The Sacramento Kings have finally made the turn from being one of the sorriest franchises in the NBA to being one of the most exciting young teams in the league.

Kings head coach Dave Joerger believes that this Cinderella run of theirs is just the beginning.

“We’re playing hard and we don’t quit,” Joerger said, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “What we’re building here, we will reap the rewards of this for many years to come, not many years from now, but going forward. If this is who we are, and I believe it is, we’re a tough out (in a playoff series) and Sacramento is a tough place to play if you’re a visiting team. We’ll keep coming at you.”

The Kings, which has the longest active playoff drought in the NBA, is trying to make its first playoff appearance since 2006. They currently sit at ninth place behind the San Antonio Spurs with a 31-31 record.

Entering the season, many had predicted the Kings to be non-competitive and hover at around 30 wins. But so far, Sacramento has surprised the league as they have vaulted themselves in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race.

The 2018-19 version of the Kings has been completely different from what we've seen from them over the past years. The emergence of De'Aaron Fox as a legitimate star guard and Buddy Hield as a consistent and dynamic scorer has helped the Kings become one of the most exciting teams in the league.

Moreover, the Kings play hard every night and have showed that they can go toe-to-toe with the league's best. This was on full display in their grueling four-game season series against the Golden State Warriors. Despite getting swept in all four encounters, the Kings never lost by more than five points against the defending champs.

The togetherness and toughness that they've showed this season have certainly earned them the respect as a threatening first round opponent for anyone in the West.

Nonetheless, as Joerger alluded to, this is just the beginning Sacramento. No matter what happens this season, whether they ultimately make the playoffs or not, the Kings will surely be a consistent problem for Western Conference squads in the near future.