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

2015

Kings pick: Willie Cauley-Stein (6th)

In 2015, the Sacramento Kings made a move that signaled they were nearing their breakup with DeMarcus Cousins, choosing an athletic center from the University of Kentucky, Willie Cauley-Stein. WCS was operating in Boogie’s shadow in his first two seasons. Once Cousins was finally shipped to New Orleans in 2017, Cauley-Stein’s numbers saw a sizable increase.

• 2016-17 before Cousins trade: 5.8 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 0.5 APG, 0.4 BPG
• 2016-17 after Cousins trade: 12.9 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 2.2 APG, 0.9 BPG

WCS was on pace to be like several of the Kings’ lottery picks from previous years, but when he was given the opportunity, he seized the reins. He is still only a mid-tier center in the grand scheme of the NBA, but Cauley-Stein is an integral part of the operation in Sacramento.

Their current backcourt of De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield with Bogdan Bogdanovic off the bench is jam-packed, and they desperately needed a big paint presence heading into the 2018-19 season. WCS stepped up and played some of the best basketball of his career.

Who they missed

While WCS is starting to take form, there was still a better player left on the board that the Kings overlooked: Devin Booker. Unlike in previous years when there is a laundry list of players that the Kings missed, in 2015, Booker was the only one. Devin Booker has had incredible individual numbers in Phoenix, but with such minimal team success, WCS is looking like he will be the first of the two to make the postseason.