DeRozan boldly predicts Kings will make Western Conference finals run originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
star Kings forward DeMar DeRozan is high on his new team.
And the California native proved it by revealing a bold claim about Sacramento’s 2024-25 NBA season in a TikTok video shared by ESPN on Wednesday.
“My boldest NBA take for the season?” DeRozan asked out loud. “Kings [will reach the] Western Conference playoffs.”
Mini mic drop.
The Kings missed the finals last season after being eliminated from the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA Play-In Tournament.
DeRozan, who signed a three-year, $76 million contract with Sacramento in July, clearly isn’t putting any stock in the past. The 35-year-old instead is ready to compete.
Sacramento is poised to be special after pairing DeRozan with the quartet of De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Malik Monk and Keegan Murray. The team’s marquee acquisition should fit in nicely after averaging 24 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists during the 2023-24 NBA season.
DeRozan, feeling the hype, recently stoked the flame of excitement on “Podcast P” with Paul George.
“You always definitely want to be part of a contagious culture of an organization that wants to win,” DeRozan told Geroge on Monday. “When I looked at all that [this offseason]it just felt like it fit.”
Neither DeRozan nor Sacramento hoisted a Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. The likely future Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame selection and the Kings were all the way to the conference finals.
The DeRozan-Kings union could very well lead to either rewriting their title-less histories. DeRozan’s audacious goal of a conference finals appearance hasn’t happened since 2001-02 when Sacramento reached the Western Conference finals behind legends Mike Bibby and Chris Webber.
Sacramento only has reached the playoffs once (2022–23) since the 2005–06 season. You should dig out the The 1950-51 season of Rochester Royals records to find the franchise’s only league championship.
DeRozan plans to add another.