This season has been one defined by injuries for a lot of teams across the league, especially the Sacramento Kings. The worst has been long-term injuries ot Domantas Sabonis and Keegan Murray. And it looks like it's still going to be two or more weeks before Murray could possibly return.
Per the Kings, Keegan Murray is progressing in his rehabilitation of a moderate left ankle sprain.
— Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) February 3, 2026
Murray has been approved for on-court contact activities.
He will be reevaluated in two weeks.
Injuries to major stars have been happening all season long to basically every team in the league. Austin Reaves recently returned to the Lakers after a 19-game absence, only for Luka Doncic to leave in the part way through the next game with his own injury.
Sacramento has not been immune to this. The list of injuries the Kings have dealt with in 2025-2026 is long and cuts through the entire roster. They opened the season with Keegan Murray being out for multiple games, had a few other short-term issues, and then lost Domantas Sabonis for two months.
Murray gets injured for a second time
Murray ended up on a second extended injury absence after sustaining a moderate left ankle strain against the Bucks on January 6th. As of February 3rd, he was starting to do some on-court activities and is scheduled to be re-evaluated roughly two weeks from that date.
Keep in mind that doesn't mean that's the date he's returning from his second major injury of this season. It's just the day they'll take another look at the situation and try to build a strategy for his actual return. To be completely honest, he could be gone longer.
Assuming that everything goes well and the next evaluation of his injury looks good, he could be back in the game within a few days. Best-case scenario, Murray is back by late February. Worst-case scenario, this whole thing drags on into March.
The impact on the Kings
Sacramento has invested a lot of effort and money in establishing Murray as the leader of the team and the linchpin of the whole rebuild process. Well, at least based on their current strategy. Keeping that in mind, it's hard to get rolling when your key player is stuck on the bench.
To be fair, the Kings wouldn't be in much better shape if Murray were there. It's not that he doesn't contribute so much as it is that the team needs a monster amount of work before they're competitive. Getting Murray healthy and in rhythm with the rookies and new players is important to that.
Murray being out injured for an extended period twice this season is a bit of a red flag. The Kings have put a lot of eggs in the Keegan Murray basket. They absolutely need him to pan out. If not, the franchise is going to have to look at moving on from him.