Welp, the season from hell just keeps getting worse as the Kings have officially dropped to the 7th overall pick. To rub salt in the wound, the Utah Jazz, who they were tied with and lost a coin toss to at the end of the season, jumped up to the 2nd overall pick. Washington won the 1st pick, Memphis got the 3rd pick and the Chicago Bulls jumped to 4th. The Pacers fell to 5 and so their pick went to the Clippers as part of the Ivica Zubac trade, and the Brooklyn Nets fell to 6th.
This is considered to be a deep draft, so there should still be a very talented player available for the Kings to take at 7, but this is still a blow and will take the Kings out of the running for AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer, Darryn Peterson and Caleb Wilson in all likelihood. The Kings will instead likely have a choice of someone like Darius Acuff, Kingston Flemings, Keaton Wagler, Brayden Burries or Mikel Brown. It’s a very guard heavy draft, and the Kings do find themselves in need of a new young Point Guard.
The NBA Draft will occur on June 23rd and 24th. The Kings officially now have the 7th, 34th and 45th picks. The Kings have picked 7th quite a few times, the last being in 2013 when they selected Ben McLemore. The Kings also selected Jason Williams with the 7th pick in 1998, Bobby Hurley with the 7th pick in 1993, Walt Williams with the 7th pick in 1992 and Lionel Simmons with the 7th pick in 1990. Recent 7th picks have been Jeremiah Fears, Donovan Clingan, Bilal Coulibaly, Shaedon Sharpe and Jonathan Kuminga.
Smells like Acuff, Wagler, or Flemmings at 7
Smells like trade back
I’d prefer to trade up, but the draft is deep enough where trading back could make sense
I wouldn’t trade out of the top 10. They should prioritize getting one of the four guards that should be available in the top 10. Flemmings, Burries, Wagler, or Acuff. There’s decent talent later in the draft but no guards at that level. Older bigs are intriguing but redundant (Mara and Lindeborg), other guys like Mo Johnson are nice pieces but less impactful than a lead guard. I’m not sure who would be available after 10 that projects to be a potential all star or even a high level starter.
Cash considerations FTW!
Perry will recreate his magic from the 2017 draft w Divac and this time trade the pick for Charlotte’s #14 and #18.
Vivek is playing 3D chess. Its called ethical drafting! Trade back this year because the lottery gods will reward the Kings with the #1 draft next year. Just like in 2018.
#7 and DDR’s partial guarantee to OKC for #12, #17 and Topic is the only one I’ll consider.
This is a good trade down spot, since a top 4 pick is really what was needed. The two goals would be to get a lotttery pick and a pretty good player under 25. The two picks from OKC (we may need to throw in a 2nd round pick) would be good too. This likely won’t happen in the draft, but we need to trade away players in this order:
1) Monk (easiest player to trade based on the contract)
2) DDR (challenge to trade, but a $10 million guarantee should help)
3) Lavine, but no one will touch the contract until February.
4) Hunter
5) Sabonis– only if the return is pretty good
Young players coming in might earn us a lotte pick next year.
I’m guessing that DDR will be bought out in the offseason.
I hope not. It’d probably be harder to draft an impactful prospect if they trade back.
that would be my prediction. I like 2 of those 3 and might come around on the third. Going on bpa , I have Yaxel Lendebourg in my top 7.
Or Burries
At this point, Wagler feels like he’s probably the best case scenario. However, I doubt that he’ll drop to #7. I hope they don’t draft Flemings.
What don’t you like about Flemings?
His stats were awful against Big 12 teams. That makes think he’s less likely to be good in the NBA than other G’s the Kings could draft.
FAFO
Lolz
What a f’n DISASTER. Doug Christie is another classic Kings player whose enduring legacy will be screwing this franchise out of a top lottery pick, this time in the last year where tanking mattered. IDIOTS.
Vivek has to be happy though. He’ll pay less for a #7 and now he can pick Acuff, who is a prototypical Vivek player, an all scoring and no defense guard who, with the Kings luck, will be another Zach LaVine.
