The Sacramento Kings are in a free fall less than one month into the 2025-26 season after dropping to 3-9 following a 133-100 loss to the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday night. Sacramento has now lost three of its last four games by at least 27 points and is off to its worst 12-game start since the 2017-18 campaign.
“I was embarrassed,” Kings coach Doug Christie said. “I wish I could’ve put on the jersey. At 55, I would’ve showed you better than that. At least I’m going to use all six fouls. I can’t move, but I’m going to foul the shit out of somebody.”
Sacramento was out-rebounded 45-35, committed 20 turnovers and was decimated in the fast-break points category to the tune of 33 to eight. Atlanta led by as many as 44 points despite star guard Trae Young not even being in the lineup.
The Kings were coming off a 14-point loss to the Denver Nuggets and had lost their two previous games by 27 and 31 points to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder, respectively. The Kings have lost their nine games by an average of 15.3 points.
“Put on a jersey, represent it properly,” Christie said. “… I’m f—ing embarrassed. Unacceptable. Period. It is. This is a simple one. This ain’t even hard. Sometimes you come up here and you try and figure out ‘well, you know, maybe I go look back and look at [the tape].’ I don’t need to look at no tape. Probably won’t look at it. I’ve seen it once live. Damn if you want to look at it again, but I will.”
More changes to the starting lineup coming?
Christie saw his interim tag removed earlier this offseason after taking over for former Kings coach Mike Brown midway through the 2024-25 campaign. Christie, best known for being a tenacious defender during his 15-year playing career, was a key part of the Kings’ core during the early 2000s. He joined as an assistant coach in 2021 before taking over the franchise following the sudden firing of Brown.
During his first season as the full-time coach, Christie has mixed up the starting lineup often with the hope of finding stability. Through the first 12 games of the season, the Kings have rolled out nine different starting lineups. Part of the reason for the major shakeup on a nightly basis is trying to find a lineup combination to account for the loss of forward Keegan Murray, who hasn’t played a game yet after undergoing surgery on his thumb last month.
Sacramento rolled out one of its smallest starting lineups earlier this month, which included Russell Westbrook, Dennis Schröder, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis. With LaVine out against Atlanta, he was replaced in the starting lineup by Precious Achiuwa, who signed with the team earlier this month.
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That size — or the lack thereof — was on display against a bigger and more physical Hawks lineup Wednesday night. The Kings have been searching for another playable forward to slot next to Murray since he was drafted in 2022, but they still haven’t found one. It’s part of the reason why the Kings explored a possible sign-and-trade with the Golden State Warriors earlier this offseason for Jonathan Kuminga.
Still, less than a month into the season, Christie is still looking for answers and a consistent lineup. And if you thought more changes weren’t on the horizon, you would be mistaken. Christie was asked about making more lineup changes after the bench unit outscored the starters 55-45, which included a team-high 20 points for Keon Ellis.
“You’ve got to,” Christie said. “Those guys are minus-31, minus-38, minus-34, minus-20. You got to.”
What has gone wrong for Sacramento so far?
The Kings had a logjam at the guard position heading into the season after signing Westbrook days before the first game and adding Schröder via sign-and-trade earlier this offseason. Additionally, Sacramento returned LaVine, DeRozan, Malik Monk, Devin Carter and Ellis, and added Nique Clifford in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft.
On paper, the Kings have a roster of veterans who have all achieved individual success in the league. However, the core together makes little sense on the basketball court because of their non-complementary and redundant skill sets. It is part of the reason why the Sacramento Kings could be staring down a possible fire sale at the trade deadline and a full-on rebuild with a lookahead to a loaded 2026 NBA Draft.
Ellis, who has been Sacramento’s most consistent defender at the guard position during the last three seasons, has been in-and-out of the rotation through the first dozen games. Ellis has played mostly in garbage time during the last few games after starting 49 games the previous two seasons. Ellis not cracking the rotation on a nightly basis is a byproduct of a flawed roster that is heading toward another lottery appearance.
“Yeah, it’s a number’s game,” Christie said earlier this month. “There’s a big logjam there, so night to night it could be different. It’s not going to get any easier when we get Keegan back.”
Christie’s postgame rant and frustration sum up what the last two and a half years have been like for the Kings since breaking the longest playoff drought in North American sports following a 48-win season during the 2022-23 campaign. Since then, Sacramento has lost in the play-in tournament in back-to-back years and saw face-of-the-franchise, De’Aaron Fox, exit via trade earlier this year.
The reality for the Kings is simple: Do you stay with the status quo, continue to put a bandage on a broken product that isn’t fixable, or look in the mirror and face the reality of having to hope the lottery balls come up in your favor to land a franchise-altering draft pick? The answer to that question could determine the outlook for Sacramento by the end of this decade.
