Jan 21, 2026; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Russell Westbrook (18) drives to the basket against the Toronto Raptors during the second quarter at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images
With less than half the season left and the trade deadline just over a week away, it’s time for the Kings to fully embrace the tank.
**Draft Odds are the only real race left**
And just like that, the Kings are right back on schedule for the tank, riding a five-game losing streak after winning a season-high four games in a row. The Kings are currently sitting in 4th place, but wins by the Pacers and Pelicans this week have put the Kings just a game out of last place. The bottom-four teams all have the same amount of odds thanks to the NBA’s new rules, but being worse still protects the floor, as the worst place team can’t place lower than fifth, while the fourth place team could slip all the way to eighth. That’s a huge deal, especially with this draft looking like it has at least three elite prospects and a few guys just below that at the top of the draft. Just this week we saw BYU’s AJ Dybantsa drop 43 points, Cameron Boozer have back to back 30 point games and Houston’s Kingston Flemings drop 42 points on Texas Tech. The Kings need to land one of these top guys to have a chance at turning this around sooner rather than later. The Kings still have four more road games left on this trip before returning home right before the NBA trade deadline.
**It’s time to rip the Band-Aid off**
In light of the above, I’d encourage Scott Perry and the front office to be aggressive in moving off of some of our bigger contracts sooner rather than later, even if the return isn’t optimal. Yes, Domantas Sabonis is still very good, especially as he showed this week against the Cleveland Cavaliers with 24 points, 16 rebounds and 6 assists. The Toronto Raptors are supposedly very interested, but the Kings reportedly have been unwilling to take on the contracts of either Immanuel Quickley or Jakob Poeltl to make a deal. Poeltl’s contract is especially onerous, as it’s for four more years after this one. However, I wouldn’t necessarily pass up on taking it or Quickley’s contract if the Raptors are willing to throw in draft compensation as well. This is going to take a few years to turn this franchise around, and the Kings need to be in the asset acquiring business. Taking on bad contracts is one way to do that, and Poeltl’s contract is also only guaranteed for $5 million in the final year. If you can get an extra first or two or a young prospect in return for taking that on, I think the Kings should probably do it. The same goes for guys like DeRozan, LaVine, Monk or Schröder. If the Kings can get some sort of asset to take on perhaps not the best deal, that’s worth it in the short term because this team needs to plan on where it’s going to be in a few years from now, not necessarily next year.
**Should Dylan Cardwell be starting?**
Maxime Raynaud has received a lot of praise for the work he’s been doing this season as a second round rookie, but undrafted rookie big man Dylan Cardwell might actually be a better option for the Kings to be playing and starting. Cardwell has been carving out a bigger and bigger role as of late, and it makes sense; Currently he’s the only Kings player to have a positive net rating. Cardwell gives the Kings a guy who does all of the little things on both end and never looks to score himself. He even showed off a bit of passing of late, finishing with a career-high 5 assists in the loss to the Pistons. Cardwell has quickly become a fan favorite, and if he doesn’t come out of this season with an actual NBA contract, I will be very surprised.
**Nique Clifford needs more time to shine**
One of the other reasons the Kings need to do their utmost to move on from some of these vets is to open up more time for guys like Nique Clifford (let alone Devin Carter, who has barely seen any playing time this season). Nique got the opportunity to start against the Pistons and had one of his better games of the season, scoring 15 points in 33 minutes. In fact, he has scored double digits in all but two games in which he has played at least 28 minutes (with one of those two games being a 9 point effort). I think Nique probably has the most talent of our rookie class this year, but he’s suffered from being behind the biggest logjam, whereas both Raynaud and Cardwell have had a much easier time of getting into the lineup thanks to the sheer lack of anyone in front of them. As the season goes on, we need to see more of this from Nique in order to determine if he’s going to be a part of this team’s future or not.
**Fans deserve better, or at the very least, cheaper**
The Kings made a bit of bad news this week when it was announced their game against the Miami Heat had an NBA season-low 11,381 in attendance. Now James Ham said that there was an [error in the reporting](https://x.com/James_HamNBA/status/2014155168213025252) and the attendance was actually 15,295 but everybody knows these attendance numbers are always juiced anyway. Long gone are the days of sellout after sellout, and it’s not hard to see why. The Kings have consistently put together a terrible product, and it’s getting more and more expensive to attend games year after year despite the product not getting any better. If the Kings want to get people back in the seats, they’ll have to build a better team, but in the meantime, they should lower prices across the board if they don’t want to see the arena get emptier and emptier as the season progresses.
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Upcoming Schedule:
* Tuesday, January 27th at New York Knicks
* Thursday, January 29th at Philadelphia 76ers
* Friday, January 30th at Boston Celtics
* Sunday, February 1st at Washington Wizards