On Thursday, the Sacramento Kings tipped off their 2024-2025 regular season against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The game also marked DeMar DeRozan’s — the team’s most significant offseason addition — first game as a member of the Kings.

How did the six-time All-Star fare in his new home? In this post, we provide an in-depth look at DeRozan’s debut and a letter grade for his overall performance.

In one glance, DeRozan did everything we have come to expect from him. He scored a lot of points (26), had a lot of free throw opportunities (14) and played a lot of minutes (42 minutes and 32 seconds).

The free throws were especially needed, as the Kings were 21st in free throw attempts per game last year and 26th in their ratio of free throw attempts to field goal attempts. Tonight, the Kings had twice as many free throw attempts as the Timberwolves (35 to 17), who finished eighth in free throw attempts last year.

Despite looking like a regular DeRozan show, it was quite an up-and-down performance. DeRozan started the game slowly, scoring just four points on 1-for-4 shooting from the floor. He also had a turnover after a miscue with teammate Keon Ellis (a highly underrated role player). However, in the middle quarters, DeRozan rebounded to score 14 points while shooting 50% on field goals during that time.

Then came the final frame. Over the years, DeRozan has built a reputation as a killer closer. However, this version of him was nowhere to be seen. DeRozan scored eight points, but he did so on 2-for-7 shooting (28.6%). The worst part is that the Kings desperately needed this version of DeRozan tonight as the team ultimately fell to the Timberwolves 117-115. If DeRozan had been just a little more efficient in the fourth quarter, the Kings would have walked away with a 1-0 score tonight instead of 0-1.

Overall, DeRozan’s debut went the way most first games with a new team go. There were moments of brilliance and moments of despair. In the long run, if DeRozan can play for 48 minutes like he did in the second and third quarters, the Kings will take care of business. But tonight that just didn’t happen.

Figure: C+