How many games will the Sacramento Kings win this year? It is somewhere around the mid-twenties if Las Vegas’ Westgate Superbook is to be believed. Their over and under number for Sacramento sits at 25.5 wins which is the second lowest in the NBA.
Twenty-five and a half. That is the number of wins Las Vegas has the Sacramento Kings getting this season. For a quick refresher, Sacramento won 27 games last year which was good enough for twelfth place in the Western Conference. So a dip of two games for a team who’s biggest personnel loses from last season are Vince Carter and Garrett Temple does not seem right.
This Is Not Right
Sacramento added the likes of Yogi Ferrell, Marvin Bagley III, Nemanja Bjelica, and Ben McLemore. They also will be getting guys like Iman Shumpert and Harry Giles back from injury. That group, plus the Kings’ current core of Bogdan Bogdanovic, De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Zach Randolph should be good enough for the Kings to break their win total from last season.
My Prediction
With that said, there is never a sure thing in sports. Things like injuries, trades, or simple misfortune can completely change the course of a season. Should most things go in the Kings’ friendly direction, a record around 31-51 or 32-50 is well within reason.
This is especially doable when you consider Fox should improve, as should Skal Labissiere who had a down year. Giles and Bagley will also be playing their first games in the NBA as Sacramento surely hopes they will become their version of DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis.
Final Thoughts
Sacramento will not be contending for a playoff spot this season. They will be under .500 for yet another year, but they will not be hopeless. They have a promising young core even though they probably will not be in the playoffs for a few more seasons. But a sub-25 win season for this year’s Kings team just does not seem like a possibility, in my opinion.
In the 2017-2018 season, only four teams (Atlanta, Dallas, Memphis, and Phoenix) finished below 25 wins. Will the Kings offense be good? No. Will their defense be good? Also no. But they will not be setting records for ineptitude.
The Kings’ front office figures to ride their young core to multiple championships in the future and they have no first-round pick this year (unless they miraculously win the lottery). There is no incentive to tank and their young guys now have a season of chemistry and experience under their belts.
This team will be gunning for wins, and they will get them, albeit in a limited quantity. Twenty-five wins though? That is just disrespectful.