Final Pre-Season Predictions For The Sacramento Kings Season

By Rafe Wong | Oct 27, 2015

Just one more day of patience until the Sacramento Kings hit the court again to start their regular season, and the hype is as big as ever. With the additions of a new and proven head coach in George Karl, plus the enhancements in talent that the roster received this offseason (thank you Vlade Divac), the Kings have a chance to be a potential dark horse for the playoffs.

In my perspective, this Kings team looks as stacked as ever in the longest time. To be fair, it has been almost a decade since the Kings made the playoffs so competition against past rosters isn’t much, but the team looks really solid from the top-down.

They have an elite point guard duo (in my opinion) in Rajon Rondo and Darren Collison, a potential pair of marksmen in Marco Belinelli and Ben McLemore, small forwards in Rudy Gay, Omri Casspi, and Caron Butler, and two defensive-oriented big man (Willie Cauley-Stein and Kosta Koufos) to pair up with their best player in DeMarcus Cousins.

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On paper, there is no question that the Kings were able to improve the talent, IQ, and experience of this roster compared to last season’s. With that being said, what will the final record be for the Sacramento Kings this upcoming season?

Although I would love for the Kings to make the playoffs in their final year at Sleep Train Arena (still Arco Arena to me), if I had to bet my life on it I would say they would fall short.

I have the Kings finishing ninth in the West with a record of 42-40. The teams that I think will surpass Sacramento are the San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Memphis Grizzlies, and the Dallas Mavericks.

To me, the Western Conference just looks too dominate for the Kings to endure, and even though the Kings have greatly improved their roster, so have their competition as well.

Overall, my final pre-season predictions for the Kings are that they will finish 42-40 being just one seed away from making the playoffs. This may be discouraging for some Kings fans, but honestly if the Kings were to finish the season with this record it’s a huge step going forward. For the past 7 seasons, the Kings haven’t even seen 30 wins, so making a 13 win improvement compared to last season (29 wins) can gain momentum going into their first season at the Golden One Center.

Although I think the Kings will fall short of the postseason, I obviously hope I’m wrong. Even though the record is not solidified at this moment, one thing remains certain: that this will be a highly anticipated season for the Sacramento Kings.

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Next: Trying to Gauge Expectations for the Sacramento Kings This Season

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