The Kings fell just short of eliminating the defending champion Golden State Warriors in Game 7 in their first-round NBA playoff series. Sacramento won 48 games this season and ended its 17-year playoff drought.
The season, by and large, was a booming success. However, there's still plenty of room for improvement.
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If the Kings want to take the next step in being contenders in the Western Conference, Kings general manager Monte McNair, who was named the 2022-23 NBA Basketball Executive of the Year on Wednesday, believes improving their net rating is a must.
"Our net rating was in the two to three range; that's going to have to improve," McNair told reporters Wednesday. "And so whether that comes from if we can somehow add to the No. 1 offense and get that to plus-five or plus-six, great, I think more likely that comes from the defensive end, just given where we were respectively on each end of the court. And [head coach Mike Brown] is going to always say our defense isn't good enough and that's number one too, which is what makes him great.
"But yeah, really our goal is going to be how do we improve -- whether it's maintain our offense and make our defense better? Does that come from internal improvement? Do we need something externally to help that? Can we improve both? That would be my goal and I think our offense showed a lot this year ... our defense at times showed what it can do."
McNair understands that if the Kings want to improve their net rating for the 2023-24 NBA season, he will need to find that balance this offseason between strengthening their defense without extracting too much of their offense.
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"You always want to continue to sure up your deficiencies, but you don't want to pull on one string and you lose another," McNair continued. "So we're going to have to do it in a way that we were able to put all the things we need on the floor for both offense and defense.
"So, yeah, I don't know, delicate balance. Everybody has the same challenge, but yes, we need to maintain and improve. We can't just make trade-offs that keep us in the same spot."
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These 2023 playoffs are a learning lesson for everyone in the organization, including McNair, who now knows what the team needs to go deep in the postseason and win an NBA championship.