After Officially Signing Russell Westbrook, It Sure Feels Like The Sacramento Kings Have No Idea What They're Doing

Just a few days ago, I blogged about how still without an NBA home, there were reports that a team in the CBA was preparing to offer Russell Westbrook 4x his NBA salary (the minimum) to come overseas and play. This entire offseason/preseason it never made much sense to me as to why Russell Westbrook wasn't on an NBA roster, given the fact that we just watched him be a productive player in 2024-25 for the Nuggets. It's not like he was commanding a hefty salary or anything like that, and when you look around the rosters across the NBA, there are definitely teams out there with worse guards as part of their 15 man roster. It didn't make any sense
Well, it's as if Pat Bev may have spoken things into existence, because per Shams today, Russell Westbrook officially has his NBA home for the 2025-26 season
Alright, so it's great that some NBA team out there came to their senses and brought Westbrook in. Now, in terms of the actual team it was who did it?
Sometimes the KANGZ are going to KANG I guess. I'm not sure if their goal was to build a roster that would have dominated the NBA in 2019 or what
But I have questions. First up, is point guard even a need on this roster? They just gave Schroder 3/$44M (all guaranteed), they have Devin Carter and Malik Monk to run things in terms of the second unit, Zach LaVine/DeRozan can be offensive initiators in their lineups, so the need/fit is a bit of a question.
In terms of style, in the year 2025 it seems pretty insane to willingly produce lineups that are going to have some of the worst spacing in the NBA. DeRozan doesn't really space the floor. Sabonis barely takes 3PAs (1.4 for his career), Russ isn't exactly a floor spacer. So, what exactly is the plan there? Not only that, but I would say Zach LaVine's strengths are being on the ball. If he is not sharing the floor with Westbrook/DeRozan, that pushes him more to off off-ball role, which I'm not sure maximizes his strengths. I find this to be an issue while Keegan Murray is out injured, who is one of the Kings' better floor spacers.
After making so much progress in climbing out of the gutter as a franchise these last few years, it does feel like the Kings are hellbent on going right back to being the butt of the joke in the NBA. It's like they are operating as the Kings of old, which as we know, was a disaster.

But in some ways, perhaps watching this all play out is going to be the fun part. Maybe it's like when you drive by a car wreck and can't help but look. Because on paper? In the conference in which the Kings play in? Their roster building decisions make little to no sense, but that's why there's a potential for this all the blow up in hilarious fashion. It sucks for Kings fans who definitely thought the dark days were maybe finally behind them. I do feel for that fanbase given the hell they've been living for the last 20+ years, and who knows, maybe in some unforeseen prayer this all actually somewhat works? Given how basketball is played in 2025 I cannot imagine that will be the case, but we're about to find out.
On a side note, now that Westbrook has signed on with a team, that leaves Ben Simmons as really the biggest "name" still looking for an NBA home as we approach the start of the season. Now that the Kings are out as a potential option, I'm not sure who is left to take a flyer on Simmons, especially because he's letting it be known he believes he's too good for a minimum-level deal. Perhaps he should realize his situation in the league, and make the necessary adjustments to keep his NBA career alive, just like Westbrook has done as he now enters Year 18.