2018 Tanking Rankings: Memphis Grizzlies and NBA’s Best of the Worst
By AJ Salah
7. Sacramento Kings
The Kings’ season began in such vintage Vivek fashion. A delusional attempt at a playoff run led to the signing of George Hill, among other functional veterans, under false pretenses.
Hill claims Scott Perry promised to assemble a competitive roster. Weeks later, Perry bolted Sacramento to become the Knicks’ GM, leaving Hill, Zach Randolph and Vince Carter with a bunch of both rookies and questions.
The realization dawned that the team was still terrible, and the Kings adjusted course with a youth movement. Hill saw limited minutes before being traded, while Randolph and Carter were frequent DNPs.
The season thus played out somewhat predictably. Sacramento was god-awful, posting the NBA’s second-worst net rating. However they still managed to win more games than five teams; a critical margin in this race. Rolling over in blowout losses unfortunately doesn’t count for lottery equity.
The Kings’ win total belies just how dysfunctional this roster looked at times, and their offseason playoff ambitions belied rational thought. They get demerit points for both, landing them close to the bottom of this race.