The Sacramento Kings once again failed to do anything in the play-in game, this time getting destroyed by the Dallas Mavericks. But unlike last year, the future of the Kings is bleak. There are many complications, but there are two issues that stand out to me the most: the style of play and head-scratching front office decisions, both of which stem from ownership decisions and misplaced priorities. 

This era of National Basketball Association (NBA) style is built upon threes, and the best teams are built upon impenetrable defense. The Kings, however, play the opposite way. The Kings are built upon mid-range shots and little to no defense. The Kings’ starting lineup has no true point guard, and is full of midrange specialists that aren’t good three point shooters. They run an outdated style that doesn’t translate to wins, unless some players have incredible individual performances.

Another problem with the Kings is the poor front office decisions that are occuring. The most glaring one this season was the De’Aaron Fox trade. The Kings traded away an NBA All-Star for 2 future first round picks and Zach Lavine, a shooting guard. Instead of trying to rebuild, and tank for a good pick in a very deep draft class, the Kings tried to stay relevant – which made them arguably more irrelevant. The Kings still had chances to tank to get their pick this year, but they failed at losing as well. Instead they kept evenly winning and losing, staying right at the 500-win mark. Ultimately, they lost their first-round pick this year, due to the conditions of the Kevin Huerter trade. If they had just lost one or two more games, they could have kept it, once again showing their inability to make good decisions.

These problems stem from something deeper, though. The main problem with the Kings is the owner Vivek Ranadive and the Kings organization as a whole. They are alright with just being a team that makes the play-in, and never pursues anything more. To win, you have to be bad to get good players and picks. The Kings are not bad enough to get those superstar players, and when they have a player who is really good, they fail to build around that player. Vivek himself seems to care about the spectacle of a basketball game with the beam rather than the winning side of things. Without an owner who wants to win, the Kings are going nowhere.