NBA GMs Leave Sacramento Kings Out Of Playoff Predictions
Few people are closer to the game than NBA general managers, and their yearly survey provides some of the best lists and rankings for various questions around the league.
The NBA’s GM survey was released on Thursday, and there is a handful of mentions of the Sacramento Kings and De’Aaron Fox.
One notable Kings absence in the survey is in the predictions for the eight playoff seeds. The actual question posed to the GMs was “Rank the top four teams in each conference.” So while it is not technically a direct snub, the results look an awful lot like a playoff prediction:
1. LA Clippers
2. Denver
3. LA Lakers
4. Utah
5. Houston
6. Golden State
7. Portland
8. San Antonio
The Kings are hoping for a solid season series against the Spurs in order to qualify for a playoff spot, but the GMs seem to be siding with history. The Spurs have been to the playoffs in 22 straight seasons and have not been an eight seed over that span.
The other two mentions of the Kings came when they placed fourth in the polling for “Which team has the most promising young core?”, and they received votes for “Team most fun to watch”. This proves that general managers, some of the closest people to the game, are more aware of the Kings potential than the major media outlets who regularly leave Sacramento off of lists like these.
Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox was mentioned twice in the survey, receiving the most votes in both categories.
He received 19% of the vote for player most likely to have a breakout season. If Fox’s has yet another breakout season under his belt after finishing third in “Most Improved Player” voting last year, Sacramento would likely upend the Spurs for that 8 seed.
Fox also finished with the most voted for the fastest player. This one can not be argued no matter how large of a bias there may be against the Kings. He dominated the voting by receiving 64%, more than twice as much as second-place Russell Westbrook who received 25%.
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One could argue that Buddy Hield was snubbed in the survey, as he did not receive a single vote for “best pure shooter”. The only three players to receive votes were Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and J.J. Redick.