The Sacramento Kings might be missing out on the postseason this year, but their development leaves much hope for what's to come. Head coach Dave Joerger isn't so worried by missing out on the playoffs, but would rather use this season much like the Denver Nuggets used a narrow end-of-season loss to build that team into one of the top contenders in the West.

“We want to build it like Denver,” said Joerger, according to ESPN's Zach Lowe. “We want sustained success so that when we do get in the playoffs — maybe it's not this year, maybe it's not next — we have the opportunity to harvest 50-win seasons for five years.”

Vice-president Vlade Divac has no regrets about previously calling the post-DeMarcus Cousins roster “a superteam, just young” earlier in June. “I believe that,” he said.

“These kids work hard. They have talent. When you have those things, there's no way you're not gonna succeed.”

Divac experienced success with this team once, along with Peja Stojakovic, another of the team's three assistant GMs; also along Bobby Jackson, an assistant coach; and Doug Christie, the new color commentator.

A Mike Bibby and Chris Webber short of that iconic Kings team that once challenged the Los Angeles Lakers for Western Conference supremacy, Divac and his former teammates know there's still work left to be done.

“We talk about it all the time: We have unfinished business,” Divac says. “I don't need this job. My mission was to make the Kings a contender again.”

This new iteration of the Kings, led by a spry core of De'Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley III could find some success sooner than later, having already built the right habits to etch themselves into the playoff picture for years to come.