Beam me down

The Sacramento Kings are once again the bleakest franchise in the NBA.

Good morning. Let's basketball.

The Sacramento Kings are 3-11, No. 14 in the West and No. 26 in the NBA. The Kings are No. 25 in offense despite being built mostly around scorers and offense-first players (Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Malik Monk). The Kings are No. 27 in defense. Home attendance is falling, head coach Doug Christie is getting more defensive and smug in response to criticism, fans are lambasting rotation decisions, national media figures are laughing their tails off and the Kings are straight-up, 100% embarrassment. Again.

Three years after a stunning turnaround season under Mike Brown, two years after the rest of the West caught back up and showed the Beam Team in a different context, one year after the Kings imploded under the weight of a couple seasons of unprecedented success, Sacramento is back where it has belonged for the past two decades: the bottom.

The culprit? Hubris. Hubris hubris hubris hubris.

The Kings traded Tyrese Haliburton for Sabonis much to the chagrin of the world, made the playoffs and thought they were geniuses. So they made more bold moves. They prioritized veterans, like DeRozan, thinking they were close to something special instead of a beneficiary of a down year for multiple teams. They grew tired of Brown for some reason, and fired him thinking it'd help smooth matters over with their star De'Aaron Fox, but that warped into being seen as blaming Fox for the Brown firing, which alienated Fox and forced the team to trade him (and Harrison Barnes) for LaVine, which left a team that four years ago had Fox and Sabonis (and Davion Mitchell, for good measure) without a single NBA point guard.

The Kings soured on the general manager who built the Beam Team and fell victim to ownership's star-chasing, so the Kings hired a GM who had jilted said ownership a few years prior. Ownership then had some role in encouraging or allowing the new GM to chase a star.

Haliburton? We can do better. The Beam Team? We can do better. Brown? We can do better. Monte McNair? We can do better. Fox? We can do better. And so on and so on.

The Kings almost never do better, and they are almost never patient, and it always leads back to the status quo, which is here in a place without hope.

I often think back to the last pre-Beam season with some hope in Sacramento: the 2018-19 season. That was the sophomore season for Fox and Bogdan Bogdanovic, and also Buddy Hield's second full season in Sacramento. The Kings traded for Barnes at the deadline as a sort of "pre-free agency" acquisition. Willie Cauley-Stein was the starting center; Nemanja Bjelica, Iman Shumpert (traded away at midseason) and a rookie Marvin Bagley III played major roles. I had self-exiled from the fandom by that point, but many hardcore Kings fans remained quite salty about the team passing over Luka Doncic in that 2018 draft to take Bagley, allegedly because of some personal feud between GM Vlade Divac and Luka's dad. But the team, playing under Dave Joerger, was pretty good! Sacramento remained loosely attached to the Western Conference playoff race deep into the season, the core was fairly young, the future looked relatively bright ... for the Kings. They finished 39-43, the team's best record in 13 years.

Vivek Ranadive's Sacramento Kings responded by firing Joerger so they could hire Luke Walton as head coach. "We can do better." Walton had been fired by the Lakers after three losing seasons. Joerger's Kings actually finished ahead of Walton's Lakers – which featured LeBron James – in 2018-19. Alas. Walton's best record in Sacramento: 31-41. "We can do better."

Bogdanovic lasted one additional season in Sacramento after 2018-19 before the Kings completely botched his restricted free agency. "We can do better." The Kings let Cauley-Stein – an imperfect center, to be sure – walk after the '18-19 season and replaced him with Richaun Holmes. "We can do better." The Kings eventually traded Bagley while still on his rookie deal for Donte DiVincenzo ... and then let DiVincenzo walk without compensation in the very next offseason. The team drafted Haliburton, the team drafted Mitchell. Haliburton and Hield were traded away for Sabonis. Mitchell was traded away for literally nothing. Fox and Barnes were traded away for LaVine. And so on. And so on. Sabonis will be traded away for, who knows?, Ja Morant or Zion Williamson or Kyrie Irving or Kyle Kuzma or Michael Porter Jr. or Rui Hachimura or Jerami Grant or Paul George or Miles Bridges (I will burn every piece of Kings merchandise I have to ash and burn that ash again if Miles Bridges ends up on the Kings). LaVine will languish. Keegan Murray – Keegan Murray! another good draft pick who is now on a huge contract and hasn't played this season, leading sycophants to suggest he and a softer schedule will help the team turn around its season! one of these sycophantic voices lives deep in the recesses of my mind begging to be freed! – will languish, a modern day Omri Casspi in lieu of a modern day Peja Stojakovic. DeMar DeRozan will escape. Russell Westbrook will go as unnoticed as Russell Westbrook can ever really go. Keon Ellis will end up playing much more for a much better team. And so on. And so on.

