2020 NBA Draft: Can Kings Afford To Draft Best Player Available?

The Sacramento Kings could find themselves in a position that is unfamiliar to them: the ability to draft the best player available in the 2020 NBA Draft.

As teams use the current hiatus to prepare themselves for the 2020 NBA Draft, the Sacramento Kings front office has a few questions to ask themselves before they decide whose film to break down; Which front court players get re-signed? What is the depth like on the wing? Is Bogdan Bogdanovic getting a new contract, and if so, does Buddy Hield get traded?

All of those questions lead to the presumption that the Kings will likely have multiple holes to fill on their roster, which might actually be a blessing in disguise when it comes to the upcoming draft.

When approaching an NBA Draft, is it easy to want to identify your team’s most glaring weakness and address it. But that might not be possible for Sacramento this year. The crop of talent in this year’s draft is considered to be weaker than in year’s past, and its most abundant commodity is point guards, which is the one position the Kings are seemingly set at.

There are the unlikely instances in which they could get lucky. As it currently stands, Sacramento has a 6.1 percent chance of moving in to the top-4, which would give them a shot at one of the few standout prospects in this year’s class. There is also the rare instance of one of those players falling to the back end of the lottery, where the Kings have a 93.9 percent chance of being. Neither of those scenarios should be counted on.

If Sacramento were to make their pick based on biggest need, they might end up reaching for a project prospect and possibly wasting yet another lottery pick. What they should instead do is draft the best player available (BPA) and make do on their roster based on the pick. Unless of course, that player is a point guard.

So who might be the best player on the board when the Kings pick comes up in the 12-13 range? If a wing like Isaac Okoro or Devin Vassell is available, then the front office will have killed two birds with one stone by drafting BPA while addressing the teams biggest need, which at the moment seems to be wing depth.

But if both of those guys are off the board, and a guy like Killian Hayes or RJ Hampton is available, then Sacramento will have a decision to make. Both are listed as combo guards, and adding them to the Kings roster would create a log jam for minutes in the backcourt.

Not if they traded Hield, though. It could be a move that the Kings are considering during the offseason, and the availability of a younger, cheaper option could be the tipping point for Hield’s time in the California capital.

If the BPA is a front court guy like Onyeka Okongwu, then the Kings could make adjustments to their plans for either Alex Len or Harry Giles, or both.

There of course always lies the option to trade out of the pick completely, which could be an even better option depending on the type of offers that they are able to entertain. But if Sacramento does stand pat and makes their selection at the back end of the lottery, they would be wise to draft the best player available. It is something that they are not often able to do.