2017 NBA re-Draft: De’Aaron Fox landing spot, Kings selection

Six years after the Sacramento Kings wisely selected point guard De’Aaron Fox with the 5th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft, the All-Star led the Kings to the playoffs for the first time in 16 years. Fox was the third point guard selected but ended up being the only point guard in this draft with an All-Star appearance and now an All-NBA appearance. The Kings were lucky that there were two “better” point guard prospects at the time, as they got their franchise guard to fall to them.

Now, six years later, we can ask the question: what if this draft happened today? If we were to re-draft the 2017 NBA draft, who falls where? Who do the Kings land at pick five, and what team takes De’Aaron Fox?

For this re-draft, I will make picks based mainly on team-need at the time, as there is a particular All-Star that still fell quite far. I will keep the draft order as it was on draft night, including any trades that happened. Here we will start with pick 10:

Original Pick:  Zach Collins

On draft night, the Trail Blazers traded up to the 10th pick from the Kings, where they selected Collins. Kyle Kuzma gives the Trail Blazers another reason to trade up, as he fits the hole they were looking to fill. Kuzma originally fell to 27th, where he was drafted by Brooklyn but traded to the Lakers on draft night.

Kuzma is coming off a career year with the Washington Wizards, averaging 21.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, and a career-high 3.7 assists per game. He would join Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and Jusuf Nurkic on this Trail Blazers squad, building a solid core of guys and helping their offense outside of that talented backcourt.