The Sacramento Kings are in the midst of yet another losing season. The Kings are currently 22-38 and only 13th in the Western Conference. It seems like, right now, this franchise is going to miss a 16th postseason in a row.

Still, there is a lot of basketball to be played and it would not be smart to count any team, bar a few obviously tanking teams, out of the race. This is especially true given Sacramento just pulled off a blockbuster trade for Domantas Sabonis, giving up Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield in the process.

After this big trade, here are two burning questions for the Kings after the 2022 All-Star break.

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Burning Kings Questions 

1. How will Domantas Sabonis add to the squad right away? 

Since trading for the two-time All-Star and inserting him in the lineup, the Kings are 2-2. They convincingly beat both the Minnesota Timberwolves and Washington Wizards but lost to the Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls. That is not horrible, but the 24-point loss to a Nets squad missing all of its superstars was not pretty.

In the four games played with his new team so far, Sabonis is averaging 17.3 points, 11.5 boards, and 5.5 assists while shooting 57.4% from the field and 70% from the charity stripe, which are stellar numbers. With Haliburton gone and with De'Aaron Fox being more of a scorer than a facilitator, the 5.5 assists per game shine especially bright for Kings fans. Of course, as he gets acclimated to the team and the overall Kings environment, it will take Sabonis some time to put his play into the sixth gear.

Right away, we can state that his influence is positive, at least on the offensive end. The Kings are playing some solid basketball and Sabonis has a good on-court rapport with Fox, which is the absolute most important thing for the Kings and their fans. They invested a lot of resources in this partnership by trading away Haliburton, who was the most promising young player on the roster.

Sabonis has helped Sacramento's offense, which ranks just 21st overall with a 109.4 offensive rating but is at 113.1 in the last four games. The defense has not improved at all, but that is not a big surprise and there is obvious room for improvement.

2. Can Domantas Sabonis and De'Aaron Fox be the partnership of the future? 

In all honesty, the Kings are not really playing for right now. They are three and a half games behind the 10th-place Portland Trail Blazers. While the Blazers could fall off, especially without Damian Lillard and after their big trades, even then, there are two more teams vying for that last play-in spot. Those two teams are the New Orleans Pelicans, who just got McCollum, and the San Antonio Spurs.

Clearly, the Kings do not have a ton to hope for this season, but it is about the future for them. Fox is just 24, Sabonis is 25, and Davion Mitchell is 23. All of them will, if they remain part of these Kings, hit their prime at the same time and should make for a fine core, of course, complemented by a supporting cast of veterans and other potentially good players. The focus is clearly on Fox and Sabonis and they have been good this season, in limited time. Unfortunately, it might be a problem for the future.

Domantas Sabonis is an old-school big who does not have a strong jumper, so he needs space in the middle to operate. On the other hand, Fox is also not much of a 3-point shooter, so Sabonis might wind up clogging the lane for him. Ironically, the best two players for Sabonis actually were traded away for him, as both Haliburton and Hield are better shooters than Fox. While the offense has been strong so far since the trade, this big question about the shooting will be something to watch moving forward. As will the defensive issues.

The Kings have more questions than these, but these are the ones they need answers to as soon as possible. If the answers are negative for both, it will be a world of hurt for the front office and their management of the roster. They are already working from behind, as many fans did not appreciate Haliburton being included in the Sabonis trade.

Yet, if the Kings somehow make the play-in and Fox and Sabonis become a great pairing, the front office just made a genius move for the future. These couple of months could be critical for the future of the entire franchise.