The 2024 NBA Draft is only a few days away, and now that the Sacramento Kings have agreed to an extension with their precious combo guard Malik Monk, our focus has shifted to preparing for the big day.
While there is still a chance that the 13th overall pick is included in part of a blockbuster win-now trade to help the Kings land an upgrade at power forward, for now, we're going to operate under the assumption that they are going to keep that pick.
With that in mind, let's take a look at what all the mainstream mock drafts (Yahoo, ESPN, The Ringer, Bleacher Report, and The Athletic) to see what the media world thinks we will do with our first round pick.
Website | Projection for 13th Overall Pick |
|---|---|
Yahoo | Carlton Carrington |
ESPN | Ron Holland |
The Ringer | Nikola Topic |
Bleacher Report | Kel'el Ware |
The Athletic | Rob Dillingham |
Would you look at that – five different publications and five different projections. That isn't a common occurrence, either. For instance, four of these five publications project the Detroit Pistons to take Matas Buzelis.
Not only does each of these websites have the Kings selecting a different player, but there are multiple different player archetypes being forecasted here. Carlton Carrington and Rob Dillingham are more of offense-first combo guards. Kel'el Ware is a big. Nikola Topic is an on-ball creator. And Ron Holland is a two-way wing/forward.
This gets at two major points. First, this draft really is all over the place. It's not that there isn't talent. It's just that there isn't a clear talent hierarchy. There are guys who could go number four that people thought would go number 20, and there are people who could fall out of the first round that some people thought would go in the lottery.
The other big takeaway here is that the Kings could go in a lot of different directions with the 13th overall pick. They could draft a backup center to replace Alex Len and JaVale McGee. They could add some more defense on the perimeter. They could add some instant offense off the bench in case Monk gets injured again or Kevin Huerter gets traded.
Interestingly enough, none of these publications project them to take a power forward, which I believe is their biggest area of need at this point in time.