Kings Will Be In 9th Place For A Long Time
The NBA has suspended its games for at least a month, and that means the Sacramento Kings will spend much of the spring as a 9th place team in the Western Conference.
The NBA suspended the 2019-’20 season on Wednesday in the wake of the COVID-19 and novel coronavirus outbreak. There is an abundance of uncertainty, both regarding the virus itself and how it will affect us daily, and almost hourly. Things are so much bigger than sports and basketball at a time like this, but if you’re like us, you are looking for something to take your mind away from the news and social media. So let’s talk Sacramento Kings!
There are going to be plenty of ramifications and adjustments that have to be made due to the stoppage of play. There are players who are dealing with contract situations, players recovering from injury, and draft preparations to be made. When the games will resume, and at what point of the season we will pick back up, both remain to be seen.
But as of now, the NBA season is still technically alive. The regular season has not been cancelled, and they have not yet announced any plans to shorten the regular season. So if/when play resumes, the Kings will still find themselves as tied for the 9th seed in the Western Conference as they found themselves on the morning of March 11th.
The Trail Blazers, Pelicans, and Kings are all 3.5 games behind the idol Grizzlies who sit in the eighth and final playoff spot. The Kings were scheduled to host the Pelicans the night that the NBA shut down its operations indefinitely. It was going to be the first nationally televised game for Sacramento and a crucial battle for positioning in the West.
If the NBA is to pick up where it left off and resume the rest of the regular season at some point, they will play a huge game right off of the bat and could set themselves up for a nicely for a playoff push.
The first game for both the Trail Blazers and Grizzlies will be against each other, should the regular season continue as scheduled.