Though my last two trips down to Sacramento have seen losses for the NBA Kings, there is a feeling of optimism there perhaps greater than any since Chris Webber and Mike Bibby brought the Kings within a questionably officiated 2002 Western Conference Finals Game 6 to a likely championship. At 19-18, the Kings are just outside the current playoff window in the Western Conference, but they are realistically in the hunt and, barring injury, expect to remain there for the rest of the season. The difference is a young core of shooters and passers, including guards Buddy Hield, D’Aaron Fox, and Bodgan Bodganovic, that have turned what was the slowest team in the NBA last year into one of the fastest, with every game at Golden One Center a track meet. They may not play the kind of defense yet that is needed to compete in the upper tier of the league, but one can never count them out of a game even against the best teams when one or more of their shooters can get hot and wipe out a double-digit deficit at any moment. Best of all, this is a group that should only get better in the next two or three years as their stars gain experience and their two most expensive players, Zach Randolph and Iman Shumpert, come off the books next year and leave the Kings with plentiful cap space to sign a free agent or two to supplement their core. They aren’t yet a threat to dethrone the Golden State Warriors from supremacy in the Western Conference, but if current trends continue, they can look forward to a future of playoff contention on the level of the Portland Trail Blazers–always in the mix, with the hope that a few lucky breaks could bring them on the doorstep of a conference finals.
The future may look bright in Sac-Town, but one has to wonder what might have been if the Kings hadn’t been scared off of taking Luka Doncic with the #2 pick in the most recent NBA draft. The player they chose, Marvin Bagley, may yet prove his worth in the NBA, but it is clear that he will be a much slower work in progress than Doncic, who is set to win this year’s Rookie of the Year Award and anchor the Dallas Mavericks for the next decade. With Doncic and his shooting and passing added to the current Kings roster, the added fuel to their offense might have made them a juggernaut even without defense, daring every team in the NBA to try to keep up with them on a nightly basis. Alas, due to a Kings front office that has not exactly distinguished itself in recent years, it was not to be.
But enough tears over missed draft picks. With any luck, the Golden One Center should be a hot ticket for the next several years, and not just to see stars from other teams as they pass through town. Now, the home team and its young stars are must-see-NBA for themselves.
