The Sacramento Kings 2024-25 NBA season has officially hit rock bottom. After losing to the 17-59 Washington Wizards, who were missing seven rotation players and had no incentive to win that game, the Kings are desperately holding on to their spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament. And that is only because the Phoenix Suns may be just as miserable as they are.
The Kings are in a dreaded place right now: basketball purgatory. They are playing so poorly (losing 11 of their last 14) that, even if they do make the play-in tournament, they are sure to be a swift exit. However, since the Suns are without Kevin Durant, it is also nearly impossible for them to fall far enough in the standings to keep their 2025 first round pick.
It's so bad right now that this is the kind of stuff non-Kings analysts are posting on Twitter (I refuse to call it "X"):
3 things I’m thankful for today:
— Alex Golden (@AlexGoldenNBA) April 3, 2025
1. That I’m a lifelong Indiana Pacers fan.
2. That I’m not a Philadelphia 76ers fan.
3. That I’m not a Sacramento Kings fan.
That's right. People are comparing the Kings to the depressing and downtrodden Philadelphia 76ers. The team that has the most dollars lost due to play injuries (per Spotrac). The team that is also in danger of losing their 2025 first round pick. The team that has two injury-riddled stars on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars over the next handful of seasons. That is who the Kings are being compared to right now.
The bad vibes are more than just this year for the Kings
While scrolling through Twitter, I saw a graphic that reminded me that this wasn't just one bad year for the Kings. Most of the last two decades have been pretty similar to this one. The last two years were just a brief aberration rather than a true change of direction for the franchise.
If you were wondering what I was talking about, here is the graphic that triggered this thought process:
The Sacramento Kings, reviving your shooters' confidence since 2006 https://t.co/Is8uQYBkEv
— Professor OAK 🇵🇸 (@o_a_khan) April 1, 2025
The insightful graphic – created by the wonderful Lev Akabas of Sportico – is intended to highlight how insane the opponent shooting luck of the Boston Celtics has been for the last 19 years.
But as you can see from the witty quote tweet included above, it is hard not to notice how unlucky the Kings have been since 2006 – allowing, by far, the highest opponent 3-point percentage of any team during that time.
In some cruel twist of fate, this has been the same story for the Kings' 14-game skid. In the last 14 games, teams are shooting 43.7% from three against the Kings. That's the highest mark of any team in the NBA during that stretch (ironically enough, number two on that list is the 76ers).
What started out as a season with so much promise and hope has turned into a dumpster fire thanks to a combination of bad vibes and poor luck, which is basically the same thing that has been happening to them for the last two decades.