Everything You Need to Know About the Sacramento Kings' 2015-16 NBA Season
The Sacramento Kings aren't waiting to move into the Golden 1 Center before they start winning again. Instead, the team is charging full-steam toward ending its nearly decade-long playoff drought before vacating Sleep Train Arena in 2016.
The Kings might have the pieces in place to do just that. Last season, they saw DeMarcus Cousins evolve into a legitimate MVP-caliber talent on the court, even as the off-court drama persisted.
George Karl, who took over as head coach after the All-Star break in February, spent much of his early tenure in the eye of a Boogie-centric firestorm. The Kings' woes continued under Karl's command, with Cousins sitting out 11 times and the team compiling an 11-19 mark after the hire.
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The former Coach of the Year shouldn't find himself quite so up against it this time around. He appears to have struck a detente, however uneasy, with his resident superstar and won't have to worry about saving a sinking ship midseason.
Not that the task ahead of Cousins, Karl and company will be anything close to a cakewalk. They'll have to sort out roles and rotations with a roster that, while upgraded, saw most of its constituents turned over during the summer. All the while, the Kings will be competing in the cutthroat Western Conference, where seemingly all but a select few teams are on the up-and-up.
But the greatest challenge of all for the Kings may be turning around a toxic culture that's sunk this once proud franchise since Sacramento last set foot in the postseason in 2006.
Key Additions/Subtractions
- Additions:Â Rajon Rondo (free agent), Kosta Koufos (free agent), Marco Belinelli (free agent), Caron Butler (free agent), Willie Cauley-Stein (draft), Seth Curry (free agent), Duje Dukan (undrafted free agent)
- Subtractions:Â Jason Thompson (trade), Nik Stauskas (trade), Carl Landry (trade), Derrick Williams (free agent), Andre Miller (free agent), Reggie Evans (free agent), Ryan Hollins (free agent)
The Kings swung for the fences early in free agency, and while they struck out on several occasions, they did manage to score some solid signings. In Rondo, Koufos, Belinelli and Butler, Sacramento loaded up on veterans with distinct skill sets.
Those additions wouldn't have been possible without the salary dump that sent Jason Thompson, Carl Landry, Nik Stauskas, a 2018 first-round pick (top-10 protected) and a pick swap to the Philadelphia 76ers. That deal upped Sacramento's store of cap space to around $25 million, paving the way for all the veterans now plying their trade in California's capital.
The trade did what the Kings wanted it to do, but was it a smart move? Grantland's Zach Lowe had his doubts:
"Is any of this getting you into the top six in the West over the next two seasons? Almost certainly not. Rondo and whomever else may come on short-term deals, experience the circus, and get the hell out â leaving the Kings with nothing. Thatâs the downside. The upside is an entertaining 8-seed to fill a new arena that seems to be the teamâs priority, above all basketball sense.
"
In truth, the most impactful additions to Sacramento's crew might also be among the youngest. Cauley Stein, the No. 6 pick in the 2015 draft, could be just the rim protector the Kings need next to Cousins. Curry, meanwhile, sizzled in the Las Vegas Summer League to stake out a spot in the NBAâfor his own skills rather than the exploits of his MVP brother.
Storylines to Watch
The palace intrigue around this team is as palpable as ever, especially with such a combustible collection of personalities in the Kings' locker room. Chief among those piles of tinder is the relationship between Cousins and Karl.
Things have been tense between these two for months. Cousins reportedly demanded a trade out in the spring, Karl was less than genteel when talking about Cousins in the media over the summer and player and coach made up awkwardly in photo-ops at Las Vegas Summer League.
Relations have normalized somewhat since then. Karl appears to be doing his part, by catering to Cousins' desire to be more than a bruising, back-to-the-basket big man.
"I think Cuz will figure out a balance between what shots we want from him," Karl said, per the Sacramento Bee's Jason Jones. "Some teams will let him go outside, some teams will let him go inside."
