5 Reasons Kings Should Panic After Season-Ending Play-In Loss vs. Mavericks

After losing at home to the Kyrie Irving-less, 10th-place Dallas Mavericks 120-106, the Sacramento Kings' 2024-25 campaign ended Wednesday.

And even though this season is over, it somehow feels like we're at the beginning of what could be a long, painful stretch for Kings fans.

There was so much optimism for this organization after its third-place finish in 2022-23, and those feelings can probably now be replaced with basketball consternation.

The outlook is so bleak that within hours of Wednesday's game ending, news of general manager Monte McNair's departure from the franchise broke.

Whoever replaces McNair will have quite a basketball mess to clean up. And at this point, it's fair for Kings fans to panic about what's next.

The idea of reuniting Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan was, to put it mildly, confusing.

During their three seasons together with the Chicago Bulls, the team was plus-1.9 points per 100 possessions when DeRozan played without LaVine, plus-0.5 when LaVine played without DeRozan and minus-1.9 when they played together.

Neither has a game that's been particularly conducive to winning over the years. Neither is great at working off the ball while someone else dominates it. Neither has much of a reputation for defense.

And the numbers (and results) backed all that up.

But Sacramento brought them back together anyway. And it brought them to a team that had another player who's at his best when he's in control in Domantas Sabonis.

When the big man shared the floor with LaVine and DeRozan, the Kings were minus-4.0 points per 100 possessions. And they went 15-19 after LaVine entered their rotation (when you count Wednesday's play-in loss).

This three-player experiment was doomed to fail, and it may not even be over.

Sabonis, LaVine and DeRozan are all under contract through 2026-27 (though DeRozan's deal isn't fully guaranteed that year and LaVine's carries a player option).

Barring some other team talking itself into one of these three, Sacramento fans could be in for another year of this.

Watching Sacramento's trio struggle to coalesce since February can't possibly have done much to help the trade value of any of Sabonis, LaVine and DeRozan.

All are either in their primes or moving out of them. There's no developmental runway that could help a suitor talk itself into taking any of these players.

All three struggle defensively (hence, the Kings ranking 22nd in points allowed per 100 possessions). All three have little to no playoff success in recent years.

These aren't the kinds of players (or contracts) that can easily be flipped for rebuild-ready assets like picks and young players.

Teams might even take a hard line in negotiating with them and initially insist on getting a pick for taking on the rest of any of these contracts.

Of course, that doesn't mean the Kings need to accept those offers, but they clearly don't have a lot of negotiating power right now.

Unless they're willing to take pennies on the dollar, in all likelihood, Sacramento is stuck with this core for at least one more season.

When the Kings selected Keegan Murray with the fourth overall pick in the 2022 draft, he instantly became their potential ticket out of mediocrity.

At the time, there was still some upside to the duo of De'Aaron Fox and Sabonis (who was then 26), but they needed a forward who could round out the rotation, preferably one who could shoot.

After averaging 23.5 points and 1.9 threes, while shooting 39.8 percent from deep as a sophomore at Iowa, Murray fit the bill.

And during his rookie campaign, it looked like Sacramento may have hit on exactly what it needed. Murray averaged 12.2 points and shot 41.1 percent from deep that year.

His length and smooth jump-shooting stroke made it feel like he could develop into the Kings' version of Cameron Johnson or Mikal Bridges. He just needed to develop, learn NBA defensive schemes and crank up his offensive volume a bit.

Since then, his three-point percentage and average for threes per game have declined in each of the last two seasons. His box plus/minus has gotten worse each year, too.

Had Murray quickly developed into a high-end starter, rather than turn into someone who might soon be fighting for his starting spot, the Kings might be in a much different place than they are now.

Murray is 24. There's still time for him to reverse the trend, but we get fewer encouraging signs from him in each successive season.

After a grueling six-month campaign that ended with the Kings just below .500 and headed home for the year after a single play-in game, plenty of fans have to be wondering if the team just flat-out tanking would've been a better approach.

If the Kings' 2025 pick lands outside the top 12 in the lottery, it goes to the Atlanta Hawks (because of the trade that landed Sacramento Kevin Huerter, who isn't even there anymore).

Right now, there's a 97.6 percent chance that pick will stay at No. 14.

After another mediocrity-fueled campaign, the Kings likely won't even have a first-round pick to ease their pain.

Some other franchises will get Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey and the rest of what is supposed to be a strong draft class, and Sacramento will likely have to run it back with Sabonis, LaVine and DeRozan.

The Kings have a couple of young(ish) talents on the roster after Murray. Devin Carter and Jake LaRavia are each 23 years old.

But the prospect pool dries up real quick after that.

And even those three haven't shown enough in their brief careers to warrant a ton of excitement about their respective futures.

Sure, all three could have long NBA careers as role players, but the likelihood of any becoming bona fide stars feels low (and that probably includes Murray).

Sacramento's present is bleak, and its future isn't much brighter.

Unfortunately, after a brief respite from losing, organizational dysfunction and little reason for optimism, it feels like this team is on its way back to perennial disappointment.