Sacramento Kings: Players the Kings Could Draft

Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

New Sacramento Kings majority owner Vivek Ranadive, along with the help of former Mayor Kevin Johnson, went through a lot of trouble to keep the team from moving out of town, something that while is obviously greatly appreciated by the fan base, it also adds to the pressure of winning sooner than later. Good thing for Kings fans, Ranadive seems to be the competitive type.

Since becoming owner of the team in May of 2013, the Kings have been active in the trade market, bringing in players such as Rudy Gay, Greivis Vasquez, Luc Mbah a Moute and more. They also traded away Tyreke Evans, bought out fan favorite Jimmer Fredette and signed franchise center DeMarcus Cousins to a max contract extension. While these efforts didn’t lead to a playoff berth in Ranadive’s first season as new owner, it’s been made clear that he is willing to make moves and spend money in order to create a winning brand of basketball.

The latest rumor is that the Kings are willing to trade the eighth pick in the draft and have three offers on the table to do so. The first proposal would send Pistons forward Josh Smith to Sacramento in return for the eighth pick. Derrick Williams and Jason Thompson are also rumored to be involved in this deal to help make the money work.

The other two proposals are still unknown, but the most likely suitors would be Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. Each scenario would supposedly send a draft pick back to Sacramento, although if Boston does part ways with Rondo, it’s hard to believe they would have to add a draft pick along with him. For the sake of argument, let’s say that Chicago and Philadelphia are the other two teams.

The Bulls are reportedly big fans of Doug McDermott and could offer something like Taj Gibson and the 16th pick to make it happen. Philadelphia has been eager to deal Thaddeus Young and if there is a player in the Draft they like enough, they could send Young along with the 10th pick to Sacramento in exchange for the 8th pick.

Of course, none of these trades could happen and the Kings could stand pat, and they would have some quality players to choose from if they went that route. To summarize, this means that the Kings would most likely either pick 8th, 10th or 16th. If you want to count Boston in this, they own the 17th pick.

Here are a couple of prospects the Kings could draft in each scenario.