It is not hubris to want more and want better and think better is possible despite evidence to the contrary. It is hubris to look out at a world that is telling that you are dead wrong and should re-think everyone and telling that world, No, I Am Right, I Will Prevail, It Is You – You Being Everything – That Is Wrong. Doug Christie, head coach and cars salesman, recently said this:

“Change is hard…but we understand we’re not there yet. But we’re gonna work at it like crazy…buckle up. The pain of Kings fans…know that I, who experienced that pain, we’re gonna get it right. To all the haters, keep that energy. While you’re doing that, we’re gonna be coming.”

The Kings are 3-11, love. The hater in question is Reality. The hater in question is The Scoreboard. The hater, in this case, is purely objective. Christie's sentiment makes this quote a perfect encapsulation of the Sacramento Kings' core belief:

No, Reality, You Are Wrong. We'll Prove You Wrong. Just Wait. Eventually You Have To Be Wrong. Just Wait.

In other news, the Kings visit the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. What a good opportunity to see if Reality, the core hater of the Sacramento Kings, is able to keep its energy one more night.

What Subscribers Received This Week

Our beloved paid subscribers get an issue of GMIB every weekday. Here's what we published since the last free newsletter a week ago.

• A treatise on the Pelicans' rampant mismanagement and terrible decision to bring a coach they didn't trust into the season
• How the Warriors and Spurs, polar opposites in structure, can upset the chalk in the Western Conference
• Why the USA vs. USA vs. The World All-Star format is going to be a must-watch competitive trainwreck
• All hail Nikola Jokic, possible top-5 player all time

Plus every issue includes highlights and recaps from most games, which is the main draw of the newsletter, and usually some shorter takes on the news of the day. Consider it a quenching salve for NBA FOMO.

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On with the newsletter.

Scores

Warriors 113, Magic 121 – Orlando is 7-2 since their dreadful start. More importantly, Orlando is No. 6 in defense over that span – that's more like it – and now sits No. 13 overall on that end. The Magic are No. 20 in offense, which is also more like it ("it" being long-established limits on the Magic's offensive prowess no matter what the team does).

Celtics 113, Nets 99 – Quick question about the 2026-27 Celtics: where are they going to get a center? The team-building challenge Brad Stevens faces after slashing salary for the gap year – which sure looks like it will end up with a play-in berth – is wildly intriguing.

Pistons 120, Hawks 112 – Eleven straight for the best-performing team in the East and the best story in the league. The Pistons never trailed. Detroit's doing all this with Cade Cunningham – who is playing at an All-NBA level overall – shooting much less efficiently than last season, and with the team missing Tobias Harris and Marcus Sasser and Jaden Ivey and Caris LeVert, who are all solid rotation players at worst. This is a wildly impressive start, and the East might have another legitimate contender to go to the Finals. At some point we need to take that potentiality seriously. The time is now.

Grizzlies 101, Spurs 111 – Victor Wembanyama is out 3-4 weeks. Stephon Castle is out a bit. Hand it over to the professionals.

Ah, two familiar faces. I'm not mad. Please don't put in the newspaper that I got mad.

Jazz 126, Lakers 140 – LeBron James enters Season 23.

Keyonte George was on fire early but the Lakers, who are really good, took control. Luka Doncic is an incredible offensive force.

Suns 127, Blazers 110 – Do you think Mike Budenholzer watches Suns games and sees how hard these dudes are playing and throws stuff at his TV? How many TVs do you think Mike Budenholzer will go through just watching the Suns this season?

Schedule

All times Eastern.

Rockets at Cavaliers, 7, ESPN
Hornets at Pacers, 7
Raptors at Sixers, 7
Warriors at Heat, 7:30
Wizards at Timberwolves, 8
Nuggets at Pelicans, 8
Kings at Thunder, 8
Knicks at Mavericks, 9:30, ESPN
Bulls at Blazers, 10

Be excellent to each other.