Over the past year, general manager Scott Perry has been trying to usher the Sacramento Kings through what will be an arduous rebuild process. The problem is that this franchise has a terrible track record for developing young players. If that doesn't change, this rebuild is going nowhere fast.
After the end of Rick Adelman's tenure as the Kings' head coach, the Kings spent the last two decades becoming utterly irrelevant. Forget the finals or the playoffs. Even having a season above .500 would be a massive accomplishment worth celebrating with a parade in Sacramento.
Perry's goal is to change that. He believes that a youth-oriented movement on the roster could at least get the Kings back in the mix. Realistically, drafting rookies and signing young players to cheap contracts are his only moves for rebuilding this team at the moment. The Kings have problems.
For the most part, those issues are financial and are directly related to the contracts of Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine. It's not just them, but it is mostly them. As those financial blocks are moved, most likely due to attrition, the avenues for Perry's rebuild will grow dramatically.
The Kings may botch their own future yet again
For now, Perry's focus is the draft, and he has done well. Over the last two years, he has brought in Nique Clifford, Maxime Raynaud, Dylan Cardwell, Darius Acuff Jr., Alex Karaban, and Emanuel Sharp. That doesn't count other smart signings, like getting Jonathan Mogbo on a two-way contract.
None of that is the problem. The concerns come from the Kings' frequent missteps in developing young talent. Recent examples include Keon Ellis and Devin Carter, but this issue goes back to Tyreke Evans in 2009. This is an ongoing problem that has hamstringed any roster improvement.
You could argue that the Kings did a good job with Raynaud and Cardwell last season, but that was basically accidental. Injuries forced Doug Christie to put those two to work, and they excelled. Otherwise, Christie and his coaching staff likely would have left the duo on the bench.
The biggest concern right now has to be Acuff. Sacramento's development strategy for him seems to be to play a lot of minutes, shoot non-stop, and see what happens. That should build some really bad habits. If Perry wants this rebuild to work, the Kings need a better development plan than just hope.
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