Every season, there are a handful of players who absolutely blow past the production they demonstrated in previous seasons. These "breakout" players enable teams to become greater than the sum of their parts because they offer a level of impact that most people weren't anticipating heading into the season.
For the Sacramento Kings – a team that is good but by no means a surefire inner circle title contender – if they hope to seriously compete for a championship, they will need to roster one or more of these breakout players. So, in an attempt to manifest this occurrence, here are the four best candidates (in order from least likely to most) to have a breakthrough season.
4. Kevin Huerter
This one is kind of cheating since what I am predicting here is more of a bounce-back season than a breakthrough one, and that's why I have him at number four in our countdown.
Anyway, Kevin Huerter went from one of the team's most important players in 2022-23 to someone who has been included in a bunch of trade rumors this offseason. However, after surviving the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade, it seems pretty likely that Huerter will survive the guillotine for now.
A big reason why Huerter has become more expendable is that he had a down shooting year – going from a 40.2% 3-point shooter in 2022-23 to a 36.1% in 2023-24. But as we've discussed before, it is very common for great shooters to have down seasons like the one Huerter just had.
If that ends up being the case for Huerter, he'll make the numbers he put up last year look like child's play.