Sacramento Kings Entering Unknown Territory with Major Injury

Domantas Sabonis has played almost every game the last three years, leaving a question of what the Kings will look like without him as he recovers from injury.

Feb 8, 2025; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings center Domantas Sabonis (11) celebrates with teammates after a play against the New Orleans Pelicans during the fourth quarter at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

The Sacramento Kings will be without their All-NBA center for at least a week, and likely more, leaving many with the question of how they will look while Domantas Sabonis recovers from his grade-1 hamstring strain.

Domantas Sabonis injury update:

He will miss at least a week with a grade 1 left hamstring strain. pic.twitter.com/yw2jvvoSpx

— Matt George (@MattGeorgeSAC) March 3, 2025

It's a hard question to answer, simply because we so rarely see the Kings without Sabonis on the court. Going back to his first full season with the Kings, Sabonis has played in 217 of the Kings 223 regular season games.

Not only has he played all but six games since the start of the 2022-23 season, but he consistently plays heavy minutes on a night-to-night basis.

The Sacramento Kings have played 10,804 total minutes since the 2022-23 season, and Sabonis has played in 7,638 of those minutes. That equals out to 70.7% of the time on the court for the Kings offensive hub.

It's what makes this upcoming stretch for Sacramento so much of a mystery. The Kings offense routinely runs through Sabonis at the top of the key, and while Jonas Valančiūnas is a skilled big in his own way, he's not the playmaker that Sabonis is, topping out at 2.6 assists per game as a member of the 2021-22 New Orleans Pelicans.

It likely means that the Kings will shift their offensive gameplan to center more around the pick and roll than the dribble handoff. With players like Malik Monk, DeMar DeRozan, and Zach LaVine, they have multiple guys who can should be able to get going in the pick and roll game with Valančiūnas.

Defensively, there shouldn't be a huge dropoff trading out Sabonis for Valančiūnas. While Jonas doesn't have the foot speed that Sabonis does on the perimeter, he is arguably a better interior defender, as shown by his three blocks against the Houston Rockets on Saturday.

It's good news that Sabonis only has a grade-1 strain, but it's nothing to sneeze at. With the Kings looking like they have at least a play-in spot secured at the time being, they would be wise not to rush back their All-NBA center. That means we'll see something we haven't seen in years, and that's the Kings without Domantas Sabonis on the court.

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