Putting how bad the Sacramento Kings are doing this season into actual, quantifiable numbers is a futile and painful exercise. Yet, there are surprises, like how their defensive rating is actually better than their offensive rating, something that actually boggles the mind when you watch them play.
There's no need to mince words at this point. Anyone who watches the NBA knows that the Kings are utterly horrible on defense. To be fair, there are a handful of individual players who are putting the work in. It's just that the team has no defensive presence or identity as a unit.
As such, it shouldn't be shocking to anyone that the Kings have one of the worst defensive ratings in the league. They are currently in the 27th spot with a rating 119.6, which is the number of points allowed per 100 possessions by a team. And 119.6 is pretty terrible.
To put that into perspective, the team with the number one defensive rating in the NBA is the Oklahoma City Thunder. They have a rating of 103.4. It's not surprising that the Kings have a worse defensive rating than the Thunder. It is surprising that their offensive rating is even worse.
The Kings' offense is worse than its defense
A team's offensive rating is the number of points they score per 100 possessions. Keeping in mind that the current Kings roster was put together with offense prioritized over defense, you would likely assume that their offensive rating should be at least better than their defensive rating.
You would be wrong. The Kings are currently sitting at 29th in the league with an offensive rating of 108.5. The only team worse than Sacramento at the moment this is being written is the Indiana Pacers, who are at 108.2. That's not a huge margin for the Kings to rest on.
To put this in perspective yet again, the top team in the league is the Denver Nuggets with an offensive rating of 124.4. No one expects the Kings to be that high up the food chain, but they should be doing better on offense than they are with shooters like Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan.
It's absurd that a team perceived to be so bad at defense is actually somehow statistically worse on offense. If you needed another reason to look forward to this upcoming Sacramento Kings rebuild, here you go. Because one team just cannot be so bad in two fundamental ways and survive.