The most important day of the year for Sacramento Kings fans and other fans of winning-averse teams is here, to be decided by the bounce of balls from an entirely different sport. That’s right, it’s NBA lottery day! (Also Happy Mother’s Day to all. Whoever’s bright idea at the NBA to put the lottery at noon on Mother’s Day needs to reevaluate their priorities).
This is the last year of the current lottery structure before it likely makes drastic changes next year, and it’s considered to be a very strong draft class with at least four players in a tier above everyone else. Naturally, the Kings are slated 5th. But that could all change with a little bit of luck later today. The lottery is going to be at Noon PT on ABC if you want to tune in.
As a reminder, here are the Kings full odds for where there pick will land after the balls are drawn:
- 11.5%
- 11.4%
- 11.2%
- 11.0%
- 2.0%
- 18.2%
- 25.5%
- 8.5%
- 0.6%
To break it down in simpler terms, the Kings have a 45.1% chance to move up, a 2% chance to stay the same and a 52.9% chance to drop. My prediction? I think the Kings drop one spot to 6th, and as a Kings fan I think that’s an optimistic outlook because at least it’s not 7th or 8th. If the Kings somehow get 9th I might just quit watching basketball all together. All I’m saying is, we could really use a win here.
Let’s go Kings!
I shit you not. My only Tankathon sim of the day…..#1.
Let’s go!!!!
In my only one this morning, the Kings dropped to 6th. Let’s hope that your sim is what happens!
I did it three times in the last several weeks, and each time the Kings moved up to 4th to take Wilson. Of course today I tried one last time—dropped to 6th to take Acuff!
Love me some Caleb Wilson next to Max and Keegan!
I tankathoned several times, never hit number one. Mostly dropped but never dropped further than 8th. Either way, nothing in this draft can do it all, it’s going to take this and a lot of other front office decisions to turn this around in a couple years.
So the Draft Lottery show begins at 12:00, but any idea of when the actual results will be announced?
For the life of me, I can’t understand why are people so busy (obsessed even) with these Tankathon sims. (“Only on the third try!“)
It’s simply a digital roll of the dice and has no bearing whatsoever on what will happen in the real lottery.
Can someone explain?
I like it because it is one place to see the digital odds and includes the pick swaps without me having to look it up. As an example, I didn’t realize Indy’s pick could potentially convey to the Clips if they should drop.
Is New Orleans screwed no matter where they end up? Seems like whenever I play the sim their pick always conveys.
Man it was the most fun part of the kings season. I think I did a roll after every Kings loss during that long streak when we had the worst record. Anyways it’s the best part of terrible seasons and you’ve missed out on the dreaming the last decade if you weren’t tankathon….ing?? Lol
Happy Mother’s and Lottery Day! Finally!
This is the year we get the #1 pick! I believe it!
Hopefully they get lucky, but even if they do, it doesn’t take away from the fact that Doug and the owner are fucking morons. They shouldn’t even be in this position. They should be top three.
I have such a distain for this owner. Maybe somehow the luck of a top three will pull them out of this, but just sell the team.
No don’t sell the team. Buy the owner’s shares and have a new majority owner. Let the team stay here. I need my kids to cheer a local team.
Right. Obviously, the hope would be that he’d sell and they’d stay in sac. But he ain’t selling.
C’mon Caleb Wilson chance. Show me potato salad!
Hey basketball gods, please reward us with no. 1 because we have been good boys and didn’t actively tank. *eye roll*
About to do my tankathon roll and the result is…#8…. Well typical luck for us just hopefully a miracle can happen with a slow build to turn this ship around. Vivek please stay out of the way and GO KINGS!
Huh, Deuce is in the drawing room.
Well fuck.
Welp, fuck me. Vivek gets his lucky number 7.
And we moved down and lost the coin flip to Utah that moves up. Just fantastic.
In many ways, this was the worst outcome. This team’s incompetence strikes again….
Kings would have #2 pick had they lost just one more game and edged out Utah.
Of course. Assholes! Fuck you Doug. And Vivek. 7. Morons.
Well I guess Flemings or Wagler it is.
Lol, of course.
If we won that coin flip with Utah we would’ve moved up so ya those last few, meaningless wins can affect a franchise for years.
Ethical tanking was the wrong strategy. Huh, never saw that coming.
It wasn’t even ethical tanking. They were fucking trying. Playing veterans to the very end. I am just about hopeless when it comes to this franchise with this owner.
All those stupid pointless wins at the end of the season must feel so great right now. Now we get to pick between Flemings and Mikal Brown Jr or whatever. Fuck this shit
Exactly. We all saw this coming. And it’s just another example of how horrible this owner is. And how much in over his head the coach is too. All that bullshit about how he doesn’t tank. That just shows his stupidity.
Don’t worry, we’ll collectively talk ourseleves into believing that one of these guys is exactly what we need, and the guys above them all have serious warts…
Yup- and Perry will get his guy and his stupid ass six pillars. And Vivek will do the shacka- And the losing and mediocre play will continue
Figures. Now fingers crossed Acuff goes top 6.
Kings are doomed for eternity.
Hate is not a strong enough word. Incompetence is not extreme enough to describe Vivek.
happy with not taking Doug? Now that you can never do it again.
I swear the Kangz are just destined to be just the doormats of the NBA forever.
It’s not destiny, it’s density. The dense owner is what is taking this team down
And that outlook wouldn’t have changed much with a top 4 pick, so not much to get upset about, IMO.
