The Kings Are Already Hitting the Panic Button on Their Starting Lineup

The Sacramento Kings are hitting the panic button before Halloween. According to Underdog NBA, Sacramento is rolling out a new starting five of Darius Acuff Jr., Zach LaVine, De'Andre Hunter, Precious Achiuwa, and Domantas Sabonis for Thursday's matchup against the Pelicans.

You do not shuffle the deck this aggressively in late October unless the cards you were holding caught fire. And for the Kings, they absolutely did. Sacramento is sitting at a miserable 0-3, having just been blown off the floor by the Spurs in a 130-103 disaster.

"Underdog NBA reported the lineup change for Thursday's game."

Before that, they dropped games to the Trail Blazers and Grizzlies, giving up 128 and 123 points respectively. If you are doing the math at home, that is a defense currently offering less resistance than a wet paper towel at a car wash.

Inserting Achiuwa and Hunter into the starting group alongside Sabonis feels like a desperate plea for some frontcourt stability and defensive length. LaVine is still out there to get buckets, and handing the point guard keys to Acuff Jr. shows the coaching staff is willing to try anything to find a spark.

For anyone eyeing the betting markets, this rotation blender makes things incredibly volatile. Sabonis is still going to get his usual touches, but the usage rates and minute distributions for the rest of this group are suddenly a giant mystery box.

We will see if this new mix can actually string together a few stops against New Orleans on Thursday. If they get run out of the gym again, the vibes in Sacramento are going to get very dark, very fast.