Last season, the Sacramento Kings took the entire NBA by surprise, ending its 16-season playoff drought and earning the Western Conference’s third seed with a 48-34 record. Many expect the Kings to regress off of a great season, but that will not be the case.
After a few years with awful coaching under Luke Walton and a roster that couldn’t get over the hump, the Kings front office made two key moves heading into its 2022-2023 season.
The Kings traded away a package surrounding rising star Tyrese Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers for all-star center Domantas Sabonis. This trade allowed the Kings to take major steps in their offense, allowing De’Aaron Fox to facilitate the offense by himself, and have a unique and versatile big man to help him out.
The other move was hiring former Golden State Warriors assistant coach and Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown as the head coach of the Kings squad of young players. Brown immediately instilled a winning culture that Sacramento had been lacking for years, along with a much-improved offense centered around constant movement of all five guys on the court.
Those two moves, along with key acquisitions of Kevin Huerter, Malik Monk and others allowed for the Kings to make a huge jump and make it to the playoffs for the first time in 16 years. The Kings would end up losing in seven games to the defending champions, the Golden State Warriors, but the whole city of Sacramento could not help but be excited about the future of their young basketball team despite being eliminated.
Heading into this upcoming season, the Kings will not be able to surprise any of their opponents like they did last season. The entire NBA knows that the years of the Kings being the joke of the NBA are over.
This will not stop the Kings from replicating, if not expanding on their success from last season.
The Kings’ core players are still extremely young, and another year under Brown and this much improved coaching staff will only be beneficial for the “Beam Team.” The Kings were able to keep essentially all of their key players and coaches this last offseason, allowing for continuity, something the most successful NBA franchises have always had.
The other factor is the additions Monte McNair and the front office were able to make to add to that core of players. The Kings went out and signed EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov, long-time NBA veteran Javale McGee, and traded for a young guard in Chris Duarte.
Vezenkov and Duarte are both absolute snipers and will be able to help the team’s spacing, something that was an issue from time-to-time last year. McGee brings leadership and experience to a team that is still young and growing.
You would expect that the Kings starting five of Fox, Huerter, Harrison Barnes, Keegan Murray and Sabonis will stay how it was last year, but the bench minutes are something that Brown and the coaching staff will have to navigate coming into the year.
Obviously, Davion Mitchell, Monk and Trey Lyles will see minutes, but from there it could get funky. You wonder how much time new guys like Vezenkov, Duarte, and McGee will see on the floor along with returning players Kessler Edwards and Alex Len.
Besides that, it is really looking up for one of the most promising teams in the entire NBA. After a successful season last year, the Kings will have continuity with their core of contributors, along with new acquisitions who will help fix minor issues from last season like spacing and defense.
Many believe the Kings won’t be able to return to the level they were last year, and although they may have a point that other squads in the Western Conference are also improving, there is nothing to indicate that the “Beam Team” will take a step backwards heading into this season.
The Kings open up their season on the road against the Utah Jazz on Oct. 25 and their home opener is Oct. 27 against the team that ended their storybook season last year: The Golden State Warriors.
