In his bid to prevent tanking among NBA teams, commissioner Adam Silver introduced a new draft system. Unfortunately, it heavily penalizes teams in the league's basement, which the Sacramento Kings are projected to be once again. That could hamstring the Kings whole rebuild strategy.
Silver being locked in on tanking is nothing new, but it reached new levels towards the end of the 2025-2026. Under the old draft system, teams at the bottom of the league would sometimes intentionally lose to get a better chance at a high draft pick. It became part of the plan.
Additionally, tanking could be used to preserve draft picks traded with certain protections. If the Kings sent a couple of first round picks to the Pistons for Jalen Duren, they could attach protections like Sacramento finishing between 8th and 12th. Tanking their way to dead last offsets that.
The brand new 3-2-1 system is in effect for 2027
As part of an attempt to curtail tanking, the 3-2-1 draft system turns the practice into a real problem. Draft lottery balls are now assigned in an order to make tanking a bad way to get the best odds. The teams with the worst three records in the league get relegated, and only receive two balls.
In turn, that lowers the odds of getting the number one pick significantly. The best chances go to the teams who finished with the fourth through 10th worst records. They get three balls and better odds. If you're a play-in tournament loser, you get just one ball, which just seems like adding insult to injury.
Making the situation more difficult is the fact that the lottery has now expanded to 16 teams and all of them are decided by the lottery. The only benefit of being one of the three worst teams in the league in this situation is that the lowest you can get is 12th pick while everyone can go as low as 16.
Why this is a problem for the Kings
An increasing number of sports news outlets are projecting that Sacramento will finish in 30th place this year, putting them square in the relegation zone. For a team that relies on the draft as a huge part of the rebuild, that could lead to real problems in the next couple of years.
While this system is supposedly designed to tank tanking, it unfairly targets teams like the Kings who are just naturally bad. Sacramento wasn't trying to tank last season. In fact, they had a late season push that led to more victories and likely cost them a better position in the 2026 draft.
Oddly enough, finishing as the fifth worst team in the league in 2026 would have gotten the Kings a great chance at the number on pick under the 3-2-1 system. If they can out perform their projections in 2027, they might be able to get a similar spot in the draft, just with the added risk of falling to 16th.
After the lottery, the Kings could still trade their way to a better pick if they feel the need to. It's also worth noting that the first of their worst contracts expires in 2027, giving them more room to work with in the free agent market. At that point, they hopefully won't be so reliant on the draft to grow.
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