Three Kings Trends to Watch for After the All-Star Break

As we leave the All-Star break, just 26 games remain in what has been an all-time bad season in Sacramento. The worst season in Sacramento-era history came in 2008-09, when the Kings went 17-65, good for a .209 win percentage. Sacramento is currently on a 14-game losing streak and sporting a .214 win percentage - barely topping that ghastly 08-09 percentage.

With Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis out for the season, and other key players nursing injuries (Keegan Murray, De’Andre Hunter, and Dylan Cardwell), it stands to reason that the winning percentage will probably not get much better.

Domantas Sabonis and Zach Lavine are out for the remainder of the season, per @ShamsCharania

Sabonis underwent season-ending surgery to repair his torn meniscus, while LaVine is undergoing season-ending surgery to repair a tendon injury in his hand pic.twitter.com/loPRvTFBPx
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 18, 2026

Nonetheless, there are still reasons to watch if you look hard enough.

Plenty of new lineups to come

As we have mentioned before, the only constant with the Kings’ rotation has been change. Coach Doug Christie has been given a roster that makes no sense together, and has tried to cobble lineups together that give them a fighting chance.

This is epitomized by the revolving door that has been the starting lineup, where Christie has tinkered to the tune of 28 different starting lineups. That is a new starting lineup every other game for 56 games for the math majors out there.

This trend will probably continue in the wake of LaVine and Sabonis electing to undergo season-ending surgery. Sacramento has dusted Devin Carter off and has begun integrating two-way players Daequon Plowden and Isaiah Stevens more regularly lately, which could introduce even more new lineup combinations.

Devin Carter has played 664 total career minutes.

24% of those (160 mins) have came in the last SEVEN games!!
— Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) February 17, 2026

Continuity would be nice (and helpful for developing the young players), but that does not appear to be in the cards this season.

Where will creation come from?

It does not take a trained eye to notice that Sacramento’s offense lacks structure. Per NBAstats.com, Sacramento ranks ninth in isolation frequency and sixth in pick-and-roll frequency.

These play types can obviously come from purposeful sets to exploit an advantage, but they are also very common fallbacks when early actions do not work. Again, it does not take a particularly trained eye to see that Sacramento’s primarily come from the latter.

Given the dearth of set plays run, it may actually be good for Sacramento’s young players to have a DeMar DeRozan out there to bail them out when sets do not go as planned. However, it would be great if Nique Clifford and Devin Carter proved capable of initiating the offense and getting the team good looks before having to default to an isolation for DeRozan.

Foundation forming

Building off creation-watch, a more macro-theme is seeing the early stages of a foundation forming. General manager Scott Perry himself noted that the team is where the team is at while he preaches patience and prudence.

This makes sense. The team is currently led by expensive veterans who, in all likelihood, will not be with the team when Perry’s ideal version of the Kings takes shape. Even though Nique Clifford has flashed lately, and Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell have both shown they belong, they are not necessarily surefire long-term building blocks.

Nonetheless, there is still an opportunity for those young players to cement themselves as players that should be kept around as high-end young talent comes in and develops.

It is particularly important that Nique Clifford shows development both on and off the ball so he can fit with whatever player the Kings select in the top five. Clifford being able to guard 1-3 and function both on and off ball on offense will help backcourt options like Darryn Peterson and wings like Cameron Boozer alike.

Additional spacing will also help any high-level prospect the Kings select. Ideally, this would come from Keegan Murray and De’Andre Hunter. Murray has not shot over 36% from three since his rookie season, and Hunter is a career 36% shooter himself. Not exactly marksman numbers.

Keegan Murray and De’Andre Hunter: pic.twitter.com/AglPbSmtdG
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) February 18, 2026

So, it would also be nice if Raynaud (currently 27% on 0.9 3PA/G) could flash more stretch to his offensive game to provide additional stretch, and, in turn, more space for Sacramento’s top-five pick to operate. Obviously, simply shooting more at a slightly higher rate would not necessarily make Raynaud a franchise cornerstone. It would, however, help him fit with more iterations of this team in the future, which is valuable in itself.

Unfortunately, Dylan Cardwell sustained a sprained ankle a couple of days ago and will not be able to show how he may factor into the long-term vision for a few weeks. To some degree, Sacramento already told us how they feel about Cardwell when they converted him to a four-year standard contract. They did not have to give him as much as they did, or give him as many years as they did.

Given Cardwell’s outstanding numbers in limited minutes, it seems like the organization believes his rebounding and blocks are sustainable, and he will (at worst) be a strong interior presence moving forward. Development beyond that will be icing on the cake, as his skillset is already valuable as is. Hopefully, we get to see the new heartbeat of Kings basketball back on the court soon.

In sum, there may not be too many reasons to watch the rest of this season of Kings basketball. However, the franchise will go on after this train wreck of a season. Watching through a multi-year lens, knowing this is the early phases of what will likely be a lengthy process, can help the glass look half full - even during an all-time bad season.