With less than a month left in the 2024-25 NBA regular season, everyone has their eyes trained toward the postseason.
This is especially true for the Sacramento Kings, who spent the entire 2024 offseason making moves with the goal of making a run in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
But how are they doing with that goal right about now? Here is the Western Conference Playoff bracket if the regular season ended today.
Current Western Conference Playoff Picture
Because of the addition of the NBA Play-In Tournament (five years ago), we only know what two playoff matchups will be at the end of the regular season. In this case, the three-seeded Denver Nuggets would play the sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors, and the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers would host the fifth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies.
As the first seed, the Oklahoma City Thunder would play whoever ends up with the eighth seed. Meanwhile, the second-seeded Houston Rockets would be the home team against whoever ends up with the seventh seed.
Do you notice how we haven't mentioned the Kings yet? That is because, as it stands, they are going to have to participate in the play-in tournament for the second straight year. Currently, they are the ninth seed – just like they were last season. However, the tenth-seeded Phoenix Suns are quickly gaining ground on the flailing Kings, who have lost seven of their last nine games.
But if the Kings keep the ninth seed, they would play the Suns in a do-or-die play-in game, one that will be played at Golden 1 Center. The loser of that game is eliminated, and the winner will play the loser of the seven-eight matchup, which, in this case, will be played between the Los Angeles Clippers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
The victor of the Clippers/TImberwolves clash gets the seventh seed, and the loser will play the winner of Kings/Suns for the eighth seed.
If the Kings can beat both the Suns and the loser of the Clippers/Timberwolves, their prize is the final playoff spot in the Western Conference bracket. The cruel thing about that reward is that it isn't much of a reward.
Like we said earlier, the eighth seed has to play the Thunder in the first round of the playoff series – a Thunder team that owns both the best defensive rating (107.1) and net rating (+12.9) in the NBA.
As of right now, the best-case scenario for the Kings isn't that great. Their chances of getting a playoff seed are slim, and their odds of escaping the first round are even lower. But I guess that's what happens when you spend an entire regular season hovering around mediocrity.