The 2022-23 season feels like a world away for the Sacramento Kings. It's been nothing but the miserable middle for the franchise ever since, and fans have been begging ownership to blow it all up and go into a full rebuild. Well, according to the latest report, that may just be exactly what they're on the verge of doing.
On Wednesday, The Athletic's Sam Amick wrote an article where he reported on what might be next for the Kings.
He writes: "Big man Domantas Sabonis is still worth monitoring in the weeks ahead. When Toronto rolled through town on Wednesday, it wasn't all that hard to imagine him putting on a Raptors jersey sometime soon. While Washington, Phoenix and Chicago are known to have had some interest in Sabonis, league sources confirmed reports that Toronto is a legitimate possibility as we approach the deadline."
Of course, none of this indicates anything is impending or that we should look for a deal in the next few days. But it does very clearly spell out that Sacramento is considering dealing away Sabonis, which tells us that they're likely open to the idea of pressing the button on a rebuild. That would be the best thing for this franchise right now.
Latest report hints that the Kings could be open to starting a rebuild
If you were running this team and you were going to do a full teardown, you would start by getting off the biggest contracts and the highest-usage players. Domantas obviously fits squarely into that category. Free up the books and get rid of the guys that will prevent you from bottoming out, then ride out the rest of the season with younger talent and hope for a high draft pick.
That's basically what Kings fans have been dreaming of for some time now. Unfortunately, the version of this team that went to the playoffs and took Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors to seven games is long gone. This team is sitting at 12-36, and is looking like they have next to no hope of making some sort of crazy run and sneaking into the play-in. Dealing the vets and starting fresh just feels like it would calm everyone's nerves.
Clinging to the remnants of that 2023 team is only going to prolong the inevitable. A clean reset would at the very least give this organization a sense of direction. And for a fanbase exhausted by mediocrity, trading guys like Sabonis could offer a sense of hope for the future.