The fine line between young talent and win-now veterans will be Monte McNair’s delicate dance.
Amidst the discussion around who the Sacramento Kings draft with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, the discourse of shopping the pick has been a quiet Plan B that league executives say might be closer to the clipboard than the Kingdom knows.
According to Mike Scotto of HoopsHype, executives around the NBA are looking to teams like the Kings as well as the Portland Trail Blazers to shop their picks for quality players that can help their franchises “win now”:
Sacramento already has De’Aaron Fox and Davion Mitchell as part of their core for the future, with Donte DiVincenzo set to enter restricted free agency with a $6.61 million qualifying offer. After acquiring Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento has made it clear the goal is to end the franchise’s playoff drought … rival teams are keeping an eye on Sacramento to trade this pick.
Knowing that this is a draft class where frankly mock drafts change every single day outside of lottery numbers 1-3, Sacramento has an opportunity to find generational talent in a youth like Jaden Ivy, Shadeon Sharpe, and Keegan Murray. On the flip side of the coin, those young talents can be the fire starters for other key franchises who are on a looking to move up in the draft, specifically the lottery, and give the Kings more stability rather than more “super team, just young.”
What McNair will do with the pick remains to be seen, as the league is about one month out of the NBA Draft taking place. Could this trade come down to the wire a la Jimmy Butler’s exit from Chicago to Minnesota? It’s likely that a decision like this won’t be made during the combine and invitational workouts, so seeing what Kings’ brass next moves are will be a huge indicator in exactly how they intend on ending the 16-year playoff drought.