With the 2024-25 NBA Season now over for the Sacramento Kings (courtesy of the Dallas Mavericks), the focus has now shifted toward the offseason.
As it stands, the Kings have a handful of players from their 2024-25 roster set to become free agents. Over the next few days, we are going to analyze the pros and cons of bringing back each of these players.
After spending the last five seasons with the Orlando Magic, Markelle Fultz found himself without a team to start the 2024-25 season. However, that changed when the Kings signed him to a veteran minimum contract in the middle of February. But did Fultz do enough in his half season stint with the team to warrant them pursuing him again this offseason?
Should the Kings bring back Markelle Fultz?
The Kings had a busy 2025 Trade Deadline cycle, swapping five players (including their franchise icon, De'Aaron Fox) in exchange for Zach LaVine, Jonas Valanciunas, and Jake LaRavia. The moves completely reshaped their roster, but more importantly, they left them with even less defense than they had before.
Enter Fultz. After his career took an awkward turn, going from number one pick in a loaded 2017 Class to completely forgetting how to shoot due to a rare injury, Fultz completely revamped his game to turn himself into one of the best guard defenders in the association.
Last season, Fultz placed in the 88th percentile in steal rate and played consistent minutes (when healthy) on an Orlando Magic team that finished 2nd in defensive rating in the entire league. The Kings hoped that bringing him in could help boost their bottom-ten unit of fortification (a defense that hasn't been elite in over two decades).
This proved to be the case. The Kings were 6.6 points stouter per 100 possessions with Fultz on the floor (92nd percentile, per Cleaning the Glass). Overall, they were in the 65th percentile in defensive rating in his minutes.
Unfortunately, those minutes were limited. Fultz only played in 21 games for the Kings, and he only averaged 8.8 minutes per contest in those appearances. The reason for this is the same issue that has plagued him throughout his entire career. While their defense was better, the Kings' offensive rating fell 5.1 points per 100 when he was on the floor (20th percentile) – turning a top ten attack into one that was just middle-of-the-pack.
As we said in our analysis of Jae Crowder, it is impossible to measure the value that Crowder's experience and wisdom helped the Kings' locker room this season. Maybe those intangibles are enough to warrant bringing him back on another veteran minimum deal. But from an on-court perspective, Fultz didn't leave enough of an impression in his time here to justify allocating resources toward bringing him back in 2025-26.