The Sacramento Kings have gotten themselves back on the map the last couple of seasons. After a decade-and-a-half of misery, the Kings have made the playoffs two years ago and then lost a play-in game after winning 46 games this past year.
Part of the reason why Sacramento is so interesting is because of young forward Keegan Murray.
As a matter of fact, Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale listed Murray as one of five NBA players most likely to take the next step into stardom next season.
Murray is coming off of a 2023-24 campaign in which he played 77 games and averaged 15.2 points and 5.5 rebounds over 33.6 minutes per game on 45.4/35.8/83.1 shooting splits.
It was actually a rather disappointing season given how good he was during his rookie year, when he posted a true-shooting percentage of 59.7 percent en route to finishing top five in Rookie of the Year voting.
As a matter of fact, Murray’s true-shooting percentage dipped nearly a full three percent this past season, which isn’t surprising given the drastic dropoff in his three-point efficiency (he made 41.1 percent of his triples in Year 1).
However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty of room for Murray to grow.
Favale particularly likes his defense.
“And yet, his ascent will be equally, if not more, fueled by his defense,” Favale wrote. “He is closer to a flat-out wing stopper than he was billed coming out of Iowa and has even developed a knack for providing secondary layers of protection near the basket.”
Maybe Murray will never be a truly dynamic scorer on the NBA level, but if he becomes a terrific two-way player, the Kings will gladly take that.
Sacramento didn’t quite make the playoffs this past season, falling to the New Orleans Pelicans in a play-in game. However, the Kings were right there in the rugged Western Conference thanks to major contributions from De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk (in addition to Murray).
The question is, just how good will Sacramento be during the 2024-25 campaign?
Well, the Kings have brought DeMar DeRozan aboard, so he should certainly add another dimension to their offense. DeRozan isn’t much of a long-range shooter, but he can get to the free-throw line with regularity and is great from mid-range.
A trio of Fox, Sabonis and DeRozan sounds absolutely lethal offensively, but the addition doesn’t really answer Sacramento’s biggest problem: defense.
The Kings ranked 15th in defensive efficiency this past year, and they don’t figure to be a whole lot better this coming season.
In a conference that includes the Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento’s margin for error is very slim.
Perhaps the Kings can make a midseason addition to bolster their defense, but until then, it’s hard to imagine Sacramento serving as anything more than first-round fodder.
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