Maxime Raynaud was a revelation for the Sacramento Kings last season. He emerged from the obscurity of the 2025 NBA Draft's second round to be one of the league's top rookies. And if the Kings want to make the most of him, they need to push his development as a power forward.
The Kings are in a bit of surprising situation as a logjam has developed at center, and could get worse. As it stands right now, Domantas Sabonis is still on the roster. Sacramento is attempting to trade him, but their asking price is high and his contract is expensive. It's not exactly a great trade combination.
In the 2025 draft, the Kings used their pick to select Raynaud, a rookie center to develop as a second to Sabonis. Sacramento then signed Dylan Cardwell, another young center, as an undrafted player during the 2025 offseason. Both Raynaud and Cardwell had breakout runs in 2025-2026.
On top of all of that, Sacramento signed veteran big man Precious Achiuwa a few games into last season to bolster their defense. He's primarily a power forward, but also plays center. That's a lot of centers, which will only get more complicated if the Kings sign Jalen Duren without moving Sabonis.
Raynaud needs to flex his skills as a power forward
There is an increasingly probable scenario that the Kings go into 2027-2028 with five centers. Both Sabonis and Achiuwa are already both capable of playing at the four and the five effectively. Neither Duren nor Cardwell can play power forward, and trying to train them would be a waste of time.
That leave Raynaud, who is more than capable of playing both roles. While the Kings should not stop giving him minutes at center, they need to double down on getting him up to speed as a stretch power forward. It opens up a variety of line options with multiple big men.
It will also help give Raynaud a more versatile set of skills on the court. This is the kind of move that turns Raynaud and Cardwell into a dynamic duo, instead of being competitors for the same minutes at the same position. Raynaud just becomes more valuiable as a foundational part of the rebuild.
The Kings could choose to keep Raynaud solely as a center, which seems quite unlikely as that limits his potential usage and intensifies the logjam at center. Being that Sacramento wants both Raynaud and Cardwell to develop into top stars, cross-training Mad Max just makes sense.
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