Probably. But they might’ve lucked into a very talented player.
Otherwise, I agree, because not taking everything this owner does is illogical and against all common sense. Every step of the way. His ego is so big that he’s destroyed this team.
Plus, he’s a morally bankrupt billionaire asshole.
What would a very talented player have done in this toxic, unprofessional and dysfunctional environment?
Raise ticket prices even more, I guess…
Make no mistake, the Kings have made this bed and they will be forced to lie in it. It is 100% on the organization and no one else.
Poverty franchise
Yes! Vivek’s favorite number, giving fuel to even more conspiracy theories!!!
????????????????
Just so we all know, that April 10th win against the warriors dropped us from #2 to #7. Well the only thing worse is Indiana trading their 5th pick for zubac.
That’s the silver lining. Indiana tanked like crazy after hitting the finals last year. Granted they didn’t have Haliburton and the fact that Miles Turner bailed, they still should have been somewhat of a competitive team. Then they flubbed their pick by trading for Zubac. Nice to see some karma getting served. Plus, the fact that OKC didn’t jump up.
The Kings got the 7th pick? YOU DON’T SAY!
I mean, who could have seen this coming except EVERYONE.
Obligatory.
I just assume he’s talking about which front offices are smarter than the Kings front office.
Even the lowly wizards know how to tank. And look what Utah has done the last few years. Now they’ve got a team.
Meanwhile, we have an owner who thinks she’s outsmarting everybody. Sell
Yeah, selling the team really is the only way out. We just have to hope that at some point Vivek decides he doesn’t want to be a laughingstock anymore and spends his time on other pursuits.
cursed
Not cursed-Vivekd
That is a hilarious picture of Scott Perry.
And speaking of Perry, what’s with this horseshit six pillars. How about drafting someone who can shoot Scott? Or what about defense?
So I guess they’re gonna draft somebody who can’t shoot the ball in his athletic. Not that it really matters unless something crazy happens and the owner disappears.
and omg, pacers not getting a single pick in the 2026 draft is WILD after all that blatant tanking
In no order, this is AT LEAST a 7 blue-chip player draft: Dybansta, DP, Boozer, Wilson, Acuff, Wagler, Flemmings.
Sucks dropping but that’s Kangz showbiz baby. We’ll still get an elite prospect, probably at the position we need most: PG
I’ll go out on a limb and say that at minimum, 3 of those players will be either busts or average players, and the Kings will have one of those.
Don’t worry, he’ll recreate his magic w Divac from 2017 and trade the pick for #15 and #20.
big pass on boozer
When has there been a draft where the first 7 players were blue-chip players in the NBA?
Never. I doubt this draft will be the first.
Yup, and #7 this year could end up being a very good player, but the odds of that happening drop with each position drafted.
The Kings got seriously lucky with Hali. Here’s hoping that can happen again and they don’t fuck it up.
To be fair, I had Flemings at #4 some spots this past season. There’s a case for Wagler at 5, case for Acuff at #4. So, I can see that argument about 7 blue chip players. Likely will be some busts, but lots of dudes belonging in the top 5 conversation.
In statistics, #7 would be the modal probability, and that’s what they got. Darious Acuff or Kingston Flemings your new Sacramento Kings rookie.
One of them can’t play defense, and one of them can’t shoot. Perfect.
What makes you say Flemings can’t shoot?
Vivwreck fist bumping hia goons knowing the Kangz stay under the luxury tax with the no. 7 pick.
“There’s a reason my favorite number is 7, and now it has saved me millions in this billion-dollar valued franchise mwahahaha”
That might have been the most awkward/overkill draft lottery show I’ve ever seen … did all those players and their families need to be there?
(They knew it wasn’t the actual draft, right? … right?)
AJ looked like he wanted to cry after Washington got #1.
Although the Kings of the East, AKA the Wizards, will probably draft Peterson … the first player to load manage in college.
(Yes, I saw the cramping explanation that just came out … curious timing … best case scenario, if it’s true, it let everybody doubt the kid’s heart and character all season long)
So there’s a good chance AJ gets to stay in Utah, good for him.
As for the Kings?
Yikes, I was never less interested than I was this season, but this may be an even lower point than that.
Flemings, Wagler, Brown, Acuff, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah …
Whooooooooooooo … caaaaaaaaaares
In honor of Illustrious Pick #7, I’d like to invite Scott to add a Seventh Pillar …
Just Don’t Suck
I’ve got a little sick feeling in my gut of a memory from 2013. The Kings fell from #6 to the ever present #7.
Back then,in Vivek’s first draft, there was a guard that was projected to go #2 in most mock drafts. He was even #1 in some mocks. ESPN had him there the day before the draft!
He was a 2 guard out of Kansas that could score in bunches. Sound familiar to someone in this draft?
That player became the falling knife that fell to the Kings at #7, and most of us were delighted with it.
Yikes, speak for yourself. That draft was one of the weaker drafts though and I still remember the low maturity ranks pre draft with him and him not understanding how the world works. That guy is locked up today.
My mock draft post lottery:
Interesting that Bulls jumped and Clippers got the pick from Indiana (still, even if Indiana didn’t trade). Both don’t need PGs, so that increases the chance that Kings get the PG they want in Acuff. Basically, the entire thing is riding on if the Nets covet Acuff. If the Kings thinks think they’ll pick Acuff, there’s still the opportunity of possibly trading up to the #5 spot to get Acuff…maybe by packaging Sabonis?
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