For the first time since 2006, the Sacramento Kings will not be participants in the NBA Draft Lottery.
Typically, a team’s departure from the lottery after an extended stay is something to celebrate. It means they made the playoffs.
The 2018-19 Sacramento Kings indeed came close to their first berth in over a decade, flirting with the eighth seed deep into March. But Sacramento will not have any ping-pong balls in this year’s lottery because of a lousy trade way back in 2015, not a playoff appearance. The Boston Celtics will make the pick for the Kings if it lands between 2 and 14, and the Philadelphia 76ers will get it if the pick happens to jump all the way up to number one.
It was bittersweetly refreshing as a Kings fan too, for once, not having to talk about the draft starting in early December. It was made even more enjoyable by the team’s surprise success, which caused the value of their traded-away pick to plummet.
If the odds hold true, Sacramento will be giving away the 14th pick in the draft. While a commodity like a mid-first round selection would be nice to have, it is a far cry from the top-five pick that the Kings were projected to give away.
Sacramento does have three second-round picks (#40, #47, #60) as well as a couple of tradable assets, giving Vlade Divac and the front office the ability to make at least some noise on draft night. Perhaps a luxury tax-violating team will be looking to offload a contract and give up a mid-first-round pick to do so.
The lottery begins on Tuesday at 5:30 P.M. Pacific Time.