We all know too well about the Sacramento Kings litany of horrible draft picks. Ever since the Kings moved to Sacramento 30 years ago, it seems like the team was making a deal with the devil. The devil would grant the Kings the move from Kansas City, if in return, the Kings picked players that would either get injured severely that it ended their career (Bobby Hurley), commit suicide (Ricky Berry), or just never really worked out (Jimmer Fredette). But there is one draft pick that has some intrigue with the Kings, and his name is Ben McLemore.
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Granted, McLemore began his career the same way the other Kings draft picks did, looking like wasted potential. But this season, McLemore has side tracked off of the same career path the ghost of Kings’ rookie past has taken, and carved his own path out of sticks and stones.
In his rookie season, McLemore was averaging splits (points/rebounds/FG%/3PT%) of 8/2/37/32, not promising from a rookie who was expected to stabilize the always volatile Kings’ shooting guard spot. But this season, those numbers have jumped to 11/3/44/36, and this is with three – yes three! – coaches in one season.
In addition to posting better offensive numbers, McLemore has also grown to become the Kings best on-ball defender, in other words, he can guard the opposing team’s best perimeter players one-on-one. This is exactly what the Kings hoped he would develop into when they took him as the seventh pick in the 2013 Draft.
Although we as Kings’ fans have great reason to be excited about McLemore’s progression, we should also worry as well. Thanks to Sacramento’s Titanic-like meltdown this season, the Kings may be looking to re-work the roster, and with DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay basically untradeable, and a first round pick that is protected, the Kings have little assets to do a trade to improve the talent on the roster – except for McLemore.
This is the quagmire the Kings’ front office is stuck in. McLemore is a rising talent, but the talent needs to improve, and with Sacramento having the unfortunate label of being an undesirable place for free agents, the only way the Kings are going to improve this roster is by trade, and that means dangling McLemore as the centerpiece of any trade.
In a lot of ways, the Kings really have no choice. With George Karl coming aboard, and the new arena opening in a couple of years, the Kings front office has to put together a winning team now. McLemore may be really good in the future, but how long can the Kings really wait on that talent to fully blossom when there are players out there on miserable teams that can help Sacramento out now?
Whatever the Kings decide, it has to do it soon, as Kings’ fans are growing restless over the losing. Nobody wants to see McLemore go, but if that means getting better players in return, then so be it.