Sacramento Kings can’t afford to take risk on Michael Porter Jr.
Too many unanswered questions about Michael Porter Jr. should make the Sacramento Kings uncomfortable about drafting him.
The Sacramento Kings have a dilemma on their hands with the No. 2 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
On the one hand, the Kings can follow the popular public opinion and draft Luka Doncic or Marvin Bagley III. The other option is to take a risk on the potential of Michael Porter Jr., a player with injury issues among other concerns.
At this point in their development, the Kings must be aware of how dangerous it is to take a high risk. Drafting Porter, who is shrouded in mystery at this point, can set the Kings back if he turns out to be a disappointment.
The Kings, who have made plenty of questionable moves throughout the years, can’t afford to take a player who missed almost an entire college season because of a back injury.
Do the Kings know if Porter’s injury will be a problem moving forward? Can he be the same player he was in high school despite missing almost a year of basketball? Can the Kings conduct an accurate scouting report based mostly on Porter’s high school performance?
Maybe the Kings are working with experts as we speak to answer all these questions. But even if the experts say Porter is good to go, there’s always a chance that even experts can be wrong.
Instead of going through those hurdles, the Kings can take the road with less obstacles.
That road can lead to Slovenian sensation Luka Doncic or the one-time Duke Blue Devil, Marvin Bagley III. Unlike Porter, there’s no shortage of scouting when it comes to the rest of the projected top picks.
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With Doncic, who has been on the radar since he was 16, his strengths and weaknesses have been well documented. It’s a similar situation for Bagley, who has been well-scouted during his year at Duke.
When it comes to Doncic and Bagley, the Kings only need to consider questions that are commonly asked about draft picks. Does Doncic have the quickness and strength needed to succeed in the NBA? Can Bagley address his defensive flaws in the NBA?
All those issues can be addressed with development in the NBA, but the issues with Porter would take much longer to fix or may never be solved at all.
The last thing the Kings need is a Markelle Fultz situation. It would be a disaster if the Kings drafted Porter and he wound up missing significant time in his rookie year.
The Kings drafted Harry Giles last year and allowed him to sit out for the entire season to rehab his knee, but a similar tactic would not work for Porter.
As we saw with Fultz, too much drama and public pressure can follow when a high-profile rookie can’t produce right away. This can not only affect the player’s morale, but also the team’s performance as it deals with outside noise.
As we’ve seen in recent years, the Kings aren’t suited to deal with chaos.
With Doncic and Bagley, the Kings have reason to believe that those players have a desire to play in Sacramento. After all, Doncic has a strong relationship with Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic as well as with the front office.
Bagley has raved about Sacramento in his interviews and has been spotted with some of the Kings’ players on social media. Porter, however, has not indicated any kind of interest in the Kings. It’s possible that he might want to avoid Sacramento altogether.
If Porter can resolve his issues, he may still turn out to be the great player some expect him to be. At this time, however, the Kings aren’t in a position to take that risk.
Especially with the Kings having traded their first round pick in 2019, they can’t afford to take a high risk in 2018 and mess up.
Next: 2018 NBA Mock Draft - Final edition
Is Kings general manager Vlade Divac willing to risk his job by taking a risk on Porter? Or will he listen to the Twitter polls and make the popular pick? It’s not every day we can say this, but Twitter is probably right on this one.