The only upside here is that maybe, MAYBE Acuff makes it less likely for them to trade for Ja Morant.
And maybe after another couple years of failure, Vivek can launder and destroy Chris Webber’s reputation by making him GM and Mike Bibby’s by making him coach.
Doug and the owner both suffer from ego idiocy. Stubborn. Egregious approach to running and coaching an nba team.
Acuff will be in Memphis . Book it !
And that’s why Doug was brought back. All Vivek wants are yes-men.
I hope Flemings is there at 7 still. I can see Flemings, Burries, and Wagler (and maybe Wilson) as options at 7. I just hope some team sees Acuff and drools more than Vivek.
There are no basketball gods. There are only an idiot owner and his dumb goons.
I said above, the basketball gods are not cruel, they’re just! They punish incompetence and the Kings are the most incompetent.
I’m not discussing theology with you!!!
It just feels so apt in this instance!
Bball gads aren’t cruel-this owner is. He’s taken this franchise-that we saved from moving-driven it into the ground and treats the city of Sac and the fans like shit.
He’s not just incompetent-he’s an asshole.
I said it before; either this fanbase starts to go after Vivek in an organized campaign, or nothing changes. In the worst (?) case this team will relocate once the lease is up in a cloud of apathy.
I’m glad you brought this up, because I don’t think people realize that relocation will absolutely be on the table if he doesn’t sell before that lease is up. It’s entirely possible that he poisons the well so much that Sacramento is just dead as an NBA city. I know that might seem dramatic but if this continues for another 20 years, who the hell is actually going to pay any attention to this team? We’re already in for another long playoff drought and with the lottery odds shifting, incompetence is going to be punished even more than it already is.
I wonder if you’d do a poll on TKH now, how many people would be really devastated if the Kings relocated.
Many fans seem to have checked out.
Yeah how sad is that? Keeping the team felt like such a monumental win. It is incredible that Vivek and his gang of chuckleheads have done so much damage that people genuinely don’t even care any more.
Yes, I’ve said it before-I find it disgusting/reprehensible the way Vivek have screwed over the city and fans. Especially after we fought so hard to keep the team.
If I knew the league would expand by two teams, I would vote for the Kings to relocate now to Seattle or Las Vegas. I’m willing to take my chances on the last expansion spot to get Vivek out of Sacramento forever.
100% agree here. It is the best and possibly only chance for this franchise to ever obtain relevance.
Mark me down as a fan that wouldnt lose a wink of sleep if the Kings relocated.
Agree. A converted fan effort is needed but Sac fans don’t seem to want to do it…. And prob takes enough energy trying to ward off the shit running the country.
But we can hope. Maybe some sorta
campaign.
No time like the present to engage people for ideas. And if it could be incorporated/run through TKH it would have a greater chance for success.
Need to have a full season boycott by fans similar to what A’s fans did before they decided to move. Throw in a smattering of local media asking tough questions of Perry and ownership.
Demar, devin, and a bunch of 2nd rds for no. 5. Butt pulled idea. Unless MEM is desperate to unload Ja and give up no. 3 which is highly unlikely. Sorry guys, im just delirously fucking upset over the last 3 wins fuxking us up.
Kings tanked the lottery.
Welp, they were supposed to tank BEFORE the lottery. NBA -3.0
Typical Kangz, always doing things ass backwards.
I’ll go the other way and say the basketball Gods are not cruel, they are just. They reward smart teams and punish dumb ones. The Kings are dumb and therefore deserve nothing.
It’s horrible for the fans, but this team deserves to lose in perpetuity and experience zero success or joy because they’ve run a cheap, incompetent organization. I didn’t watch a second of Kings basketball last year and I am seriously considering relinquishing my fandom after 41 years.
What exactly is the point of rooting for this team? They aren’t ever competing for a championship. Heck, they can’t even compete for a playoff spot. I would not be remotely surprised if they break their own playoff futility streak of 16 seasons with this current run their on.
