For the first time in nearly two decades, the Sacramento Kings will finish an NBA regular season with a winning record. Despite that, star guard De’Aaron Fox and his teammates are not satisfied.
Fox recently spoke about the Kings’ goals this season and made it clear that they are pushing for something greater.
“I don’t think anybody on our team coming into the season was like, ‘Oh, we (just) want a winning record,’” Fox said. “But I think it’s good for the franchise, it’s good for the city, it’s good for the fan base, to finally get that out of the way. But for us, we know that we still want to do bigger things.”
Fox’s message came after the Kings defeated the Brooklyn Nets, 101-96. The Kings currently have the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference with an overall record of 42-27. The Kings sitting at the No. 2 seed seemed pretty much unimaginable at the onset of the current campaign.
The last time the Kings made the playoffs was in the 2005-06 campaign, which was also the last time they had a winning season. It’s been an era of disappointment for the team and its devoted fans, but it looks like a new era of Kings basketball has arrived.
Fox is helping lead the way for the Kings, averaging 25.5 points, 6.1 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game, but he is far from the only player making a difference. Domantas Sabonis has been dominant, putting up 19.0 points, 12.6 boards and 7.1 assists per game.
Other key contributors have been Harrison Barnes, Kevin Huerter, Keegan Murray and Malik Monk. Those six players are certainly going to consume a large portion of the playing time during the playoffs.
When it comes to the playoffs, though there is definitely a shortage of experience on the Kings roster, there seems to be no shortage of confidence.
Fox seems really confident about his team’s chances going forward, but even if this season doesn’t end in a deep playoff run or NBA championship for the squad, there is no doubt that Sacramento’s 2022-23 season will be considered a major success.
It will then be up to Fox and the rest of the roster to make sure that this season does not end up becoming just a flash in the pan.
