Kings Rookie Maxime Raynaud Shows Maturity After NBA Debut vs Raptors

The preseason didn’t start the way the Sacramento Kings wanted it to. After an offseason of additions in the draft, a new point guard in Dennis Schröder, and an entirely new coaching staff, some growing pains were bound to show up.

Still, the performance of the starting unit (and some reserves) was far from what Doug Christie expected from his team as the Toronto Raptors made them look exactly like the same team that finished the season last year.

The bright side is that the younger members of the Kings looked great and played with the intensity that Christie has been preaching since he took the job. Maxime Raynaud was part of that group and echoed Domantas Sabonis with his praise of the lineup that took over in the 4th quarter.

“I thought the young guys brought more of our identity. Which is picking up full court, getting rebounds, playing hard defense,” Raynaud said after Wednesday’s loss. “I do think that we managed to keep the score reasonable during that [fourth] quarter, but it’s not about us. It’s not about one quarter. Every game is four quarters… and as a group, we all need to step up to the highest possible level.”

Maxime Raynaud on his first preseason game, the crowd and building chemistry with Nique Clifford and Dylan Cardwell. pic.twitter.com/flZxlammg4
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) October 9, 2025

Raynaud’s maturity shows itself in press conferences and on the court as well, with his communication.

Raynaud, Nique Clifford, Devin Carter, and Dylan Cardwell stepped in and looked like the veterans on the court in comparison to Sacramento’s starters. Raynaud is sitting behind Sabonis and Drew Eubanks on the depth chart as of now, but he may not stay there for long if he keeps bringing the same effort he did against the Raptors.

Maxime Raynaud's first points as a King in preseason coming courtesy of his fellow rookie Nique Clifford 🏀@CBSSacramento @SacramentoKings pic.twitter.com/KX5zf1OywY
— Brandon Benitez (@BranitezSports) October 9, 2025

What Can the Starters Learn From Raynaud and the Bench?

The biggest things that need to change with the starting unit are ball movement and defensive intensity. Not every member of the starting unit looked terrible individually, but the collective defense was just as disappointing as it was last season.

The starters were picking up full court, but they fell asleep on the back end way too often, which led to a bunch of easy looks for Toronto. This isn’t to say that the reserves were pristine defensively, just that their effort was there the entire quarter. Defensive mistakes get amplified with poor effort, and the unit in there for the end of the game made sure to recover if they were ever caught out of position.

On top of that, they pressured the ball, turned defense into offense, and crashed the boards hard. The best example of this effort is in the video above, where Maxime Raynaud finishes a dunk and then hustles back on defense, only to get cross-matched with 6-foot-5 Ochai Agbaji. Instead of panicking, Raynaud gets low and prevents Agbaji from getting the Raptors an easy look while the Kings are recovering.

RAPS SHOOTING 55% FROM THREE VS KINGS’ 37.5%😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/rfV078ZONF
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) October 9, 2025

On offense, the starters fell into the same old trap of dribbling the air out of the ball and putting up a contested shot in isolation way too often. As I mentioned, growing pains are unavoidable with all of the changes, but that doesn’t excuse the lack of ball movement. DeMar DeRozan led the starters with 4 assists, but the rest of the unit only had 3 combined.

For the reserves, Nique Clifford had nine assists on his own, while Cardwell, Carter, and Isaiah Stevens combined for seven of their own. If you add in Malik Monk’s two assists, the reserves beat out the starters 18 to 7 in assists for the game. The juxtaposition was even more apparent because Toronto had 32 of its own assists and passed circles around the Kings for most of the night.

Assists aren’t the only measure of good offense, but they usually are a pretty solid indicator of how a night is going on that end. Signing Schröder was lauded as a move that would bring some order to the Kings' offense, but that didn’t seem to be the case on Wednesday night. It is only one preseason game, but Clifford showed a lot more promise as a lead guard than anyone else on the roster.

None of this talk about effort should take away from how talented the Kings’ rookies and sophomores are as players. Raynaud and Clifford were both AP All-American honorable mentions last year, and Cardwell was the starting center for a very good Auburn team and the winningest player in program history. They aren’t getting by on just effort, but when every player in the league is talented, playing with intensity is vital.

Sacramento’s starting lineup features 11 All-Star berths between them, and there isn’t any reason they shouldn’t have a shot in most games if they play the right way. All of this comes down to buy-in, and Friday’s game against the Portland Trailblazers will be a good test to see if game one was a fluke or if the starting lineup just isn’t interested in winning games like the reserves are.

What Can the Starters Learn From Raynaud and the Bench?

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