Is Kings center Maxime Raynaud the steal of the 2025 NBA Draft?
It’s starting to look that way after the 22-year-old, who turns 23 next month, put together his second consecutive 30-point performance in Sacramento’s 139-118 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night at Golden 1 Center, scoring 30 points in the defeat just two nights after dropping a career-high 32 against the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday.
“He’s smashed through the ceiling, pretty much,” Christie told reporters Thursday of Raynaud, whom the Kings selected No. 42 overall last June. “First of all, the kid is ready, and he wants the opportunity to continue to improve. Sometimes you get the opportunity and you’re not ready to seize it, and he’s seized the opportunity.”
The second-round pick’s 30 points Thursday came on 11-of-17 shooting from the field and 3 of 4 from deep, to go with four rebounds, two assists and one block in 36 minutes. In the game before, Raynaud shot 13 of 25 from the field with a pair of triples, adding nine rebounds, three assists and a block in what was a stellar 42-minute performance against Victor Wembanyama — his longtime friend — despite the loss.
Since Feb. 1, Raynaud is averaging 16.1 points on 60-percent shooting with 8.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. Over his last two explosive performances, the 7-foot-1 Frenchman has shot 5 of 9 from 3-point range — something Christie is elated to see, as it “expands his game” and makes the rookie a deep threat who also excels at getting to the rim.
His teammates are excited to see it, too, as fellow rookie center Dylan Cardwell and guard Daeqwon Plowden said after the game.
“It’s very exciting to watch,” Cardwell told reporters. “Especially watching him in college, in the summer, we knew it was something he had in his game, and for him to continue that down the line is going to be huge for us.”
“I think he’s just showing his growth,” Plowden said. “He’s very versatile on the offensive end, whether it be in the pocket, him with his floater in the paint or him stretching the floor, shooting the 3-ball. He’s showing that he’s very capable, and then just going forward, it’s more so now just showing the consistency with it.”
Raynaud entered the 2025-26 NBA season as Sacramento’s third center behind star big man Domantas Sabonis and backup Drew Eubanks, but injuries have paved the way for the former Stanford standout to make a statement in his rookie campaign and serve as a bright spot in an otherwise dismal Kings season.
He understands the circumstances, which he described as “crazy” after the Kings’ loss to the Spurs on Tuesday.
“I think I’ll look back at it once the season is over, to be honest,” Raynaud said after his career-high scoring night against San Antonio. “But definitely, we had a lot of injuries in our team pretty early on … so, obviously it’s not the most ideal situation. You want everybody to stay healthy. I think that’s the No. 1 thing.
“But at least for me as a rookie, that definitely opened up a spot that was not necessarily there when I came in at first. So I’m trying to take full advantage of it. But yeah, I mean, it’s just circumstances that really led to it eventually. You know, you you have your shot and you play at the level you want to play, so it keeps on rolling from there.”
The Kings currently have the NBA’s fourth-worst record in a season that, as Raynaud noted, has been marred by injuries. But the future certainly is bright thanks to veterans staying the course and providing a positive example for a promising young group — which includes one center many teams passed over in the draft.
“The season didn’t go the way that we want,” Christie said. “But at the same time, when you come to practice, when you come to those things, they have the right spirit. They have all those things about them.”