Sacramento Kings Face a 20.5-Win Projection and an August Deadline

There is a number attached to the Sacramento Kings right now and it is not a flattering one. FanDuel opened their 2026-27 win total at 20.5, the lowest figure hung on any team in the league. Sacramento won 22 games last season, so the sportsbook is essentially saying this roster got worse. The Kings would counter that the roster got healthier, which is a different claim and possibly a better one, given that Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, Keegan Murray and De'Andre Hunter all missed more than half of last year. Either way, the front office is not spending August arguing with oddsmakers. It is spending August doing paperwork, and the paperwork is genuinely the most consequential thing happening around this team.

The DeRozan Bill Comes Due August 31

Sacramento waived DeMar DeRozan on July 6. His 2026-27 salary was $25.7 million with only $10 million guaranteed, so cutting him immediately wiped $15.7 million off the books. What remains is a decision with a hard deadline: by August 31, the Kings must either absorb the $10 million in one season or stretch it across three years at roughly $3.33 million annually. Stretching drops Sacramento under both aprons, and that is clearly the direction. It is not a glamorous transaction. It is the single move that determines how much flexibility this front office carries into the next two trade deadlines.

It also closed the book on a two-year experiment. DeRozan is 37 and a six-time All-Star, and the version of the Kings that signed him no longer exists. Neither, apparently, does the version that employed Russell Westbrook. Bleacher Report's Jake Fischer said on July 24 that he had not heard the Kings wanted Westbrook back in any fashion, which is about as gently as that can be phrased. Westbrook started 58 of 64 games last season at 15.2 points and 6.7 assists. He was useful. He is also 37, and he stands exactly where the seventh pick in the draft needs to stand.

Sabonis and LaVine Are Staying, at Least Until February

The Sabonis trade rumors were loud in June and then quietly deflated. The Athletic's Sam Amick reported on July 1 that Charlotte had looked seriously and passed, Toronto's interest was not active, and Detroit was not interested at all, leaving Sabonis, in his framing, very possibly still on the team. General manager Scott Perry has shown no appetite for selling low on veteran contracts.

Perry made the LaVine situation even more explicit on July 9, saying Zach is still an excellent basketball player and that he had been very clear with him about coming back this year. LaVine opted into his $49 million player option, the final year of his deal, which makes him both Sacramento's largest expiring contract and its most obvious February trade chip. Fischer reported the Kings are not treating him as a buyout candidate; they want him to play his way into being tradeable. There is precedent for that. Across a 42-game stretch when he and DeRozan were not teammates, LaVine averaged 24.0 points on 51.1% shooting and 44.6% from three. With DeRozan gone, that is the bet.

Perry's public message on Sabonis was blunter: come in and compete like everybody else, provide veteran presence, have a big rebound year. That is not how an executive talks about a cornerstone. It is how one talks about an asset he would like to make more valuable.

Darius Acuff Jr. Had a Rough Week in Vegas

The Kings took Darius Acuff Jr. out of Arkansas at No. 7, sent the 34th pick and a future second to Cleveland to move up for UConn forward Alex Karaban at 29, and grabbed Houston guard Emanuel Sharp at 45. All three signed. Acuff torched the California Classic for 23.5 points a game. Then Las Vegas happened.

In Vegas he averaged 5.3 assists, 14th among all Summer League players, against 4.7 turnovers, and the shooting was ugly. Sam Vecenie of The Athletic noted that Acuff missed a ton of threes and that his process was far too geared toward scoring, while allowing that the final three games were better. Acuff also arrived with a reputation as one of the weaker defensive guards in his class, and an undersized guard who cannot defend and is not yet efficient is a specific, uncomfortable profile. None of this is disqualifying for a teenager in July. It is a reminder that the on-ramp is longer than the highlight package suggested. Sacramento went 2-3 in Las Vegas and 5-3 counting the California Classic, finishing 25th of 30 teams. Karaban's Vegas run was interrupted by an ankle issue.

Two Roster Spots and a Good Reason for the Kings Not to Fill Them

Sacramento currently sits at 13 standard contracts, one short of the required 14. Adam Flagler and Jonathan Mogbo hold two-way deals, and a third two-way slot opened on July 28 when the Kings waived guard Isaiah Stevens.

The obvious move is elevating Mogbo, a 24-year-old defensive forward who put up 11.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists in Summer League, to a standard contract. The less obvious but smarter move is leaving the 15th spot empty. Filling both would push Sacramento toward the projected luxury tax line, and paying tax while projected last in the West is the kind of decision that ends careers in a front office. An open roster spot is also trade lubricant, which matters for a team carrying Sabonis, LaVine and Malik Monk into a season where all three could move.

The offseason additions were modest by design. Precious Achiuwa re-signed on a two-year deal reported at roughly $11.5 million through the bi-annual exception, a bargain for a starting-caliber big who rebounds and defends multiple positions. Daeqwon Plowden was brought back, and Trey Lyles signed a one-year deal after a season overseas. Nobody is confusing that group with a free agency haul, but it is coherent: cheap, short and easy to move.

The Season That Actually Matters Is Keegan Murray's

Sacramento gave Keegan Murray a five-year, $140 million rookie extension, and he is now the only player on this roster the current front office inherited and chose to build around. His three-point shooting has gone the wrong direction, from 41.1% as a rookie to 27.7% last season. If that number comes back, the Kings have a legitimate second building block next to Acuff. If it does not, this rebuild is starting from one player and a lottery ticket.

Nique Clifford enters year two with a wide-open path to minutes now that DeRozan is gone, and Maxime Raynaud is coming off an All-Rookie Second Team season. That is a real developmental class. It is also, by definition, not a class that wins 40 games.

What Is Next on the Sacramento Kings Calendar

The preseason is already locked in. Sacramento opens October 5 at home against the Lakers, visits them October 8, plays at Golden State on October 10, hosts Portland on October 13 and closes at San Antonio on October 16. Four of the five air on Kings+, with the Warriors game on NBC Sports California, and Mark Jones and Kayte Christensen are back on the call alongside Morgan Ragan and Deuce Mason.

Before any of that, the DeRozan stretch decision lands by August 31, and the NBA is still expected to release the full 2026-27 schedule in mid-August. Camps open in late September. For a franchise that has spent two decades being told to be patient, the pitch this year is unusually honest: Doug Christie's team is going to be young, it is going to lose a lot, and the point is to find out whether Acuff, Murray and Clifford are worth building around while Sabonis and LaVine hold their trade value. The 20.5 number is insulting. It might also be roughly right. What the Sacramento Kings do between now and February will say a great deal more than the record does.