The Sacramento Kings have started 0-5 for the second time this century after they suffered a 132-120 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Oct. 29.
It's the sixth time overall the franchise has started winless through five games. History shows when that happens the Kings are likely to finish with 25 to 33 wins.
Sacramento finished with a 22-60 record last season and it was evident a rebuild was in the making. The Kings used the No. 7 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft to select Darius Acuff Jr. to be their next face of the franchise. He seems to be stepping into that responsibility, averaging 24 points and 6.6 assists, although his efficiency will have to improve over time with just 37.8% field goal shooting and 22.2% from 3-point distance.
The Kings
were already a team with low expectations and took an even bigger dip after losing one of their major offseason free agent signings, forward Ben Simmons, to a torn Achilles just before the regular season.
Simmons began to emerge as a leader immediately, despite being fresh off a one-year hiatus from the NBA to rehab a back injury. Once Simmons went down, it derailed any hopes of the Kings being a surprise team. To make matters worse, they've had injuries to their frontline with centers Maxime Raynaud (knee), Dylan Cardwell (calf) and Keegan Murray (ankle) being out.
Kings' second-year head coach Doug Christie is in a tough predicament. The roster he projected to go into the season with is not what he's working with, for a second straight year.
"It's tough but it's a part of the business," Christie said.
Naturally, a shift begins. There's panic, finger-pointing, casting blame on the team's roster construction and calling for terminations.
First off, relax.
The Kings feel that Christie deserves to be evaluated with a healthy roster, according to The Athletic's Sam Amick.
Are there problems? Sure. The Kings have a ton of issues that need to be resolved. But having clear direction is an area where Sacramento faces its most glaring problem.
Individually, the players are talented. Teamwise, it hasn't come together just yet. The Kings need a leader and not just on the court.
When asked how long continuity takes to develop, Kings guard Zach LaVine told USA TODAY, after a home loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 25, that it's sometimes "organized from the top down."
"Sometimes it's organized from a certain player on the team, like a Chris Paul or something like that, to get guys in they spot, like a very high level leader, you know? Who can point out things and get everybody calmed down on the spot," LaVine said.
"(It) comes from a veteran coach or even, you know, a bench coach," he added. " But we're all working through it, you know, we don't really have any of that right now. And it's not going to come anytime soon. So as a collective, we need to figure out ... what's everybody's strengths? What do we want to play to?"
The Kings average 110.2 points as a team, which appears like a lot ... until you compare it to the rest of the league. The Kings are 28th in scoring. The silver lining is that it's very early in the season.
Their 1.54 assist-to-turnover ratio has helped contribute to allowing 19.8 fastbreak points per game. Sacramento averages 16.4 turnovers per game.
Sacramento also hasn't been able to stop or slow down opponents through five games, giving up 126.8 points per game, also ranked 28th. If they can't get stops, they're not getting out on the break and running for easy points.
"At the end of the day, we got to play down dirty. (Even) if we're not (a) defensive team, we still got to try to figure out how to get stops at the end of the day, because that's just a part of the game," LaVine said. "We're going to put points on the board. ... We have talented offensive players, you know? So, I'm not worried about that. I think we just need to figure out the system that we're going to play in. Play the people's strengths. On (the) other end, figure out how to get enough stops to keep us in the game, then to go on the other end and outscore a team."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is the Sacramento Kings' season already over after 0-5 start?
