Now that the Sacramento Kings 2024-25 NBA Season is behind us, it is time to take stock of the players we have on the roster heading into next season. To do this, we need to discuss how they looked this year and how they can build on it in the future. So, over the next couple of days, we are going to go over each key returning player for next year and assign them a grade for their production in 2024-25.
Now, without further ado, let the grading begin.
Keegan Murray 2024-25 Season
One could argue that Keegan Murray was the Kings' most important player heading into this season. As we have noted several times before, this Kings' roster was one that was in desperate need of size, shooting, and defense. In theory, Murray represented the best blend of those three variables, and given his youthful vigor (he's still under 25), he had a chance to become one of the best role players in the association this season.
Unfortunately, that jump didn't really come to fruition for Murray this year. A big talking point among Kings' fans was his regression as a shooter. After hitting the most threes in a single season by a rookie in NBA history, Murray regressed to a career-low 34.3% 3-point shooter this season.
However, such analysis is sorely missing the mark. First off, Murray's 3-point shooting numbers are much more promising than you think. For the first 32 games of the season, Murray was hitting just 28.6% of his 5.5 attempts per game. But after the calendar switched to 2025 (44 games), Murray knocked down 38% of his 6.2 threes per contest.
Murray also converted on shots at the rim at a career rate (75.3%) and grabbed more offensive rebounds than he ever has (1.9 ORPG). But most impressively, Murray established himself as one of the most versatile defenders in the league.
This season, only five players finished in the 85th percentile in both Rim Protection and Isolation Defense (per BBall Index). One of them was, of course, our guy Murray:
Murray can guard multiple positions while also providing secondary rim protection (something that is super important when Domantas Sabonis is your starting center). Overall, Murray posted a career-best 87th percentile Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus (per Dunks & Threes).
Murray didn't turn into the Kings' very own version of OG Anunoby this season. But he continued to grow as a defender and finisher around the rim, and his jumper started to come back to him as the season went on. These variables, coupled with his size (6'8) and age, make him arguably the Kings' most untradeable player moving forward.