The Kings have their star and a borderline-star. The hardest part of building a championship team is done. They have a pass-first PG to get the ball to those two players. They have at least one great distance shooter and possibly two if the efficiency we saw from Ben can continue and maybe even improve. They have Kosta and Willie to be rim protectors as well as guys like Darren and Omri to play hard and smart off the bench. If this team can gel quickly (I believe they can because of the close relationship that some of these guys already have) they can easily be a playoff team.
Remember, the Kings started 9-6 and then for sure after the All-Star break it was full-on tank mode. Therefore, essentially, the absolute worst this team could have been was a 30-win team. Would it be safe to say that last year, if Boogie never got sick and Darren never got hurt and this front office never fired Malone and they decided not to tank, that they could have won 12 more games? I give non-tanking at least 3-4 games, keeping Malone at least 3-4 games, Darren staying healthy at least 3-4 games, and Boogie staying healthy at least 3-4 games. Everyone staying healthy with Malone and no tanking combined is worth at least 12 games to me, especially when the team started as well as they did against as brutal of a schedule as they did.
If we give the Kings 12 more wins last year, they are basically a .500 team. With that in mind, add Rajon Rondo in a contact year looking to get paid. Rondo knows as well as anyone that the PG is not just courted for his stats but for how much better they make the team. Rondo is looking for assists and wins. I believe he can deliver both. Marco adds a desperately needed shooter but no defense. However, the spacing that he provides for Cousins cannot be properly quantified. It will not be as easy to double-team Cousins, especially if Ben AND Marco are on the floor. Kosta and WCS are leaps and bounds better than Landry/JT/Evans. Landry's scoring, when healthy, off the bench from the PF position will be missed but I believe that it will be replaced with SG and SF scoring.
All of that should add to being around the 5th seed. However, it is hard to make a 20-game jump in one season. I believe the Suns did it a couple of years ago, so it is not impossible, but I voted for 42 wins. That puts us at .500 and I believe with the will-to-win within Karl, Rajon, and Boogie, with the playoff experience that Marco, Rudy, Rajon, and Kosta have, they willl push us into the 8th seed. Therefore, I predict PLAYOFFS!