The Sacramento Kings are in an interesting and precarious position this off-season. Last year they received much criticism for “not tanking hard enough.” This complaint sounds ridiculous, but any basketball fan knows there’s a lot of strategy behind it all.
After the blockbuster DeMarcus Cousins trade to New Orleans during All-Star Weekend in 2017, Sacramento fans were unbelievably upset. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t also disappointed at first. Something about trading away your best player (and one of the best bigs in the league) just didn’t seem like a knowledgeable way for an organization to get better. However, it allowed players like Skal Labissiere and Willie Cauley-Stein to get a lot more minutes which showed fans some promise in the young team Sacramento is developing. Another young asset Sacramento received that all-star weekend was Buddy Hield. Buddy showed a lot of improvement in his three points shooting throughout the season and is fun to watch when he gets hot.
The Boogie trade set up some great opportunities in the draft for Sac. They swiped De’Aaron Fox with the fifth pick and fans erupted in excitement. Sacramento finished the night with four young athletes looking to turn the club around. Fox out of Kentucky, Justin Jackson from North Carolina, Harry Giles out of Duke, and Frank Mason from Kansas. These picks gave Kings fans a feeling of hope, hope that hasn’t been felt in years. The rookies showed moments of improvement throughout the season, but those good moments didn’t come without a bit of doubt regarding what the future held. The Kings didn’t have a fantastic year, winning only 27 games and ending the season in the 12th spot in the West.
One plus that came from the regular season was having a number of seasoned veterans like Vince Carter and Garrett Temple around to influence and teach the young guys about being in the NBA. Fox ended his rookie year averaging 11.6 PPG and 4.4 APG. He also had one of the most electrifying plays of Sacramento’s season with his last-minute game-winning putback dunk in Miami. Jackson and Mason had their shining moments too but were also sent down to the Kings’ G League affiliate numerous times.
Harry Giles didn’t play a single minute in the 2017-2018 season due to injuries in college, however, there’s a ton of anticipation and buzz because he was the top high school player going into college after he graduated. Fans wait eagerly to see what Giles can bring to boost the team’s success. Another bright young-ish player, Serbian rookie Bogdan Bogdanovic, ended up winning the rising stars MVP with 26 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists. The 25-year old averaged 11.8 PPG during the season and came up big in a few situations.
Nearing the lottery for the 2018 NBA Draft, it seemed as though Sac-Town would end up with the sixth or seventh pick. After a little bit of luck, they bounced all the way up to number two behind Phoenix. The Kings had a few options with this pick. They could’ve drafted the best they could get which was most likely going to be either the Euro – Luka Doncic, Deandre Ayton out of Arizona, or Duke’s Marvin Bagley III. They could’ve also done something similar to last year and traded down for multiple picks in hopes to land a solid pair of rookies able to handle the difficult task of bettering this franchise. Another option would’ve been getting a pick in next year’s draft as the Kings currently don’t have a pick in the 2019 Draft.
The pressure was on Vlade Divac to make a decision that would set up the organization for success in the coming years. After Ayton went to Phoenix for the first pick, the Kings selected Marvin Bagley III from Duke. Sacramento is known for drafting guys and then getting rid of them right before they turn into good basketball players (Hassan Whiteside and Isaiah Thomas are good examples). Hopefully Bagley is never added to that list. After selecting another big man, it looks as though Sacramento will look to move on from one or more of their current bigs in Willie Cauley-Stein, Harry Giles, Kosta Koufos, or Zach Randolph this off-season. This will open up minutes for rookies and the rest of the young guys. It may even result in a trade that brings another promising youngster to the squad.
It feels as though the Kings have been rebuilding for over a century, so fans are becoming antsy when it comes to turning the club around. As a season ticket holder for the 2018-2019 season, I’m excited to see what changes are made and which players can take the next step to help get this team into the playoffs in the near future.