The Sacramento Kings are not winning a bunch of games so far in the 2026-27 NBA season, but rookie Darius Acuff Jr. is giving the franchise and its fans hope for a better future.

Acuff, the seventh pick overall in the 2026 NBA Draft, is also not one to shy away from taking shots, and the numbers clearly back that up.

“Darius Acuff's 20+ shot attempts in his first seven games is the longest streak to open a career since Wilt Chamberlain. Acuff's 183 points (in first seven games) are the most since Shaq in 1992,” Anthony Slater of ESPN shared via a social media post on X, formerly Twitter.

Shaquille O'Neal and Wilt Chamberlain both played the center position, so Acuff is shooting the air out of the ball in a much different manner than those two basketball legends as a guard.

There is still work to be done for Acuff in terms of shot selection and accuracy, as he is making only 40.6 percent of his attempts from the field and 31.3 percent of his shots from behind the arc, but Sacramento is apparently giving him the green light every night.

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On the season, he is taking 23.6 attempts from the floor per outing, nearly 10 more than any of his teammates. Zach LaVine is second with 15.6 shots a game.

Acuff and the Kings, who are coming off a 115-101 win over the Dallas Mavericks on the road on Monday, are 1-6 going into their Wednesday night showdown against Shaq and Wilt's former team, the Los Angeles Lakers, at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.