The Sacramento Kings recently ended their 16-year playoff skid during the 2022-23 season when they took the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors to seven games in their first-round series. While they came up short of advancing to the Western Conference Semifinals, last season proved to be a huge success for head coach Mike Brown and the Kings.

After years of sitting at the bottom of the NBA, Sacramento is ready to prove that they are a real threat. In fact, Brown doesn't just want the team to get back to the playoffs, but he is setting the bar high by claiming the Kings are real title threats.

“I've tried to tell our guys that the expectations, especially from our fans, are high,” Brown said on Monday, via Sean Cunningham from FOX40 News. “We showed we were a good team last year and even around the NBA world, the expectations are high. We went from one national TV game last year to 22… We have to understand and acknowledge that our expectations are high, but our fan's expectations are our reality.

“We expect to compete for a championship, so any of the noise that we hear out there, we are trying to attain that and more.”

Aside from the new energy and culture Brown has established in such a short time in Sacramento, the Kings' expectations are high because of the talent coming back. All-Stars De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis lead a roster that has retained its entire starting lineup from a season ago, and the Kings also added EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov during the offseason.

The Kings were the league's top offense a season ago, plus they have a lot more depth than people give them credit for. Davion Mitchell, Trey Lyles, Chris Duarte and Malik Monk are all key contributors who will hold big roles coming off the bench this upcoming year.

As crazy as it may be to think about, the Kings are one of the better teams in the Western Conference. This organization has built themselves into a contending threat and we should look no further than their playoff series against the Warriors to believe this. Sacramento absolutely has a chance to win their first playoff series since 2004, as well as go on a deep postseason run, during the upcoming 2023-24 season.