Ranking the best regular seasons in Sacramento Kings history
By Mat Issa
With Domantas Sabonis, De'Aaron Fox, DeMar DeRozan, Keegan Murray, and company, the Sacramento Kings have a chance of winning a lot of games this year (as long as they figure out their late-game offensive woes).
But what is the most wins a Sacramento Kings team has had in the regular season? Can this Kings team beat that? In this article, we break that down and more.
Most regular season wins in Sacramento Kings history
For the sake of simplicity, we are going to do two separate lists. First, we are going to look at the best Kings' regular seasons ever since they moved to Sacramento (which happened in 1985). Then, we are going to make a list that includes the team when they were in Sacramento, Cincinnati, Rochester, Kansas City, and Kansas City-Omaha.
Also, to keep things clean, we are only going to consider seasons where at least 80 games were played.
Anyway, here are the best regular seasons in Sacramento history.
Most successful Sacramento seasons in Kings history
Year | Wins |
|---|---|
2001-02 | 61 |
2002-03 | 59 |
2003-04 | 55 |
2000-01 | 55 |
2004-05 | 50 |
As you can see from the chart above, all of the Kings' best seasons in Sacramento came during their most successful era (from 2000-05). This makes sense, considering how downtrodden the team has been for most of the years they have been in Northern California.
Most successful seasons in team history
As diehard fans know, the organization wasn't always headquartered in Sacramento. Over the years, the team has called Rochester, Cincinnati, Kansas City-Omaha, Kansas City, and, of course, Sacramento home over the years.
With this in mind, here are the ten season years where the Kings/Royals won their most games:
Year | Team | Wins |
|---|---|---|
2001-02 | Sacramento Kings | 61 |
2002-03 | Sacramento Kings | 59 |
1963-64 | Cincinnati Royals | 55 |
2003-04 | Sacramento Kings | 55 |
2000-01 | Sacramento Kings | 55 |
2004-05 | Sacramento Kings | 50 |
1964-65 | Cincinnati Royals | 48 |
1978-79 | Kansas City Kings | 48 |
2022-23 | Sacramento Kings | 48 |
1979-80 | Kansas City Kings | 47 |
The Cincinnati Royals – led by the great Oscar Robertson (an OG member of the heliocentric movement) – were able to put together some pretty successful regular seasons despite teams only playing 80 games (instead of 82) during that time.
You may also notice that Sabonis and Fox were able to lead the Kings to an all-time season in team history, guiding the team to 48 wins and the third seed in the Western Conference in 2022-23.
Can the 2024-25 Sacramento Kings make this list?
Despite their 4-3 record, the Kings have some strong indicators. They are fifth in offensive rating and 12th in defensive rating. Most importantly, they are seventh in net rating. If they maintain their current net rating (+4.2) over the course of an 82-game season, the Kings will win 53 games, which would tie for the sixth-best season in team history.
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