Via Kentucky Sports Radio
Key Players: De'Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, the plethora of young big men
After years of kissing and making up, the DeMarcus Cousins-Sacramento Kings' divorce finally happened last season; simply put, it was messy. The Kings' front office promised Cousins he wouldn't be traded--only to leave him in New Orleans during All-Star weekend. Thanks to the Boogie exchange, the Kings added Buddy Hield and a first-round pick that turned into North Carolina wing Justin Jackson. Along with Jackson, the Kings added Lonzo-kryptonite De'Aaron Fox, Kansas guard Frank Mason, and Duke project Harry Giles. In a shocking form of character development, the Kings smartly added nontoxic veterans around their young pieces. Yes, you read that right, "Kings", "smartly" , and "nontoxic" all in the same sentence. Those veterans came in the form of a 3-year $57 million George Hill, 1-year $8 million Vince Carter, and a 2-year $24 million trapper (formerly known as Zach Randolph).
Best Case Scenario
Via ESPN.com
It's been a brutal 10 years for Kings' fans, but after a long faith-challenging fight the Kings finally appear to be cancer-free. For the first time in recent memory, there's no Kings' talk about trade rumors or a coach-player dispute, and even the constant questioning of Sacramento's ownership has gone quiet. The only questions surrounding Sacramento this season is who's going to develop and how fast. Since De'Aaron Fox and Justin Jackson are expected to have rookie growing pains, that development should come from Buddy Hield and the young Boogie replacements: Willie Cauley-Stein, Skal Labissiere, and Georgios Papagiannis. After being traded, Hield almost doubled his scoring averages from 8.6 to 15.1 points a night; he and Fox are the clear Kings' backcourt of the future. However, the main objective for Sacramento's upcoming season should be finding the front court of their future.
Not one of the first-rounders Cauley-Stein, Labissiere, or Papagiannis averaged more that 8.8 points a game last season. 20th overall pick Harry Giles has the highest potential of any, and according to teammate Justin Jackson,"looks like he's back." Until one of those young bigs step up, the Kings plan to lean on the dependable scorer Zach Randolph.
Worst Case Scenario
Via A Royal Pain
How does one describe a team's worst case scenario, when that team specializes in worst case scenarios? You describe history repeating itself. The worst thing the Kings can do is continue the trend of being the Kings; that trend spells trouble for fifth overall pick De'Aaron Fox. Sacramento hasn't had a draft pick pan out since Kevin Martin in 2004. The Kings drafted and ruined the likes of Tyreke Evans, Thomas Robinson, Nik Stauskas, Ben Mclemore, and the clock is ticking on Willie Cauley-Stein. However not all picks have been failures, Sacramento has managed to draft and give up on future All-Stars Hassan Whiteside, DeMarcus Cousins, and Isaiah Thomas before reaping the rewards. Sacramento somehow botching the career of De'Aaron Fox or any of their other great draft picks only adds to what looks to be a long rebuild.
Prediction: 34-48