It wasn’t that long ago when we here at Black Sports Online discussed the fact that the Sacramento Kings were still “firmly in contention” for the number one overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. In the month or so since that article dropped, things have changed rapidly in California’s capitol city.
The Kings have played 11 games since the article and are a respectable 5-6 over that span much to the chagrin of the segment of their fans that are rooting for a full on tank job. Four of those five wins have come against fellow lottery contenders in the Utah Jazz, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, and most recently the Brooklyn Nets.
After this stretch, the Kings now own the fourth-worst record in the NBA and have seen their odds for the number one pick odds from 14% to 12.5% and their top-four odds dropped down to 48.1% from 52.1%. During this relatively successful period both head coach Doug Christie and GM Scott Perry have fielded questions about tanking and both have spoken against that by saying that “the Kings will never tank” as long as Christie is in Sacramento.
Some fans believe that this is a short-sighted approach by Christie and that the team needs to prioritize the future by doing their best to lose as many of their upcoming games as possible. To Christie’s credit, he has done all he can to focus on the future by playing youngsters like Maxime Raynaud and Nique Clifford big minutes and these guys just happen to be thriving in the current circumstances.
With 10 games left in the regular season and seven of them on the road thanks to the NCAA Women’s Tournament taking over the Golden 1 Center, the Kings are in great position to continue their climb towards the bottom of the standings. Most of the games are against teams vying for playoff or play-in positions so that should help in their pursuit of the top pick in the draft.
So in short, the Kings do need to stop winning games to help bolster their odds of getting the #1 pick but they have some breathing room in the bottom four with Utah 2 games ahead and Dallas 4 games ahead in the standings. Even if they do end up outside the top four in lottery odds we know that they can still get a top 2 or 3 pick and sometimes that is a more advantageous position in a draft with no clear cut #1 pick.
