Kings Stars Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine Both Out for Season With Injuries

The Kings will exit the All-Star break with a 12–44 record, which puts them dead last in the Western Conference. It’s obviously been a difficult season thus far. Now, they’ll have to embark upon the final 26 games of their season without their two most talented players.

On Wednesday ESPN’s Shams Charania reported star big man Domantas Sabonis is out for the year after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus. Sabonis suffered the injury in his left knee earlier this year and tried to play through it before electing to undergo surgery. A few minutes later Charania reported All-Star guard Zach LaVine is also done for the year after undergoing hand surgery to repair a tendon.

It’s a brutal one-two punch for the Kings’ chances on the court for the rest of the year. Sabonis missed 27 games already this year after initially suffering his meniscus injury in December but was productive when on the court, averaging a double-double of 15.8 points and 11.4 rebounds per game; those numbers are down compared to last year, though. LaVine represents one of the few genuine perimeter threats on Sacramento’s roster and led the team with 19.2 points per game entering the All-Star break. Now he, too, is sidelined for the duration.

Both veteran stars were rumored to be available at this year’s trade deadline but the Kings stood pat. The franchise will now try to get through the rest of the year in one piece before turning its eyes to the draft lottery. Sacramento now seems quite likely to finish with one of the worst records in the NBA and will have solid odds at landing a top-three pick in a loaded 2026 NBA draft.

How LaVine, Sabonis injuries affect NBA’s tanking race

The impact that LaVine and Sabonis’s absences will have is quite straightforward: the Kings will be worse without them. It’s hard to say they’ll be noticeably worse given Sacramento owns the worst record in the NBA right now. Not one of the worst—the worst. Both stars getting sidelined for the remainder of the year all but ensures the Kings will continue to lose games at a disturbingly high clip.

In the long-term this is good news for the franchise because this class of prospects is great. There are numerous highly-regarded players in the 2026 NBA draft. If the Kings land a top-three pick they’ll have multiple very talented options to choose from. To give themselves the best chance of making that possibility a reality, Sacramento has to finish with one of the three worst records in the league. This development helps in that regard.

Exiting the break the Kings have an NBA-worst 12 wins. But the Wizards (14 wins) aren’t very far behind. Neither are the Pacers, Nets and Pelicans, all of whom have only 15 wins so far. It’ll be a tight race to the bottom and Wednesday’s news will give Sacramento an edge.

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