The Sacramento Kings had an underwhelming trade deadline, and general manager Scott Perry referenced 2027-28 as the season in which the team will be able to make some more moves because of more financial flexibility.
Sacramento has the 8th highest team payroll, which has resulted in the worst record in the NBA (12-44). This unintentional, ethical (whatever you want to call it) tank has been a sight to see.
Now, a new report from CBS Sports has ranked the Kings front office as dead last in the league. Just ahead of the 29th ranked New Orleans Pelicans front office. Here is what the report had to say about Sacramento slotting in at 30th:
“The Pelicans and Kings have run away with the two bottom slots, but New Orleans has talent evaluation as a redeeming quality. I’m not sure what the Kings do well, if anything. That’s as true on the court as it is off of it. They rank 28th in offense, 28th in defense and 28th in rebounding. They foul more than almost anyone and they even lose the turnover battle on average. What’s so startling about this is that, in the midst of one of the most egregious tank-offs in NBA history, the Kings weren’t even trying to be this bad. They signed Dennis Schröder to a contract that worked out so poorly that they had to give up Keon Ellis, one of the few desirable players on the roster, just to dump it. The irony of that is that they could have used a team-option to make Ellis a restricted free agent and re-sign him under favorable terms last offseason, but didn’t in order to keep his salary low enough to fit Schröder under the luxury tax line. They bungled this from every angle and wound up De’Andre Hunter, a contract Cleveland was eager to dump. Speaking of contracts teams were eager to dump, how’s Zach LaVine working out for them?”
Welp. The NBA Lottery is May 10. What could go wrong?