Sacramento is beaming about the Kings’ best start since 2004

LOS ANGELES – Here on Earth, the Sacramento Kings have been defined by the NBA’s longest current playoff drought, a 16-year run of losing seasons marked by unsteady ownership, coaching changes, draft busts and an overwhelming sense that they couldn’t keep pace with big-market rivals in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Seeking a new method for inspiring hope among his loyal but tortured fan base, Sacramento owner Vivek Ranadive turned to the boundless possibilities of space.

This fall, the Kings unveiled the “Victory Beam,” four massive lasers that shoot purple light high into the sky above the Golden 1 Center after every win. Fueled by Sacramento’s best start since 2004, the Beam has been an instant hit in real life and on social media. “Light the Beam!” chants are common at home games, and traveling Kings fans brought the extraterrestrial chorus to Los Angeles during a blowout win over the Clippers on Saturday. Fan-crafted Beam merchandise quickly popped up on Etsy, and rapper 50 Cent participated in a postgame lighting ceremony last week. The Kings players, now known as the “Beam Team,” have embraced the gimmick and the resulting good vibes.

“It’s funny that we have a lot of fans on the wave right now,” Kings guard Malik Monk said. “We have to keep playing hard for them so we can keep lighting the beam.”

The great irony of the Beam Team, though, is that its early success has been driven by grounded maneuvers that will probably limit the Kings’ longer-term playoff prospects. As other small-market teams such as the Minnesota Timberwolves and Cleveland Cavaliers executed blockbuster trades with an eye toward deep postseason runs, the Kings have pursued a more modest vision. Rather than aiming for the stars, general manager Monte McNair built a respectable and entertaining team that has a chance to secure the franchise’s first postseason berth since 2006.

Sacramento hasn’t opened a season this well or scored this efficiently since the days of Chris Webber and Peja Stojakovic. Entering Monday, the Kings are 14-10, giving them rare bragging rights in California as they sit atop the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers in the standings. Even without a franchise player like Stephen Curry, LeBron James or Kawhi Leonard, the Kings rank second in offense, sixth in assists and sixth in three-point attempts under new coach Mike Brown, who spent the past six years as a Warriors assistant. Indeed, they have won 11 of their past 16 games thanks to a balanced, up-tempo approach in which all five starters average in double figures and the bench ranks third in scoring.

“We have a lot of playmakers,” said Brown, who is Sacramento’s seventh coach in the past nine seasons. “Not the Chris Paul, ‘break you down and get you an assist’ type of playmaker, time after time after time. But guys who have a good feel on the offensive side of the floor who can pass, dribble and shoot. The spacing is there. That’s what makes this team unique, the depth and having players who have those three attributes.”

The key to Sacramento’s overhaul has been Domantas Sabonis, who arrived from the Indiana Pacers last February in a midseason trade for guards Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield. Acquiring the energetic 26-year-old center rebalanced the Kings’ starting lineup and allowed De’Aaron Fox, who is averaging a team-high 22.8 points per game, to share the burden of running the offense. Sacramento’s newfound collective approach uses the constant threats posed by Fox and Sabonis to generate catch-and-shoot opportunities for guard Kevin Huerter and forwards Harrison Barnes and Keegan Murray.

“The ball continues to find the open guy,” Fox said after a win over the Chicago Bulls on Sunday. “It’s very contagious playing that way.”

Sabonis’s passing skills and comfort playing on the perimeter have been crucial to unlocking an outside-in identity. The two-time all-star often brings the ball up the court after grabbing the defensive rebound, and he is skilled at finding the open man when defenses swarm him in pick and rolls. Meanwhile, his jump-shooting ability pulls interior defenders out of the paint, creating driving lanes for Fox and Sacramento’s other guards. Although he’s not quite a “point center” like Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Sabonis is averaging 17 points, 11.3 rebounds and a team-high 6.5 assists per game.

“My job is to get guys open and try to find them,” he said. “Every player would be happy to play with a guy like that.”

Of course, the Sabonis trade came at a steep price. Haliburton, 22, has emerged as a rising star and the NBA’s assists leader in Indiana, and the former lottery pick was traded less than halfway through his rookie contract. It’s easier to build a contender in the modern era around a franchise guard who can score efficiently and distribute at an elite level like Haliburton than an offensive-minded center with defensive limitations like Sabonis. The deal will expose Sacramento to second-guessing for the next half-decade, as players as promising as Haliburton are rarely moved so early in their careers.

In Sacramento’s defense, Haliburton and the 24-year-old Fox appeared destined for an endless tug-of-war for control of the offense, and the trade for Sabonis was followed up by cohesive moves.

McNair hired Brown, who had coached winning teams for much of his career, including James’ Cleveland Cavaliers and Kobe Bryant’s Lakers. The Kings then used the No. 4 pick to draft Murray, a polished 22-year-old forward who won Las Vegas Summer League MVP honors, over younger and more explosive prospects such as Jaden Ivey, Bennedict Mathurin and Shaedon Sharpe. Finally, the Kings landed Huerter, a sharpshooter with playoff experience, at a modest price from the Atlanta Hawks, and poached Monk, a quintessential sixth-man scorer, from the Lakers in free agency.

When the dust settled, the Kings could no longer be accused of lacking direction. Tanking for Victor Wembanyama, and the promise of championships well down the road, was out. Making an immediate run at the playoffs with a veteran-dominated rotation was in.

“I wasn’t going to take a job and ease into trying to build a team,” said Brown, who agreed to join the Kings during the Warriors’ 2022 title run. “We were going to build a team with what we had, and try to build it right and win right now.”

The Kings embark on a tough six-game swing through the Eastern Conference this week that will test their improved chemistry and subpar defense. A judgment on their quick-fix plan awaits down the road.

As with Chicago, which raced out of the gates in 2021-22 only to regress this season, Sacramento is trying to thread the needle by chasing wins without an A-list franchise player. Making the playoffs would be a sweet relief, but the Kings’ broader reputation could ultimately be decided by Haliburton, the players they bypassed to select Murray and the quality of the much-ballyhooed 2023 lottery, given their decision to go for it this year.

A final verdict on those moves will take years to play out, time the Kings didn’t think they had. Thankfully, the Beam Team is keeping that pesky pessimism at bay, at least for now.

“We’re putting it together,” Fox said. “We’re definitely trending upward.”