The Sacramento Kings are the most underrated team in the Western Conference

The Sacramento Kings have seemingly been forgotten about in the newly refurbished Western Conference and it’s time for the disrespect to be stopped.

The Sacramento Kings had, by most standards, a pretty successful offseason. They managed to fill the holes on their roster, surround their current core with players who could maximize their abilities, and maintain cap flexibility for the future.

One would think that an offseason consisting of each of those things would be met with near-universal praise. But it seems to be that the Kings’ gameplan may have been lost in translation with many.

Perhaps Sacramento is getting compared to the likes of the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers. Their in-state rivals made superstar additions in the offseason and established themselves as the teams to beat in the revamped Western Conference.

But the Kings weren’t going to acquire a Kawhi Leonard or an Anthony Davis this offseason. Nor were they going to be able to land someone like Russell Westbrook or even a can’t-miss draft prospect like Zion Williamson.

The attention has undoubtedly been elsewhere this offseason — that’s for sure.

Whether it was their neighbors to the south making NBA-altering moves or the depth of the conference further establishing their playoff candidacy, the Kings have been overlooked.

But it’s about time that people begin to realize that the Kings are as much of a playoff contender as teams like the Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs. They certainly should be talked about in the same breath as teams like the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks.

And yet, there has been pretty much zero chatter regarding the Kings offseason.

The signing of Dewayne Dedmon could be one of the more underrated moves of the entire offseason as it gives the Kings a perfect-fit center and allows them to have cap flexibility down the line to re-sign some of their younger core players.

The move to bring back Harrison Barnes has been met with widespread criticism but makes sense given the Kings’ hole at the position and Barnes’ true value.

Some just need to understand that the Kings aren’t the Lakers or the Golden State Warriors. They can’t just rely on market size or prior success to win in free agency.

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The Kings must build through the draft and then construct a roster around their core. They must hope that those core players develop to the point where the team does become an attractive free-agent destination.

And they also need to hope that those core players don’t decide to leave to go to a more attractive destination once they hit the open market.

It’s difficult to build a championship-caliber team in a small market. It’s even more difficult when you’ve been as terrible as the Kings have been for the past decade.

So given their everpresent restrictions, it’s safe to say that the Kings did pretty much the best they could this offseason. And given that this team was a 39-win, ninth seed last season, it’s puzzling to see them continuously left out of playoff discussions.

In fact, one recent projection from statistical blog FiveThirtyEight even gave the Kings the worst odds in the entire Western Conference to make the postseason this year. Not only that, but their measly 7% odds were half of the second-worst team — the Memphis Grizzlies’ — 14% odds.

To say that teams like the Memphis Grizzlies and Phoenix Suns have a better chance at making the playoffs is interesting considering the state of each of those franchises and the moves they made in the offseason.

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Could Ja Morant really bring so much to the Grizzles that he transforms them into a playoff team in his first season? And could Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton do enough to get the Suns over the hump with another year of development?

Sure, both scenarios are feasible. But how about the Kings’ postseason scenario?

Marvin Bagley takes a big leap in his second season and — combined with the aforementioned Dedmon — complete one of the more well-rounded frontcourts in the NBA. On top of that, both De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield take another step forward while Barnes stabilizes the wing.

That sounds feasible too. And given what we saw last season, that sounds even more feasible.

The Kings have been overlooked and underrated following a breakout season that even the most optimistic of Kings fans didn’t see coming last season. But being the underdogs is never something that Sacramento has shied away from.

And the Sacramento Kings will continue to be underdogs until they prove their worth. With the whole NBA world betting against them, this will be the season to finally show everyone that they aren’t a team to be overlooked.