Sacramento Kings star DeMar DeRozan said his team is in a ‘s–tty place’ emotionally following their 3-13 start to the 2025-26 season, per Chris Biderman of the Sacramento Bee.
“Don’t nobody want to lose the way we’ve been losing,” DeRozan said after the Kings’ 137-96 blowout defeat by the Memphis Grizzlies, per Biderman.
Thursday marked the Kings’ eighth straight loss, as well as the third defeat conceded by more than 30 points in that stretch.
“I think it’s just everything right now for us is just s–tty, honestly,” DeRozan said, per Biderman. “Sometimes when you’re in the deep end, it’s hard to hear anything. You’re just trying to swim your way out, one way or another.”
DeRozan played a season-low 15:22 in Thursday’s loss, finishing the game having shot 2-for-3 with seven points and two assists.
Fellow Kings star Zach LaVine shot just 4-for-10 from the field and 0-for-4 from deep and contributed eight points of his own.
The Kings are getting badly outscored with those two on the court so far this season. Sacramento has a net rating of minus-21.6 with both DeRozan and LaVine playing, per NBA.com.
Turning things around will start with those two players finding a more consistent way to contribute on both sides of the ball.
That is especially true given that the Kings will be without Domantas Sabonis for the near future. Sabonis is expected at to sit out least the next month after being diagnosed with a partial tear in his left knee meniscus.
DeRozan and LaVine are making more than $72 million combined this season, good for about 46.7 percent of the Kings’ 2025-26 cap, per Spotrac.
They’re going to need to play up to the standards set by those contracts in order to help the Kings turn things around, starting with Saturday night’s 10 p.m. ET road game against the Denver Nuggets.
