Sacramento Kings: 5 reasons to be excited for 2018-19 NBA season

1. Marvin Bagley III

Maybe the basketball deities have put a curse on the Kings: Until Chris Webber takes his rightful place in the Naismith Hall of Fame, the Kings will never have (or keep) another real superstar.

It seems like ever since the Kings traded Webber back in 2005, they have swung and missed on one supposed-to-be franchise guy after another: Tyreke Evans, DeMarcus Cousins, Isaiah Thomas, Thomas Robinson, Ben McLemore, Nik Stauskas … they either didn’t live up to the hype, didn’t sustain the hype, or the Kings let them go before their potential was fully realized.

Now it’s Bagley’s turn to try and buck the trend.

The No. 2 selection in this year’s draft is the highest pick the Kings have made since Pervis Ellison was the No. 1 pick in 1989. (“Never Nervous” played a total of 34 games for the Kings.) Bagley was a consensus First Team All-American as a freshman at Duke, averaging 21.0 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.

Bagley has just about everything you want in an NBA power forward in 2018, including the ability to step outside and shoot, and defend other positions beside power forward.

More than just a great talent, Bagley is also marketable and could be a mainstream star. Puma signed him to a deal before the draft and is making him one of the faces of their historic re-entry into the basketball sneaker market.

The Kings have a high enough ceiling and low enough expectations to either make Bagley the focal point right away, or allow him to get comfortable while Fox, Hield and other youngsters with a bit more experience carry the load.

The Sacramento Kings may not win a lot of games this season, but watching them try (again) to build the foundation for future success will be interesting.