Watching a Sacramento Kings game can induce a strong feeling of deja vu. You’ll feel like you’ve seen this somewhere before, likely in the previous Kings game you watched, because nothing really changes that much. And as long as that’s the case, the team will stay at the bottom of the league.
The problems that are plaguing Sacramento this season are not new in the least. It took years to put this poorly balanced team together. You don’t end up with a roster primarily made up of shoot-first guards who don’t play defense by accident. To be fair, their starting center plays the same, too.
If you’ve been watching the Kings for years, then you’ve seen these problems play out over and over again without anything substantial changing. But that’s on the macro level. On a smaller scale, that feeling of familiarity is even more intense with every game you see.
Regardless of whether they win or lose, the Kings seem to play each game roughly the same. A prime example is the last three losses. While there are obviously some differences in how these games played out, they were all losses that should have been victories with the same issues present.
A Kings’ rebuild has to change the game
It’s that lack of change that’s driving Kings’ fans nuts. For someone who is a die-hard Sacramento fan, and there are more than you think, watching the same mistakes getting made over the course of years is a problem. It’s enough to test the patience of even the most loyal fans.
Kings’ fans just want to see some kind of progress being made. There are a few things to hang onto, like the return of Keegan Murray, the overall play of Russell Westbrook, and the rapid growth of rookies Maxime Raynaud and Nique Clifford. But that’s all part of the deja vu.
Every season has its own version of those players, details that offer a false sense of hope while the big picture stays the same. That’s why the rebuild matters so much. For the first time in a long time, there’s a real opportunity for the Kings to break the cycle they’ve been trapped in for years.
With a new head coach and front office, there’s actual hope that a rebuild might actually work. The problem is that the same co-owner, Vivek Ranadive, is involved and known for micro-managing his team. As long as he can keep his own ego out of it, maybe the Kings will finally get on the right path.