An unfortunate MRI result confirms Keegan Murray's ankle sprain, sidelining the Kings' forward for up to four weeks. His development hits an unexpected roadblock.
As if the Sacramento Kings needed another devastating blow to this juncture in the 2025-26 NBA season, the franchise received a worrisome update on their fourth-year wing Keegan Murray.
Murray went down with an apparent lower leg injury during Sunday night's defeat at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks, leaving the contest in the third quarter.
Now, Murray's MRI results have confirmed a less-than-ideal outcome for the Kings' former No. 4 overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft.
Per Kings reporter James Ham, Murray will be out for an extended period to recover from an ankle sprain.
"According to a league source, Kings forward Keegan Murray underwent an MRI after exiting the game in the third quarter of Sunday night's game versus the Bucks," Ham shared via X on Tuesday evening.
"Imaging revealed a moderate left ankle sprain. Murray will be listed as out and will be reevaluated in 3-4 weeks."
In a brutal turn of events, the Kings should expect to be missing one of their more important developing talents for at least three weeks as he works to return from a moderate ankle sprain.
Though Murray had not put forth a very efficient 2025-26 campaign prior to going down with the injury, he'll be sorely missed.
After appearing in 19 contests this year, Murray had contributed 14.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists paired with a horrid 27.2% three-point shooting clip on 4.8 attempts.
His offensive struggles were apparent, but his gradual improvement as a reliable defensive piece on the wing did plenty to give the team a semblance of hope that the 25-year-old could pan out to be a solid NBA starter moving forward.
Murray swiped a career-high 1.2 steals before going down with the ankle sprain, but that figure could also be more of an indicator of his notable improvement as a team defender. Individually, his defensive rating per 100 possessions reached a career-worst figure of 120.
Sure, he still may have a ways to go with his development before he's ready to contribute to a competitive iteration of the Kings, but this was his time to do it. The 2025-26 season for the Kings can be considered a wasted one for plenty of reasons, but Murray receiving a critical chance to develop freely is not one of them.
The Kings will eventually get Murray back this season, but he'll need all of the opportunities he can get to act out as many real-time scenarios as possible before the Kings are fully eliminated from postseason contention.