The ping pong balls bounced in Sacramento’s favor at the NBA Draft Lottery.
The Sacramento Kings will have the fourth overall selection at the NBA Draft this June after jumping up at 38th Annual NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday night. Represented by Domantas Sabonis live from Chicago, Sactown will have something to celebrate as they did in fact beat the numbers in tonight’s draw.
Statistically, Sacramento’s odds to land the number one spot were broken down in the following way:
- 12% chance for the 9th pick
- 34.1% for the 8th pick
- 19.7% for the 7th pick
- 8.1 % for the 4th-2nd picks
- 7.5% for the 1st overall pick
Finishing 13th in the Western Conference, the Kings plans to land sweetly in the lottery have always teetered somewhere between the 7th-10th pick range, excluding the No. 2 overall pick selection in 2018 that Sacramento is still trying to forget. Jumping into the top four was the first and only surprise of the 14 teams being represented at the lottery.
Monte McNair is on the clock, as the following weeks will include the NBA Draft Combine, scheduled workouts with prospective rookies and the opportunity to find another face to brush the dust off this franchise. McNair’s draft selections since 2020 have been subjectively successful, landing Haliburton at No. 12 in 2020 and Davion Mitchell at No. 9 in 2021.
With this being his third time drafting, it will be interesting to see where Sacramento pivots as they desperately look for a shooter who can play alongside the Fox and the Ox – or in juxtaposition – flip the pick for other available stock in the league.
This will be newly named head coach Mike Brown’s decision as well, who will join Sacramento’s basketball operations when the Golden State Warriors’ season ends which at the very latest could be June 10.
Another NBA Draft for the Kings for make decisions. Here’s hoping they’re good ones.