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The Sacramento Kings found themselves with some chances to advance to the postseason during the 2020-21 NBA season. However, the team was not good enough and once again fell eliminated in the regular season.
Even though the Sacramento Kings were 10 games under .500, the team finished just two games out of the NBA's Play-In tournament places, in 12th place in the Western Conference. Closing the season with a three-game losing streak definitely did not help Luke Walton's Sacramento Kings on their quest for the Play-In, but the season was not a total disappointment.
The Sacramento Kings have been flirting with a .500 winning percentage in the last three seasons, but the 2020-21 NBA campaign was their 15th consecutive season with a losing record. Sacramento's most recent season with a winning record was the 2005-06 campaign under coach Rick Adelman.
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The team showed some promise last year, mainly with De'Aaron Fox playing at a high, possibly All-Star, level. Harrison Barnes, Buddy Hield, rookie Tyrese Haliburton and Richaun Holmes were also top performers for the Sacramento Kings on offense, but another losing season was the end result of their efforts on the court.
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In this article, we will give you five things that went wrong for the 2020-21 Sacramento Kings.
Without further ado, let us start.
#5 Losing streak to end the regular season
The Sacramento Kings were in contention to enter the Play-In tournament until the final week of the regular season. Before going into the details of the Kings' season, let us just say that a three-game losing streak to finish the 2020-21 NBA regular season was the bottom line as to why they missed the Play-In.
Beyond the team's longstanding deficiencies throughout the regular season, losing the final three games (twice against the Memphis Grizzlies and one versus the Utah Jazz) sealed Sacramento's year.
They were on a roll before that, having taken six victories in the seven games preceding the end-of-year skid. However, the Sacramento Kings could not take advantage of the San Antonio Spurs' own losing streak and finished two games back.
#4 Marvin Bagley III has not unlocked his potential with the Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings selected Marvin Bagley III with the second pick of the 2018 NBA Draft. Yes, ahead of Luka Doncic and Trae Young. Bagley's main problem, however, was not that he was picked ahead of those stars, but that he's been unable to stay on the court consistently and also struggles on the defensive end.
Despite having career averages of 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game (while playing only 25 minutes per game), Bagley has missed 108 games throughout his first three seasons and has a career Defensive Rating of 113.
While the defensive struggles can be solved with a little more energy on that end, the unfortunate injury-prone characteristics are a concern. Though the Sacramento Kings might look to move on from him, they have to take into consideration that his talent could be unlocked elsewhere and come back to hurt them, but the decision could be sensible at this point.
#3 Sacramento had an unreliable bench
The Sacramento Kings had a solid offense in the 2020-21 NBA season led by De'Aaron Fox. The offense ranked 11th in Offensive Rating with 113.6 points scored per 100 possessions, but the bench did not have much to do with that, even with rookie Tyrese Haliburton playing tremendously.
On the other end, the Kings had a tragic defense, and the bench had a lot to do with it too.
Offensively, the Sacramento Kings' ranked only 25th in the NBA, though they had decent effectiveness from the field. The bench unit was 25th in plus/minus, at -2.4, and was not great defensively. They ranked last in defensive rebounds per game, 15th in blocks, and 13th in steals.
#2 Rebounding
The Sacramento Kings were not a good team in the rebounding area, which is a simple but important aspect of the basketball game. The Kings did not have a single player averaging at least nine rebounds per game, and were last in the entire NBA in rebounds per game as a team.
Moreover, they allowed the 11th-most rebounds per game to the opposition. The Kings were last in defensive rebounds per game and 22nd on offensive boards.
The advanced stats also proved the point regarding the Sacramento Kings' rebounding, as they were 29th in Defensive Rebound percentage and 21st in Offensive Rebound percentage.
#1 The Sacramento Kings had the worst defense in the NBA
Bottom line, the Sacramento Kings had the worst defense in the entire NBA. The team ranked 30th among the 30 NBA teams in Defensive Rating after allowing 117.2 points per 100 possessions to the opposition.
Usually, the team with the worst Defensive Rating in the entire NBA wins around 20 games or less in a 72-game season, and the reasons for the struggles come from everywhere on the court.
But the 2020-21 Sacramento Kings' glaring issue was solely on the defensive end. The team won 31 games even after posting the worst defense in the NBA, a rare 'feat' that last happened in the 2009-10 season, when the Toronto Raptors won 40 games while having the worst Defensive Rating in the league.
