SACRAMENTO – The Dallas Mavericks outscoring the Kings 44-19 on Wednesday night led to the end of Sacramento’s turbulent 2024-25 NBA season.
But digging deeper, the Mavericks also exposed some of the Kings’ biggest concerns entering the offseason.
The Kings’ roster is flawed. Terribly.
Sacramento led Dallas 29-27 after the first quarter in Wednesday’s Western Conference play-in game, but a lack of offensive rhythm mixed with careless turnovers was the perfect recipe for disaster to strike in Sacramento. Add that to the failure of getting consistent defensive stops on the other end of the floor.
The Kings shot 7 of 19 (36.8 percent) in the second quarter and turned the ball over 10 times in those 12 minutes, something interim coach Doug Christie called “unacceptable” after the 120-106 loss.
Most of those giveaways came from miscommunication and bad passes while running – or attempting to run – the offense. Five of them came from star center Domantas Sabonis, while Zach LaVine added two, and then three more the rest of the game.
“No one tries to turn the ball over, obviously,” LaVine said postgame. “It’s just guys trying to make the right play or trying to get to the ball and get fouled. I think there were a couple times where passes didn’t go the right way. I know I had a couple where I was trying to in there and get fouled or create something that got tipped or whatever.
“So, you know, you wish you could have them all back. You wish you could play a perfect game, but we just didn’t have enough to win tonight.”
Didn’t have enough. Bingo.
That is when having a true point guard, someone the team can trust handling the ball, would have come in handy for the Kings. Since trading De’Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs in early February, the Kings have experimented with different options such as Malik Monk, who missed the season’s final four games due to a left calf strain, and Keon Ellis.
But neither Monk nor Ellis is listed as a point guard.
While LaVine agreed that a point guard-less offense threw off some of their offensive flow Wednesday, he didn’t want to make excuses for the ugly loss.
“Yeah, but everybody has stuff they’re dealing with at this time of the year,” LaVine said postgame. “It’s just figuring out how to overcome it. No team is really fully healthy at the end of the year. There’s been trades and people hurt, people fired. Everybody’s dealing with something.
“Obviously, those guys are big, key parts of our system. So it hurts, but we just need to find a way to win just like they did.”
Sacramento signed former No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz in mid-February to add needed depth at the point guard position, but he averaged just over eight minutes in 21 games and recorded seven DNPs (Did Not Play). He was benched all but two minutes of garbage time in Wednesday’s game.
Kings rookie Devin Carter ran the point at times Wednesday, stringing together a promising performance in nearly 22 minutes off the bench. He finished with 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field and 1 of 2 from downtown, with four rebounds, two assists, one steal and zero turnovers. Outside of the players substituted in during garbage time, he was the only Sacramento player to finish with a positive plus/minus rating.
Those lineups might have worked at times for Sacramento this season, but Wednesday’s loss was the perfect indication that it is not sustainable.
Of course, however, the players make do with what they have.
“I think you go into each game and you think you can win what you have,” LaVine said postgame of what the team might be missing. “That’s for people above our pay grade. The five guys starting and the other guys coming off the bench is the team we always think we have enough to go out there and compete with. That’s our mentality.”
This offseason has plenty in store for the people whose pay grade it is.
That change appeared to have begun roughly 30 minutes after the loss, with reports circulating late Wednesday night that the Kings and general manager Monte McNair mutually agreed to part ways.
And after former assistant general manager Wes Wilcox announced his departure from the organization late last month, the Kings’ full offseason makeover officially has begun.
The Kings made one of their biggest offseason moves in franchise history by acquiring DeMar DeRozan last summer. They then traded Fox for LaVine, while opening a new opportunity for Monk. Then there’s the guy who is – or was – the engine of the offense in the previous two seasons, Sabonis.
On paper, that’s 11 NBA All-Star appearances between the four of them and plenty of individual success along their respective NBA resumes. Together, though, it just didn’t gel as the team had hoped.
It’s like having salmon, a juicy homemade cheeseburger, pasta and French toast on the same plate. All great individually, but raise a lot of questions combined.
Those questions need answers, and fast.
Download and follow The Deuce & Mo Podcast
Read the full article here