The Kings received a three-pick bounce from their projected slot to the 4th overall pick in the NBA draft. The post-traumatic stress disorder. The Sacramento Kings have bungled their past blessings and earned themselves a reputation as black sheep of the Western Conference. The Philadelphia 76ers are the most traumatizing NBA franchise of the past decade. The Process was sensible enough to pin down a star.
Jay Bilas should have been talking about the new Kings when Commissioner Adam Silver read Marvin Bagley's name as the second pick. It was rumored that Luka's father was disliked by the general manager, but it was not true.
Don was a high-usage, playmaking genius who could create his own offense off the dribble. He was the youngest EuroLeague winner ever by the time he was 18. He received 98 out of 100 votes for theRookie of the Year. As a defender off the bench, Bagley was projected as a premier scoring threat if he developed his offensive toolkit.
The same player as he was then is Bagley. All promise, but not much in the way of action. As late as 2020, Divac was still living in denial, telling Marcos Breton of The Sacramento Bee that his career would hit 100 MPH eventually.
I still think Marvin has a lot of potential. I needed more time to prove it. You have to produce right now in this league. People don't have patience, but I'm okay with that.
I'd be foolish to not dig the knife in a bit deeper as Sac-Town heads towards its 17th playoff appearance. Don is a brutal reminder of how bad the talent evaluations have been for the Kings. Darko Milicic was Divac's pick over Melo times 100. Don was the only player under 25 to lead the EuroLeague in a stat called PIR. King James was the international community.
There is no telling if the smooth-brain trust of the Kings would have been successful in building a contender around Luka. A version of the Sacramento Kings Luka is held hostage to the decisions of Ranadive and Divac. Dallas has a lot of experience. For the past decade, the Kings have been imploding on themselves.
The Sacramento Kings drafted Thomas Robinson and Ben McLemore. The teams that were picked after the Kings were Dame Lillard in 2012 and the two guys that were picked in 2013). The Kings could have been prevented from going further into the hole they are in if one of those perimeter stars had been with them.
The final pick of the draft was discovered by Sac-Town. He finished his third season with an average of 20.3 points on 45.3 percent shooting, 6.3 assists, 2.9 rebound and 1.3 steals in 72 games, but was shipped away after three years. In exchange for their one-of-a-kind thermodynamic scoring point guard, the Kings received second-round heap guard Alex Oriakhi, who never played a regular season game in the NBA.
The same organization that just continued their streak of sticking their fingers into sockets by trading a fringe All-Star power forward for a fringe All-Star center in Domantas Sabonis did the same thing with Tyrese Haliburton. As a starter in Indiana, Haliburton averaged 17.5 points on shooting splits of 47.5 percent from the field, 41.6 percent behind the arc, 9.6 assists and 1.8 steals, while the Kings nearly equaled their pre- deadline win percentage.
The owner of the Kings proposed a 4-on-5 defensive strategy with a cherry picker behind the half-court. The Kings G League affiliate is said to be hiring one of those daughters as an assistant general manager.
The Mavericks and Warriors will play in the Western Conference Finals during the 20th anniversary of the Kings' 2002 Western Conference Final victory over the Lakers. Kings fans have tasted the worst flavors of disappointment between narrowly losing the most electric Western Conference Finals series ever played and removing their brains to avoid making a no-brainer.
Luka was spared from being the NBA's Mike Trout and The Association is better off for it.
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