This is not a report. This is an opinion. But it is the contention of this author that Domantas Sabonis, currently a member of the Sacramento Kings, will not be one for much longer. And in light of his recent injury, he may well have played his last game with the team.
The Kings are bad, and if anything are getting worse. Excuse-makers who wanted to blame a difficult early-season schedule for their 4-13 start struggled to find much sympathy when a 41-point loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday night, and although a good win over the Denver Nuggets stopped an eight-game losing streak followed by victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Kings still have only a 5-13 record. Only the dire New Orleans Pelicans prop up the Western Conference below them.
Where once his light burned so bright – having been an All-Star and top ten finisher in NBA MVP voting in each of his first two seasons with the Kings – Sabonis is not helping to stem the tide. The nine-year veteran is still at the peak of his powers, and his powers are considerable when he is healthy – but he is not healthy. And by the time he gets back, the Kings could well have pulled the plug on whatever it is they are trying to do.
Sabonis’s Individual Quality
Since arriving in Sacramento, Sabonis has delivered what the Kings traded for. He has been a reliable scoring option in the low and mid-post, alongside bringing elite rebounding instincts and serving as an offensive hub capable of running dribble handoffs at a volume few bigs can match. Last season, Sabonis averaged 19.4 points, 13.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game, one of the most efficient high-usage campaigns by a center in the modern day.
With the exception of his injury to open this season, Sabonis’s durability has been remarkable. He routinely logs heavy minutes, takes physical punishment and remains available, as his production never wavers. If the Kings could simply bottle Sabonisâs output and place it within a championship-ready ecosystem, they would. He is not in any way the problem. Trading him, however, may be a solution.
The franchiseâs brief resurgence built on pace, off-ball movement and a historic offensive rating now feels increasingly distant. Opponents adjusted. Sacramentoâs offense slowed. The spacing that once surprised the league became easier to scheme against. De’Aaron Fox was traded. The replacements were not better. And in that process, the limitations of building around an interior-anchored big who does stretch the floor became more pronounced. The Kings still play through Sabonis because he is their most reliable engine and their best player, yet that reliance also exposes a structural ceiling they have not solved.
Kings Foundational Piece Lacking Another
The main counterargument to trading Sabonis would be one of the ruination of continuity. To break it all down yet again means even less continuity than before, and the resultant lack of cohesion makes for a poor developmental environment for any kind of retooling.
The counterargument to the counterargument, though, is that there is not much to develop. The Kings are being led right now by short term point guard rentals Dennis Schroeder and Russell Westbrook, plus well-worn ex-Chicago Bulls wings Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. It gets shallow quickly beyond that, and with the exception of Keegan Murray, none of the relevant players are young. The Kings tried to build for the “now”, but the “now” is poor.
Infamously, the Kings endured years of instability before finally finding an identity that produced winning basketball for a couple of seasons. They won an unexpected 48 games in 2022-23, ending the NBA’s longest postseason futility streak, and followed it up with 46 in the next. Yet a slow decline since then now appears to have turned precipitous. Stability for its own sake is not progress. When a team reaches a plateau, decisions must be made before stagnation hardens into inertia. And right now, a plateau would be a step-up.
Domantas Sabonis has been central to everything the Sacramento Kings built over the past few seasons. But now, there is nothing to be central to. The Kings will need to start again, again, and through both being on the wrong timeline and the only player with any substantial trade value, going on yet another teardown will almost certainly mean Sabonis goes first.
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