Sacramento Kings: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason
By Phil Watson
Drafted Justin James, Vanja Marinkovic; traded for Kyle Guy
The Sacramento Kings went into draft night with three second-round picks, but their first-round pick at No. 14 overall was shipped off to the Boston Celtics as a result of a nightmarish 2015 trade with the Philadelphia 76ers.
With the Minnesota Timberwolves’ pick at No. 40 overall, acquired when the Kings sent the rights to Gary Trent Jr. to the Portland Trail Blazers last year, Sacramento took Wyoming wing Justin James.
Their own second-round pick at No. 42 ended up in Philadelphia, having been traded by the Kings to the Milwaukee Bucks way back in 2013 as part of a pick-swap.
At No. 47, with the Orlando Magic’s pick acquired from the New York Knicks as compensation for New York hiring executive Scott Perry, the Kings took Michigan’s Ignas Brazdeikis, trading him later on draft night to the Knicks for the rights to 55th overall pick Kyle Guy and $1 million cash.
Finally, with Milwaukee’s pick at No. 60, Sacramento took a flier on Serbian wing Vanja Marinkovic, who will take the draft-and-stash route after signing with Valencia Basket in Italy’s Serie A on July 22.
James, rail thin at 6-foot-7 and 190 pounds, averaged 22.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.5 blocks as a do-it-all senior for a bad Wyoming club that went 8-24.
His shooting numbers reflect that workload, as he shot just 40.9 percent overall and made only 29.6 percent of his 5.3 3-point attempts per game and turned the ball over 4.2 times per contest.
Perhaps a more indicative representation of what James can do came during his junior year, when Wyoming won 20 games with a better cast and the then-junior shot 47.2 percent overall and 30.8 percent on 4.1 deep tries a game, averaging 18.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 steals.
He was up and down in Summer League play, struggling during the session hosted in Sacramento — shooting just 4-for-16 in three games — before heating up in Las Vegas, where he shot 56.5 percent overall in three games.
Overall, he averaged 9.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in 22.0 minutes per game across the two sessions, shooting 43.6 percent overall and going 3-for-11 from deep.
Guy, meanwhile, has signed a two-way deal with the Kings for next season. An undersized shooting guard at 6-foot-2, Guy helped Virginia to its first-ever national championship last season.
As a junior, he averaged 15.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 35.4 minutes per game, shooting 44.9 percent overall and a solid 42.6 percent on 7.4 3-point attempts per game.
Guy played in seven Summer League games and was a solid scorer, if not overly efficient in the process. He averaged 14.9 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.1 steals in 29.2 minutes a game, but shot just 37.8 percent overall and 34.6 percent on 7.4 deep tries per contest.
Guy will polish things up at Stockton in the G-League while getting up to 45 days with the parent Kings in the process.
Marinkovic, already 22, has played seven seasons with KK Partizan’s program in Serbia, progressing from the junior to senior team along the way.
Last season, he averaged 11.7 points and 2.4 rebounds in 26.6 minutes per game, starting 50 of Partizan’s 60 games across domestic, Adriatic League, Serbian Cup and Eurocup competitions. He shot 42.9 percent overall and hit 35.0 percent on 4.7 3-point attempts per game.
He’s a long shot at best to make the Association.
Guy and James have potential, at least, even if both are still very raw. With three second-round picks to work with, that’s not the worst result.