Written By Mauricio Segura // Image Created By: The Golden Bay Times Graphics Dept.
NOV 17, 2025
The Sacramento Kings are staring at one of the most defining decisions in their modern era. After years of tinkering, tweaking and praying that one more veteran scorer or short-term signing would magically transform them into Western Conference royalty, the writing is finally on the wall. Partial fixes are not enough. False hope is not enough. The Kings need a real rebuild, and honestly, it should have started yesterday.
The last time this team felt alive was the 2022 to 2023 season, when a surprising 48-win surge cracked open the longest playoff drought in the league. Fans lit the Beam, the city lit up with it and Sacramento felt like it had finally stepped out of purgatory. A fast-forward reveals a very different picture. The front office abandoned the youth-first momentum and swung for a veteran-heavy roster. In came Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroder, all accomplished names but all operating on timelines that did not match the team’s developmental arc. The result is a roster that looks good on paper but has struggled to defend, struggled to gel and struggled to establish anything resembling a long-term identity.
A rebuild is not a surrender. It is an admission of truth, and truth is something the Kings desperately need. It means recognizing that the foundation is crooked, the ceiling is too low and the smartest path forward is to take everything down to the studs. For Sacramento, the signs pointing toward this path are not subtle. They are blinking in neon.
One major issue is the timeline clash. Veterans capable of scoring in bunches do not help when the team lacks the defensive legs, the cap flexibility and the long-view planning required to compete with the likes of Denver, Oklahoma City, Minnesota and Dallas. Continuing to chase a win-now dream only delays the inevitable. At some point, the team has to admit it is trying to sprint on a treadmill.
Another issue is financial weight. Several of the largest contracts on the roster are limiting Sacramento’s options. Moving off those deals will hurt in the short term. Fans may grumble. Players may leave. Losses may spike. But pain is not the enemy. Stagnation is. The sooner the Kings unload burdensome contracts and free up space to acquire draft picks, young players and long-term pieces, the sooner they can rebuild a team with a coherent future.
What does that future look like? It starts with the youth that still has real upside, notably players like Keegan Murray who already have long-term extensions and growth trajectories. Build around them. Grow around them. Then cut away the clutter. Sacramento needs to adopt a culture based on defense, effort and team-first chemistry rather than relying on patchwork star hunting. They must draft smart, develop relentlessly and resist the urge to overcorrect every time the standings look ugly.
Some fans will argue that the city deserves winning now, that patience has been spent, that they cannot stomach another rebuild. They are right about the pain, but wrong about the solution. Winning now without structure is fool’s gold. Sacramento has tried shortcuts for years and every one of them has led back to the same place. Brief sparks. Long droughts. Endless frustration.
This time, the Kings can choose a different route. They can stop asking how to salvage this season and start asking how to build something that endures. A real rebuild, committed fully and executed intelligently, can deliver the stability and identity that Sacramento has chased since the early 2000s. It can give fans something worth believing in again. The window to make that choice is open now. It will not stay open forever.
Sacramento is tired of being the team in the almost column. Tired of the misfires, the questionable moves and the identity crises. A franchise rebuilt with youth, energy, defensive backbone and real direction could reignite the roar that once made this city one of the most feared home courts in the league. The only question left is whether leadership will finally take the plunge or cling to the old habit of half-measures.
Because at this point, half-measures are just another way of saying more of the same.
