Sacramento Kings: A look back at the last 10 NBA Drafts

Conclusion

What do the past 10 years of Sacramento Kings draft picks mean? Simply put, the Kings are awful at drafting.

Sure, DeMarcus Cousins was a steal at No. 5 in 2010 and his trade brought in assets to jumpstart Sacramento’s latest rebuild. But aside from him and De’Aaron Fox, the Kings could’ve done better each year and every year.

Here’s a quick recap of the best players the Kings have passed on in the draft since 2009:

• Stephen Curry (2009)
• Kawhi Leonard (2011)
• Jimmy Butler (2011)
• Kemba Walker (2011)
• Damian Lillard (2012)
• Giannis Antetokounmpo (2013)
• Rudy Gobert (2013)
• Nikola Jokic (2014)

These aren’t even all of the All-Stars that the Kings have missed out on. There are also plenty of borderline-All-Stars that Sacramento has missed as well.

The Kings have seemed to made good picks in the past few seasons with Fox, Hield and Cauley-Stein, and seem to be turning things around. The Kings, pending a future trade, do not have a first round selection in the 2019 NBA Draft, their first time without a first round selection since 1999.

The lack of a first round pick this year puts more stress on them to sign big free agent and continue developing internally. They are going to need all the help they can get to finally return to the playoffs in the stacked Western Conference.