The only and I mean THE ONLY thing that could change any of this is if Vivek sells the team. That’s literally it. It doesn’t matter what front office they put in place, what coach they hire or what players they sign or draft. All of it is utterly inconsequential when compared to incompetent ownership. None of it matters. So, why stick around? Why even bother? Finishing with a top-5 pick in this draft, given where they were at after the all star break was the biggest layup imaginable and they failed so miserably, that it almost defies belief.
Been around this team for many many many years. I have had half season tickets for the past 5 years. REALLY debated cancelling before this season, but they were really good seats! I went to the first couple games, and then just found it to be a terrible experience to watch. I sold every game after that, and had to give away a couple as well. Down the stretch, who wants to go to a game where you are supposed to be rooting for your team to win, but now needing to root for them to lose. And then being insanely upset that they decided to come from behind in the 4th quarter to win another MEANINGFUL game that dropped them further out of the good lottery pool. They had it all in their hands. The easiest thing you can do in basketball is lose, and they couldn’t do THAT right.
This season did it for me. It ruined me as a Kings fan. I hung with them for as long as possible, rooted for a terrible team, making terrible decisions, and terrible mistakes. Until I could take it no more. I HATE this team now. I DESPISE Vivek. Doug Christie should not be coaching a G league team, let alone an NBA team.
As you mentioned, the basketball gods did it right. They are not here to save the Kings, they are here to give them exactly what they deserve.
GOOD BYE KINGS FANDOM! Good bye!
Man, I feel you and it SUCKS. I wish it weren’t this way, but I realized this year for the first time that just like you, I actively hate this current iteration of the team. Vivek is the person I dislike most in the entire sports/entertainment world and Doug Christie coaching this team is some type of performance art at this point. It’s just too much to continue to put up with.
It will be “interesting” to hear what kind of spin the local media will give this.
For the last few months, they were like ‘I’m not going to be upset about it because it’s a lottery and the may move up”.
Now we’re probably gonna hear ad nauseum how deep this draft is and what gem we can get at #7.
You mean #9, #30, and Klay after the Kings trade Keegan and #7 for them.
Since no one seems to have said it yet in the thread, this seems like as good a place as any…
“It doesn’t really matter. It isn’t going to make anyone feel any better.”
It will be interesting to see how local media approaches this. Will they actually hold the FO and ownerships feet to the fire or will they (media) continue to be mouthpieces for the team? My guess is the majority of local media will be mouthpieces due to concerns of losing their team contacts.
And lets not forget; Doug and Vlade want nothing more than for this team to win.
Reductive hindsight: The wins at the end of the season got us to a 50/50 shot for a draft slot that ended up being a lottery selected top pick, which ironically became the best percentage at moving up. Unintentionally, that coin flip was our best chance. Two of the bottom 3 teams dropped out of the top 4 with better odds than us but worse odds than the coin flip. Either way, the lottery is a joke and the Kangz are cursed.
Someone should ask Jerry on the next podcast what was going through his mind at that very instant LOL
Ill put it out there for the next QA, and give you proper credit.
There are six players in the draft who are relieved by the results.
Knicks have looked great under Mike Brown this series. Glad for his success.
He was successful here, so the owner decided to get rid of him. That’s how Vivek works. Any success stick your grubby little hands in and fuck everything up.
Gonna repost this from the other thread because I can’t stop thinking about it:
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.
So you’re saying our pick will end up in jail?
But will he hang out with Anjali first?
Only if he forgets his shoes to the pre-draft workout
And now he’s currently in prison after being convicted of rape…
ROFL!!
Lol. The Wiz are playing chess while everyone else plays checkers.
Every #7 draft pick from the last 25 years.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/every-nba-number-7-overall-pick-ever
One massive hit, a few good players and a whole bunch of garbage.
Pretty easy to figure out what we’re gonna end up with
It’s weird how we all already knew the Kangz would pick 7th several days before the lottery.
Vivek is breathing a sigh of relief that he doesn’t have to pay a top-3 salary.
