The Sacramento Kings have been, somewhat intentionally, one of the worst teams in basketball this year. They are vying for a top selection in the 2026 NBA Draft, and their latest pair of moves suggests that they will have a very good chance at one. Both Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine are done for the season.
Sacramento Kings aim for top pick with injury updates
The Sacramento Kings are shutting down both Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine, per ESPN. They have both undergone surgery as of Wednesday, and they will not recover in time to play in the final handful of games in the 2025-26 season.
For Sabonis, this has been a nagging issue. The big man suffered a meniscus injury in November and missed 27 games. He rehabbed and returned for eight games, and he was pretty productive. However, since the Kings are 12-44, there’s no sense in trotting an ailing player back out for 27 meaningless games.
Sabonis’ focus is on next season, and the Kings’ is, too. They already have the worst record in basketball and have lost 14 straight. The losses should continue to pile up without their franchise star.
It’s a similar situation for LaVine. He played 39 games prior to the All-Star break, but he has been absent from five of the last 10 games and has decided that surgery is the best option for his hand. He, like Sabonis, is looking ahead.
Both LaVine and Sabonis, because of their production, age, and contracts, were included in trade rumors this year. It would not be a surprise if the rebuilding Kings move on with younger players this offseason.
They are both costly, though. LaVine has a $48.9 million player option he’s going to opt in to. On the other hand, Sabonis has two years and $94 million left on his contract. Those are both albatross-level contracts. However, they’re both talented.
In the case of Sabonis, he’s still good enough for a team to justify taking on the contract, and two years of team control could be valuable. For LaVine, he’d essentially become an expiring contract, so a rebuilding team might be more than willing to take that on for some draft capital or young pieces.
Is this tanking?
This is about as ethical a tanking as you are going to see. Whether or not Zach LaVine or Domantas Sabonis needed to be shut down for the season remains to be seen. The Sacramento Kings are probably just taking advantage of some nagging injuries to improve their chances in the lottery.
The Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers were just fined for player management in what the league viewed as tanking. The league didn’t like sitting healthy players, and the Jazz, somewhat ironically, shut down Jaren Jackson Jr. for the year with surgery not long after.
The NBA can’t expect teams to use players out for the year, so the Jazz have essentially hampered their ability to win games by shutting Jackson down. Though LaVine and Sabonis weren’t quite on the same level, losing them does give the Kings a chance to really stack losses.
For now, the NBA cannot do anything about this. The league is desperately trying to come up with something, including removing draft picks or abolishing the draft entirely. However, there’s nothing they can do about season-ending injuries, especially at this stage of the year.
With less than half the season left, injuries now are almost all season-ending, so teams can shut down players without drawing the ire of Adam Silver. The Kings’ stars were definitely ailing. However, no one knows if they’d have pushed through if the Kings were in the playoff hunt. It’s moot either way.
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