Kings' future draft picks a reminder of the mess Boogie is leaving behind
DeMarcus Cousins is a 26-year-old averaging nearly 28 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists, who ranks seventh in VORP, ninth in PER, 16th in Real Plus-Minus, and 19th in Win Shares - marks of an undeniable superstar in his prime.
The Sacramento Kings haven't won 40 games in more than a decade and just traded that franchise star - with whom they boasted a positive point-differential when he was on the court in two of the last three years - for pennies on the dollar.
There are already plenty of reasons to believe the trade that sent Cousins to New Orleans could be a catastrophic blow to the Kings, and a quick audit of the franchise's upcoming draft picks only reinforces that conclusion.
Sacramento will lose its 2017 first-round pick to Chicago if it falls outside the top 10, but the deplorable team left behind in Boogie's wake should ensure that won't happen. The problem is that no matter how far the Cousins-less Kings fall over the next couple months, they're incapable of striking lottery gold, as the Philadelphia 76ers hold the right to swap picks with them.
Throw in the fact that the Pelicans' first-rounder Sacramento will receive in the Cousins trade is top-three protected, and the absolute best case scenario come lottery night would see the Kings wind up with the No. 2 and No. 4 picks.
Two top-four picks in what's expected to be a loaded draft could propel a successful rebuild, but for that to happen, the Kings would need both their own pick and the Sixers' pick to land in the top two, and for the Pelicans to finish in the bottom four of the overall standings without moving into the top three of the draft.
Considering that New Orleans ranked ahead of eight teams before landing a second All-Star to pair with Anthony Davis, the first-rounder Boogie fetched for Sacramento looks like it will land between 10-15, meaning the Kings will kick-start their rebuild with a top-10 pick (their own) and a mid-first-rounder (Pelicans). Not bad, but not great, either, especially considering this management team's poor draft record.
Playing the percentages, the Kings are unlikely to draft a franchise-changing talent in 2017 to add to a team that appears destined for further futility next year. And if that's the case, then the organization better hope it hits the lottery and finds that savior in 2018, because the Sixers own Sacramento's unprotected first-rounder in 2019, which has Celtics-Nets gongshow potential written all over it.
The trade that put the Kings in this predicament only adds to the lore, as the team had to sweeten the pot for Philadelphia to take Nik Stauskas (who Vivek Ranadive originally viewed as a Curry/Thompson hybrid), Jason Thompson, and Carl Landry off their hands in what was a straight salary dump for Sacramento. The Kings traded those three players - plus the unprotected 2019 pick and swap rights in 2016 and 2017 - for two international prospects who may never suit up in the NBA, in an effort to clear cap space and sign 2015 free agents Rajon Rondo, Kosta Koufos, and Marco Belinelli.
A year-and-a-half later, only Koufos remains.
More than Cousins' emotional outbursts, technical fouls, fines, and suspensions, it was that kind of short-sighted, nonsensical decision-making that prevented the Kings from building a winner around their star big man.
Now that star is gone, but the decision-makers and their self-inflicted wounds remain. And unless Buddy Hield magically morphs into the type of prospect only the Kings' incompetent front office seems to believe he can be, it's going to get a lot darker before any kind of dawn in Sacramento, if there ever is one.
(Photos courtesy: Action Images)