NBA Executive On Draft – Guys Don’t Want To Play In Sacramento

Despite having the fifth pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft, the Sacramento Kings sure haven’t acted like it. While surrounding teams, both above and below have brought in big name talent for workouts, the Sacramento Kings have spent the majority of their draft workouts evaluating mid-first round and second round talents. Any reason for this? Well, that depends on who you ask. Some say it’s no big deal as teams have often drafted players they didn’t work out, others have said it’s an obvious sign the Kings aren’t interested in keeping their pick and are looking to trade down and some, like an unnamed NBA executive say it’s because nobody wants to play in Sacramento:

"Kidd-Gilchrist, Beal, Barnes & Robinson declined to work out for Kings (6th pick). “I guess guys don’t want to go there,” an NBA exec said."

Whether or not the NBA executive said it in jest or seriousness, we don’t know, but he’s not the first to say anything of that nature – a real shot to the heart of the purple and black faithful.

From a realistic perspective, agents really had little reason to allow any of the top five talents to workout in Sacramento given that the Kings will be picking up the leftovers of the “five player draft”, as many have called it. Whomever falls, be it Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Thomas Robinson or Harrison Barnes – it’s almost inconceivable that they wont become a King assuming Sacramento remains in their draft slot, so working out for the Kings wouldn’t have been very beneficial for any of the draft’s top players.