4-6 weeks. “Best ” is 6, worst is 10. My guess is 8, Blazers and one of the other 3 make it towards the cellar.
Top 4 set- from there, eye of beholder and there is even a PG (Washington)
I’m hoping we lose to the Pelicans and the Spurs in the next couple weeks because that will basically end the play-in chase for us which is a good thing. We’ve got a very reasonable chance to have the 5th or 6th best lottery odds and that should absolutely be the goal. We’re already 4 back in the loss column of the 10th seed so the chances are slim. If they wanted to make the play-in this year they should have hired a real coach last offseason and made a trade earlier in the year.
Yes, the best thing to happen to the Kings is to drop out of contention for the silly play-in tournament.
Every Kings fan’s yearly February comment…are we starting to bookmark Tankathon yet? I haven’t gotten there myself yet : )
I started looking before Thanksgiving
Yeah I think it’s undeniably in the best interest of the franchise. Whether we draft a young player or trade the pick for someone who can make an impact, getting a high pick in this draft that has some potential star type players would do wonders for putting on the path to sustainable success.
I might agree with you on the play-in but the Kings need to win every game they can.Drop outs are loosers and the Kings need to learn to play together learn about each other and build a culture. Culture is statred with liking to play together and have each others back. The worst play this whole year was when Metu was thrown to the ground with a broken wrist and nobody was there for him either getting into Valc’s face or going over to help Metu. If the Kings players can’t do this then I say forget it. Another thing if you draft or trade for a player or players if they don’t want to come here and be a King don;t it. That is useless. The play-in might be silly but the Kings need to start playing together and win as many games as possible THIS YEAR!
I dint think they need to win to build chemistry and culture. They already are doing both sans SaBonus trade.
They only need to play together, get to know each other and show fight and be in games for me to know that things are progressing. Winning isn’t needed for that.
Higher the pick the better. The Kings will build chemistry regardless of wins and loses.
Winning does wonders over losing.
The Metu-broken-wrist-no-one-stood-up-for-him situation was last year, yo. Different squad. Tho I agree, mostly, that this squad needs to develop some chemistry and tanking sucks, generally speaking.
yes
Best the Kings can do is get 10th spot only to lose.
The SAS, NOP and OKC games are important as is the NYK game – all coming up soon. To get 10th which is a trap, Kings would have to win all 4.
I could squint and see, with the help of other teams foundering or being hampered with injures, the Kings finishing 11-11. That’s best case scenario, IMO, but it still won’t be good enough for the play-in. 33-49 won’t cut it.
From that, I think they finish with 30 to 31 wins and will once again miss out on good lottery odds. Now, if either Fox or Sabonis gets a nagging injury, I’d hope they’d just rest them and earn a few more ping-pong balls, but I doubt they do it.
I asked in the mailbag if there was any belief that a 15-10 record was even possible. I think it is, but anyone saying the Kings would end up at 30 isn’t likely wrong. The thing is, there’s alot of winnable games on the road with the home slate mostly being top teams outside of the Knicks and Pelicans (last home game of the season).
What will determine a run to the playin, IMO, will be this upcoming stretch of 6 games. If you go 5-1, I think that outcome becomes a much higher possibility. Of course, nothing would surprise me and if the Kings go 2-4 that wouldn’t particularly shock me.
Anyhoo, I think 15-10 is possible without squinting that hard. Beat Denver tomorrow, and that’s a start. OKC, New Orleans and San Antonio are on this upcoming trip. Give yourself a shot at winning in Denver Saturday and at Dallas at the end of the trip and whi knows?
But the smart money is the Kings miss the playin. And that’s understandable. I just want to see competitive fun basketball.
15-10 difficult to achieve with only 22 games left !
Don’t be so pessimistic. Sabonis is really good.
This is cute. Even for you. 😊
I have my moments. I do really want to see better basketball which is what we’ve seen since Sabonis showed up. They played well against the Bulls but they are just better. I suspect that happens against a lot of these teams coming up which is fine by me. I think the good news is, we might only be one move away now instead of 2 or 3. Another good starter at the wing and we might have a solid playoff team next year. Well that and hiring the right coach.
I agree with you on what the Kings are trying to accomplish.GO KINGS!
Fox thinks we can make some noise.https://apple.news/AWZXjj3ciTmaJbHRCeRzonQ
That link made me vomit.
I’m conflicted (that’s code for apathetic). I have never believed in intentionally losing. I also believe that this whole play-in thing is a bunch of bull shit. I guess I’m left with “there’s always next year”. Sigh…
Unfortunately we were all left with “there’s always next year” at the beginning of this year. Keeping coach fluke guaranteed that. Oh, then there was the roster
You know why I stopped going to see Kings games? A team that predictably can’t win at least half its games…This same prediction has come true for 15+ seasons in a row. With Sabonis + DeVincenzo + other acquisitions, there is a reason for hope. It’s getting old.
I’d love for De’Aaron’s prediction to prove me 100% wrong. I miss the Webber-Christie-Bibby days when it was always exciting and competitive. Can somebody from this site please interview Doug Christie and ask him WTF it will take for this team to defend and win?
So many “word” so little emoji
I love the Sacramento Kings….
Badge Legend