The quality of Cousins' shots will depend, in part, on Rondo's ability to set him up. The All-Star point guard bottomed out in Dallas last season amid a flurry of flunky jumpers and head butts with Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle.
The Kings, though, seem to enjoy his presence so far. Boogie, for one, is impressed by his newest floor general's grasp of basketballâand not just because of Rondo's massive mitts.
"Dude is a flat-out genius when it comes to basketball," Cousins said, per Cowbell Kingdom's Vince Miracle. "His whole knowledge of the game is incredible. Heâs definitely considered a coach on the floor. Iâm excited to play with him."
Rondo, though, is already having his own issues communicating with Karl. âItâs not been going too well," he told Cowbell Kingdom of his relationship with his head coach (h/t Pro Basketball Talk's Kurt Helin). "We got into a couple arguments the last couple of days. Hopefully, we continue to talk, and it will get better.â
X-Factor: Rudy Gay
Even if Boogie starts launching threes with regularity this season, the Kings will need Gay to handle the bulk of the team's scoring load from the perimeter.
That should be well within his wheelhouse. The UConn product averaged a sturdy 21.1 points per game on 45.5 percent shooting (35.9 percent from three) while chipping in a career-high 3.7 assists last season. He was particularly lethal after the All-Star break, when he scored nearly 24 points on 47.9 percent shooting (39.2 percent from three).
Gay's kept that roll going into the preseason, with a 30-point explosion against the Phoenix Suns and another 26 points opposite the resting San Antonio Spurs. He'll have plenty of motivation to persist in his scoring excellence, thanks to the Worldwide Leader.
Making the Leap: Ben McLemore
Space for Cousins to post up, Gay to slash and Rondo to drive-and-kick will largely depend on McLemore's growth into a bona fide three-point threat. The 22-year-old gave Kings fans a glimpse of his tantalizing potential down the stretch of the 2014-15 season. In Sacramento's last seven games, McLemore scored 20 points or more four times.
Stauskas, once McLemore's chief competition for the Kings' starting 2-guard spot, is off to Philly, but that doesn't mean the role is Ben's to lose. In fact, McLemore has started just once in the preseason so far, with Darren Collison, James Anderson and Marco Belinelli getting plenty of run next to Rondo.
If McLemore can separate himself from the pack as the season goes on, the Kings will be better for it. Otherwise, Sacramento will begin to wonder whether that No. 7 pick in 2013 was well-spent.
Best-Case Scenario
The Kings' shiny, new signings congeal into an upper-echelon offensive outfit around Cousins' nightly 20-10s. Rondo leads the league in assists while setting up Gay with a spot in the All-Star Game.
The team plays well enough to bury any concerns about personality clashes behind a heap of winsâenough to snag one of the precious few playoff spots in the West left open by the conference's crush of title contenders. For his pride of place in this renaissance, Cousins takes home his first MVP trophy.
Worst-Case Scenario
Sacramento's strange brew of egos explodes amid another subpar campaign. Rondo struggles to rediscover his pre-ACL-tear self, McLemore fails to live up to his full potential and Cousins, at some point, agitates for his own exodus yet again.
Through it all, the Kings win just enough to land outside the top 10 of the draft lottery. That finish sends Sacramento's 2016 first-round pick to the Sixers, who somehow unearth a star in the making. Team owner Vivek Ranadive fires (almost) everyone.
Prediction
With help from all the veteran talent they brought in over the summer, the Kings creep closer to respectability. They manage to hang around the postseason picture through the winter, but the Western Conference proves too deep and too tough for them to secure a berth.
The fact that Sacramento is able to hang around, though, proves enough to put Cousins on more than a few MVP ballots. Moreover, it earns Divac, Karl and the rest of the organization's power brokers another year to get the Kings over the playoff hump.
- Final Record:Â 35-47
- Division Standing:Â Fourth in Pacific
- Playoff Berth:Â No
- Playoff Finish:Â N/A
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
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