24. Sacramento Kings
You can forgive Kings fans for having some pep in their step when last season ended.
The Boogie Cousins cloud is gone, and there finally seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Some young talent has started to emerge, a few savvy vets have joined the party, the team played hard for first-year coach Dave Joerger, and D’Aaron Fox looks the part. Compared to the last fifteen seasons of Kings basketball, all of the above is cause for a parade.
Alas, it’s still the Kings. Now that Scott Perry has departed to New York, it’s tough to trust anyone calling the shots here to behave like a functional, non-crazy town rational actor, let alone make smart basketball decisions. Even before they got the rep they’re starting to shed, this was never a marquee free agent destination. They also lack a single sure thing on the roster.
The best that fans can hope for – other than a change in ownership – is that the team is good enough by the end of 2019 that the unprotected pick they gift-wrapped to Philly doesn’t come back to haunt them for years to come.
Path to Glory: All of the kids – Skal, Fox, Buddy – take a step forward this year while still losing lots of games, Harry Giles reclaims his former #1 recruit form, the team wins the 2018 lottery, and they become a team to truly fear starting around 2020.