Caption: With the Kings on rebuild mode once again, Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, and Malik Monk don’t need to be there. Besides, Sac is better off giving more minutes to their developing young guys.

The Sacramento Kings are rebuilding, but three of their main players are more built to help someone else contend.

The Kings went 22-60 last season, landed Darius Acuff Jr. with the No. 7 pick of the 2026 NBA draft, and have a bunch of other developing pieces and role players. The direction is pretty clear: Sacramento is looking toward the future.

That makes the situations of Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine and Malik Monk increasingly clunky.

Sabonis, now 30, is the biggest name of the bunch and arguably the player with the strongest case to move. He missed most of last season after undergoing surgery for a torn meniscus, but he’s still a two-time All-NBA big man who virtually averaged a triple-double in 2023-24. Sacramento reportedly explored deals involving him with Toronto and Charlotte, while a potential Sabonis-for-Jalen Duren deal with Detroit also came up this summer.

The problem? The Kings reportedly haven’t liked the offers enough to pull the trigger.

That’s understandable from Sacramento’s perspective. But from Sabonis’ perspective, spending his early 30s on a rebuilding team makes considerably less sense.

Then, there’s LaVine, who is entering the final year of his contract after exercising his $48.97 million player option. And here’s where things get particularly strange: Sacramento reportedly turned down a straight LaVine-for-Trae Young proposal from Atlanta because the Kings weren’t prepared to commit to Young long-term.

That’s actually a reasonable decision for a rebuilding team.

But it also shows why LaVine might be better off elsewhere. At 31, he needs a competitive situation where his scoring and shooting can matter, rather than spending another season as an expensive veteran on a team figuring out what it wants to be.

Monk’s situation is slightly different, but the same logic applies. He’s only 28 and remains a dynamic scorer and playmaker who could be a valuable sixth-man piece for a contender. Instead, Sacramento just added Ben Simmons–though who knows what role he has and how healthy he’ll be–and has Acuff, Nique Clifford, and Emanuel Sharp competing for backcourt minutes. Monk’s playing time could become even more crowded.

None of this means the Kings should simply give these players away, and they don’t need to. However, they have three players who could genuinely help teams trying to win now, while the franchise itself is trying to figure out what comes next.

Sabonis, LaVine and Monk don’t necessarily need Sacramento to be bad. They just need the front office to accept that they’re better suited somewhere else.