Are the Sacramento Kings playoff-bound?

The last time the Sacramento Kings played in a playoff game, Thunder forward Kevin Durant was still in high school. The Kings own the second longest active playoff drought of eight seasons, dating back to 2006. So any success the team finds is, with good reason, met with skepticism. But this season looks like it could be different. The Kings own a relatively impressive 5-3 record, good for the fifth seed in the brutally tough Western Conference. Until a strange loss against the injury-ridden Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, the Kings managed to go on a five-game winning streak against some formidable opponents like the Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers and the Denver Nuggets. Last season, the Kings had an abysmal record of 28-54 despite some impressive individual statistics. DeMarcus "Boogie" Cousins, the erratic franchise centerpiece, was doing "Boogie" things, posting career highs in minutes, points, rebounds, assists, steals and field goal percentage. His stat line of 22.7 points and 11.7 rebounds was topped by just one player: Cavs forward Kevin Love. But he was still considered immature, with a league-high 16 technical fouls. Traded mid-season, forward Rudy Gay had a revival of sorts, averaging 20.1 points per game. Guard Isaiah Thomas was turning into a promising player, with 20.3 points and 6.3 assists per game. So when the team lost Thomas to the up and coming Suns, with just guard Darren Collison to replace him, they were expected to, if anything, just regress further. Now, they look to be once again in the running for the post-season. Cousins looks like he is maturing (finally) into the team leader. He has vowed that he will cut his technical fouls to just five for the season. During the FIBA World Cup, Cousins took a hard elbow from Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas, which he took exception to, and almost retaliated. Almost. A year ago, Valanciunas might have been holding a bag of ice over his eye. Cousins is celebrating for his teammates from the bench, and even calming the coach down over his foul call. Is this real life? Not to mention that he's also producing. He's been averaging 23.0 points and 11.1 rebounds over just 30 minutes of playing time. He's actually playing consistent defense, and has generally looked unstoppable. Gay, whose last two teams have thrived more in his departure than with him, is playing efficient basketball and simply sinking a lot of buckets. He's averaging 22.3 points, including an incredible 40-point performance over the greatly improved Blazers defense. He might just be able to play up to his $19 million contract. (Okay, maybe not.) Collison, unlike Thomas, is the pass-first point guard that the trigger-happy duo of Gay and Cousins need. Collison is playing the best basketball of his life, hitting clutch pull-up jumpers over Clippers guard Chris Paul and his old team. While his 40 percent field goal percentage still leaves much to be desired, his 14.7 points and 6.3 assists may be more than what even the Kings themselves were looking for. The team has a relatively nice mixture of young players like rookie Nik Stauskas and guard Ben McLemore, and veterans like forwards Reggie Evans and Carl Landry. Landry is coming into form after some disappointing seasons sitting on the bench with injuries. Stauskas has had a disappointing start but is a proven commodity who will find his place on the team. New owner Vivek Ranadivé and the front office want to win now. Ranadivé is an enthusiastic owner, sometimes to his own detriment; he's made suggestions of playing 4-on-5 defense with a cherry-picker. They've been trying to trade for Celtics guard Rajon Rondo and Pistons forward Josh Smith for some time, and recent rumors suggest Rondo might be going to the Kings in a mid-season trade. Any team that's trying to trade for Smith is a team that is desperate for some wins. And for Sacramento, that might not be all that bad. No one's saying the Kings are going to be the 2015 NBA Champions. They won’t be. But with the Thunder's misfortunes and a few under-performing teams, they just might be able to slip into the playoffs with the eight seed. Considering the disappointment that the Sacramento Kings have been over the last decade, that's better news than anyone could have hoped for.