Should the Kings not pick up the TO on Hayes (they won’t) but still come into camp with DDR’s $25.7M (they shouldn’t), they will be at over $201M in salary with 10 rostered players. The tax is at $201 and the first apron is at $210.
The #7 pick, should they keep it, should start around $7.8M. That puts them well above the tax line, and just below the first apron. FWIW, a top 3 pick would have put them solidly above the first apron. Perry will still need to add at minimum more 3 rostered players. The Kings also have 2 second round picks.
From all that, I could see how the Kings could cut DDR and eat his $10M partial guarantee, fill out the roster with cheap second round picks and/or vet minimum deals and just squeak in under the first apron. Avoiding the tax looks impossible, but it is not assessed until the end season in 2027.
My current totally butt-pulled guess:
DDR waived, LaVine opts in. Kings pick a PG at #7 (Acuff or Flemings), nothing significant in free agency other vet minimums.
Roster:
PG: #7 pick, Monk, Carter
SG: LaVine, Nique, Monk
SF: Hunter, Nique, vet min./2nd round pick
PF: Keegan, Maxime, vet min/2nd round pick
C: Sabonis, Maxime, Cardwell.
29 wins.
Kingston Fleming
LaVine
Murray
Sabonis
Raynaud
Clifford first off the bench.
Likely nothing will be happening at the trade deadline but that will be the time to move LaVine. A contending team could use a player like LaVine. Take the filler salary’s and a couple s seconds for LaVine.
I thought about Sabonis and Maxi together, but man that would be horrible defensively.
After number 1, I don’t think it matters much.
I’m laughing out loud. Hell, I may be laughing my ass off.
And yet, I could totally see Vivek’s cheap ass trading 7 for a pack of trading cards.
Honestly, in this draft it isn’t that big of a deal. One or more of Burries, Flemings, Wagler, or Acuff will be available. Of those, I’m surprised more people aren’t high on Burries. Elite physical perimeter defender who shot 50/40/80 and led a final four team in scoring and ran the PnR really well. Of the four guards I mention I rank him the highest. Everyone loves Acuff for his scoring, particularly in the tourney, but he’s a below the rim player that was pretty bad at defense. I rank him the lowest of the four. I could see Peterson dropping to 7 as well. He’s got some serious red flags with his health, didn’t really play defense (wasn’t asked to), and his efficiency down the stretch was pretty bad. He’s a high risk, high reward player that could be available and I’d take at 7 if available, even if the history of the Kings taking dropping Kansas players isn’t great (Thomas Robinson).
This is probably the worst season of my life. Can’t imagine watching a game next year.
These lottery changes coming are stupid. Just go back to 7 teams 7 ping pong balls. no more fight to the bottom. we always 7 back then.
Mood.
Lololol.
LOL, the “land” verb is the chef’s kiss. To “land” is something is what you want, not something you fell to.
They are just trolling us.
Next year we’ll get the #1 pick! You’ll see! You’ll see!
Cool.
Next years draft is supposed to be all time bad so that would be appropriate LOL!
Next year we’ll get the #1 pick! You’ll see! You’ll see!
Not cool.
We are trading Keegan and drafting Burries does it make sense? No but Vivek needs the announcer to do something with Burries after he makes a 3 and Keegan is no longer here
If Vivek leaves, he won’t sell the team — he will turn management over to his daughter who he once gave the Stockton Kings to run. They are not the Busses (see the Lakers). If only his daughter’s 12-year olds basketball team failed to win….
Been traveling, so just now seeing this.
OMG…I predicted this two months ago. I didn’t actually want to be right.
Sheesh.
One. Cursed. Franchise.
Not getting AJ sucks. Not getting the next six guys who all have major question marks? Meh.
Steph Curry was a 7th overall. Hali was a 12th. Going outside the NBA, my Joshy was also a 7th overall. Talent evaluation isn’t a perfect science and sometimes taking the guy who falls ends up being the right thing.
Kings are drafting who ever can “Shoot like Steph and big like Klay”
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