Kings have finally made a move with Devin Carter (and it's the only option)

After letting Devin Carter rot on the bench for the vast majority of the season, the Sacramento Kings have finally done something with the young guard. He has been assigned to the G League, where he might get some minutes and a chance to actually develop.

Since the beginning of the 2025-2026 season, Carter has only played in eight out of 23 games. In those few games that he did play, he averaged 8.1 minutes per game. That's only because he got 22 minutes in his last game. If you remove that game, it goes down to 6.1 minutes.

Now, if you're wondering when that last game was, he played that 22 minutes on November 12 against the Atlanta Hawks. That was almost a month ago at this point, which puts how long Carter has been riding the pine with the Kings into perspective. The bigger question is why has it been so long?

Trapped in the Kings' development system

The simple answer is that Devin Carter is a young guard on a team that has way too many guards. There are only two guard positions on the court, and limited minutes for everyone to play. And they're not taking minutes away from Malik Monk, Zach LaVine, Dennis Schroder, and Russell Westbrook.

There's also a less simple answer to why Carter has ridden the bench so much. He was drafted by Sacramento in 2024 and spent a large chunk of the 2024-2025 season in the G League with the Stockton Kings. When he was finally called up, it was smack dab in the upheaval of last season.

Essentially, Devin Carter's development fell between the cracks created by Mike Brown's firing and De'Aaron Fox's departure. Now, he's on a roster that is moving in a new direction and is more focused on developing new additions to the team like Maxime Raynaud and Nique Clifford.

Devin Carter has a way out

The Stockton Kings are the reigning and defending champions of the G League. They went through a number of changes in the offseason and currently have a record of six and four in the West. Keeping in mind this isn't Carter's first stint with Stockton, it's a good place for him to at least get minutes.

Carter is a versatile, tenacious defender who has flashes of brilliance on offense, but lacks consistency in all areas of his game. It's hard to develop consistency when you rarely play. Getting some regular court time in the G League will help him grow and develop.

Sacramento doesn't seem willing to put any time into Carter at this point, so heading to Stockton is the right call. What happens after that remains to be seen. It all depends on whether the Kings see him as part of the rebuild or as a trade piece to get someone else. Either way, Carter can progress.