Season Wrap: The 2024-25 Sacramento Kings

  • By Keston Paul

    Last Updated on June 4, 2025 12:20 am by Keston Paul | Published: June 4, 2025

    The Kings landed DeMar DeRozan in the offseason and agreed to an extension with Mike Brown. However, Brown was gone before the end of December and then De’Aaron Fox was gone at the trade deadline. Let us explore how all of that came about with the consequent impact on fantasy basketball.

    How’d It Go?

    That is a good question. The feelings could be mixed here, because the Kings’ ownership might be fine with being semi-competitive (I don’t know), but this season was far from ideal when it comes to their future. First, after then-head coach Mike Brown said in the preseason that Keon Ellis would begin the regular season as the starting SG, Kevin Huerter moved straight into the first unit when available and instead, Huerter was the starting SG on opening night. The misuse and treatment of Ellis under the rest of Brown’s tenure was head-scratching at times, as even with absences, a player like Doug McDermott (no offense to you Doug) would sometimes garner a start instead. Like, huh? From opening night until Brown’s firing on December 27, Ellis started four games and was third in the SG pecking order. In the middle of a five-game losing streak, the Kings’ front office decided that a change was needed as they sat 12th in the West with a 13-18 record.

    Doug Christie stepped into the interim head coach role and he leaned into Ellis much more, essentially viewing him as the sixth man and the fill-in starter for any absentee that was not Domantas Sabonis. The Kings rattled off a 10-2 record over the next few weeks with shorter rotations that leaned into their best players more. However, rumblings of De’Aaron Fox’s discontent began, though they were not substantiated until the trade deadline approached. Fox, who had received a lot of the blame in the media for the firing of Brown, was actually unhappy with the organization’s lack of stability and general decision-making after the coaching change. Fox wanted the Spurs and the Spurs wanted Fox, so the Kings made it happen. The Kings managed to get Zach LaVine in the three-team deal involving Fox in an attempt to at least remain semi-competitive.

    As the season progressed, Ellis’ role continued to expand and the Kings eventually secured the No. 9 seed with a 40-42 record before capitulating to the Mavs in the Play-In. The Kings’ first-round pick is technically slated for No. 13 in the draft but it was sent to the Hawks back in 2022 as part of a Kevin Huerter trade with top-12 protections so that means they do not own it. The Kings will head into the 2024-25 NBA Draft with only the No. 42 pick from the Bulls.

    Coaching

    Mike Brown and the Kings had some financial disagreements over an extension in the 2024 offseason, but eventually agreed on a three-year extension in June. However, a 13-18 start and being the No. 12 seed resulted in his firing on December 27 after a five-game losing streak. As explored earlier as well, Brown’s misuse of Keon Ellis was confusing and it was likely one of a few contributing factors to the Kings’ eventual decision.

    Doug Christie, who played for the Kings in five of his 15 NBA seasons and was an assistant coach with them since the 2021-22 season, took over as interim head coach and led the team to a 27-24 record the rest of the way and an eventual finish as the West’s No. 9 seed.

    Across the 82 games, the Kings had an offensive rating of 115.9 (7th), a defensive rating of 115.3 (22nd) and a net rating of 0.6 (15th). Their pace of 98.91 ranked 19th. Of course, some of Brown’s tenure affects those numbers but it does reflect the Kings’ general “averageness” as a team.

    Christie has already been instated as the full-time head coach at the time of writing, so he will have a full offseason and we can assume (or hope) that he will likely have a full regular season to show us his plans for this team.

    The Players

    Domantas Sabonis
    C, Sacramento Kings
    SeasonTeamGPGSMPG FGMFGAFG% FTMFTAFT% 3PTM3PTA3PT% PTSREBAST STLBLKTO
    24-25 SAC 70 70 34.7 7.5 12.8 59.0 3.1 4.1 75.4 0.9 2.2 41.7 19.1 13.9 6.0 0.7 0.4 2.9
    23-24 SAC 82 82 35.7 7.7 13.0 59.4 3.6 5.1 70.4 0.4 1.1 37.9 19.4 13.7 8.2 0.9 0.6 3.3
    22-23 SAC 79 79 34.6 7.3 11.9 61.5 4.1 5.5 74.2 0.4 1.1 37.3 19.1 12.3 7.3 0.8 0.5 2.9

    ADP: 14.8/8.5 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 17/24 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 20/19 (8/9-cat)

    Sabonis sank a career-best 0.9 triples per game in 2024-25 and a career-high 75.4% at the free-throw line. His .417 3PT% was the second-best of his career, but in his only better season, he attempted 0.2 triples a game so you could say this was his best 3-point shooting season on any real volume. His 2.2 3-point attempts per game were also the second-most of his career, again emphasizing that it was his best shooting season.

    That shooting touch represents the only real change as his numbers were almost identical to his previous season besides a drop from 8.2 assists per game to 6.0 assists per game. While he was a top-20 player per game, surprisingly, he was a second-rounder by totals. A 70-game season represented a bad run of health for Sabonis. Isn’t that a bit funny? It may actually be the biggest compliment to his sturdiness throughout most of his career and his availability as a fantasy producer.

    Zach LaVine
    SG, Sacramento Kings
    SeasonTeamGPGSMPG FGMFGAFG% FTMFTAFT% 3PTM3PTA3PT% PTSREBAST STLBLKTO
    24-25 SAC 74 74 35.2 8.4 16.5 51.1 3.2 3.9 82.5 3.2 7.2 44.6 23.3 4.3 4.2 0.8 0.2 2.8
    23-24 CHI 25 23 34.9 6.8 15.0 45.2 3.5 4.1 85.4 2.4 6.8 34.9 19.5 5.2 3.9 0.8 0.3 2.1
    22-23 CHI 77 77 35.9 8.7 18.0 48.5 4.7 5.6 84.8 2.6 7.1 37.5 24.8 4.5 4.2 0.9 0.2 2.5

    ADP: 62.7/68.7 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 32/48 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 54/67 (8/9-cat)

    This was a successful bounce-back season for LaVine both injury-wise and from a statistical point of view. While his ADP was around par with his per-game production, LaVine being extra valuable for fantasy by totals is where this season stood out.

    A .511 FG% represented a career-best mark, and as you can see, 23.3 points, 3.2 triples and 4.2 assists all improved on his numbers from a disappointing 2023-24 campaign. LaVine’s season was split into 42 games with the Bulls and 32 games with the Kings. His FG% was exactly the same with both teams but his FT% was better in Sacramento at .874 compared to .794 in Chicago. Despite playing 36.6 MPG with the Kings compared to 34.1 MPG with the Bulls, LaVine’s ancillary stats like rebounds (4.8 to 3.5), assists (4.5 to 3.8), and steals (0.9 to 0.6) were all lower in Sacramento. Overall, we can say that the changes were not significant enough for his full-season outlook to not represent his Kings stint, considering the FT% boost should have “balanced out” some minor drop-offs in other stats.

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    June 4, 2025, 12:15 am