Sacramento Kings: Complete 2017 offseason grades

Trading No. 10 for No. 15 and 20

The Sacramento Kings received a significant amount of blowback from their trade of DeMarcus Cousins at the trade deadline last February, but they also received a first round pick from the New Orleans Pelicans. That pick ended up as the 10th overall pick, giving the Kings a pair of lottery picks heading into draft night.

They proceeded to pull off a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers, flipping the 10th overall pick for picks No. 15 and 20. Portland took Gonzaga center Zach Collins, while the Kings took North Carolina wing Justin Jackson and Duke forward Harry Giles, respectively.

In a vacuum, did the Kings make the right play in terms of pure value, trading the 10th pick for two later choices? While there is no official objective source, Nick Restifo of FanSided.com put together a table based on expected value from each draft slot. That table would suggest that the Kings traded 4.11 wins in added value (the 10th pick) for 4.85 wins of added value (picks 15 + 20). So on paper at least, Sacramento won that swap.

In basketball the subjective cannot help but creep into these discussions, but here that comes out in favor of the Kings as well. Many teams are better served taking one great player than two good options, the reason being that roster spots are relatively limited compared to the other major sports and that teams have commitments to a lot of other players already. The Kings, however, have cleaned ship and had plenty of openings to add extra players.

Secondly, Sacramento has not set the world on fire with its draft selections in recent years. On the contrary, since taking Cousins the team has whiffed on lottery pick after lottery pick. Just last season they took a player in Georgios Papagiannis who would have been a surefire second round pick before the Kings took him 13th overall. Trusting their own draft grades would be foolish, and therefore giving themselves two cracks at the apple is the smart thing to do.

Both sides combine to make the move itself a success. Whatever one thinks of Collins, Jackson or Giles, Sacramento made the right move to trade down and add more picks, and therefore more young talent.

Grade: A