Sacramento Kings: What is a realistic best-case scenario for next season?

The Sacramento Kings surprised the NBA last season staying in playoff contention deep into the playoffs. Now, what are realistic expectations heading into the 2019-20 season?

The Sacramento Kings surprised a lot of people in the NBA last season. The perennial bottom feeder flashed a young core that just missed the Western Conference playoffs.

However, the reshaped Western Conference remains a juggernaut, begging the question: what are realistic expectations going into this season?

When the Kings traded DeMarcus Cousins in February of 2017, the front office was the laughing stock of the league. While the organization continues to show a shaky record with coaches, their return for Cousins now looks fantastic.

Entering the 2018-19 NBA season, pundits didn’t know what to expect from a young Kings roster. No one expected much in the way of competitiveness.

However, a young core emerged around De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, and Marvin Bagley III and finished the season with the best record for a Kings’ team since the 2005-06 season.

The Kings faded as the season wore on. While they missed the playoffs, Sacramento finished the year as the first team out of the playoffs in the stacked Western Conference. It was a disappointment Kings’ fans were happy to accept given where the franchise began the year.

Without a first-round pick this offseason, the front office was limited in what they could do to add talent. The core returns nearly entirely intact, but with a completely renovated surrounding cast.

Sacramento kicked things off by firing head coach Dave Joerger and replacing him with former Los Angeles Lakers’ head coach Luke Walton. Walton had a fantastic stint as the lead assistant and interim head coach for the Golden State Warriors before taking over as the head coach in LA.

While Walton’s 98-148 record in Los Angeles isn’t ideal, he took over a young and thin roster. Furthermore, prior to LeBron James‘ groin injury last year, the Lakers were 20-14 with the 4th-best record in the West.

After his hiring in Sacramento, Walton was accused of sexual assault by former sports reporter Kelli Tennant. The Kings stuck by their hire, but this remains an important situation to watch.

The NBA’s track record on issues of violence against women remains questionable. While no other accusers have come forward, Tennant’s civil suit continues against Walton.

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Aside from the coaching controversy, on the court, they entirely revamped their center position. Free-agent signings Dewayne Dedmon and Richaun Holmes will be replacing Willie Cauley-Stein and Kosta Koufos.

Dedmon and Holmes are quiet and definitely not flashy additions, but both are obvious upgrades on the defensive side of the ball. Cory Joseph and Trevor Ariza rounded out the team’s moves, adding two veteran stalwarts to the front of their bench.

It’s easy to say the Kings’ roster is better than it was last season. In fact, aside from the improved center position and bench depth, the team was already in position to expect growth from a number of young players. Fox, Bagley, and Harry Giles are all under the age of 22.

Players like Buddy Hield and Harrison Barnes both have flaws that could be improved and were both just 26-years old last season.

The question remains how that team fairs in the Western Conference.

The eight teams who finished ahead of the Kings in the standings last year are the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder, and San Antonio Spurs.

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Many of those teams look substantially different than they did last season. However, the Thunder probably have the only roster that dropped to a level on par with Sacramento. The Kings are as talented as San Antonio, but the Spurs have always outperformed their talent.

None of this mentions the Los Angeles Lakers (who finished behind the Kings last year), who of course return LeBron James and have added Anthony Davis. On top of that, the Dallas Mavericks now have the opportunity to showcase their European duo of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis.

Even the New Orleans Pelicans have put together an intriguingly deep roster that has an outside shot at a playoff spot.

As strong as the young core remains, simply making the playoffs remains the likely best-case scenario for Sacramento. If they pull that off, they’ll have put together an impressive season. To do so, they’ll have to finish with a better record than at least three of the teams mentioned above.

Big strides from Fox, Hield, Bagley, and Giles will be necessary. The NBA is a league flush with amazing talent and no development is guaranteed.

But given the team’s youth, that’s a reasonable hope for fans of the Sacramento Kings.