

Let's turn back the clock to May 19, 2009. I was on my honeymoon in San Francisco, CA. My new wife was a little upset with me though, because I made her hit pause on the trip so I could watch the NBA Draft Lottery. The Kings had a 25% shot at the top pick & I hoped that our rotten Lottery luck would finally change that night.



Well, as it turns out, that was hope sung in the key of madness. We fell all the way to 4th, costing us a chance at Blake Griffin, who would go to the Clippers and help to finally turn that franchise around. The 2008-09 season was where the Kings finally hit rock bottom after failing to reload & so it's where I've chosen to begin our look at how draft mishaps have caused this franchise to miss the playoffs for almost a decade.

2009 - When Griffin broke his kneecap & missed the entire season, I think I speak for most Kings fans when I say we felt like we'd won the draft. Considering Tyreke Evans, whom we'd taken at 4th overall, became just the fourth rookie in history to average 20 points, 5 assists, & 5 rebounds a game, we were right to feel good about our future. Maybe it wouldn't be such a long rebuild after all... Well, six years later and Evans has long since moved on to New Orleans. All the pre-draft reports said we loved a skinny sharpshooter from Davidson named Stephen Curry. Evans immense physical gifts caused us to pass though, and as Curry leads the Warrios to the best record in the Western conference, I'm sure he can hear the collective sigh of regret coming from an hour & half up the road in Sacramento.

Also Could Of Taken: Ricky Rubio, PG; DeMar DeRozan, SG; Jrue Holliday, PG; Ty Lawson, PG: Jeff Teague, PG. There were seven starting point guards taken in the 2009 Draft; The Kings took the one who wasn't really a point guard. The position continues to haunt us. We took Jon Brockman in the 2nd, ahead of Jodie Meeks, Patrick Beverley, Danny Green, Chase Budinger, all useful NBA players.

2010 - Again, the ping pong balls saw fit to damage the Kings, dropping us from 3rd to 5th. However, we landed DeMarcus Cousins, so all is forgiven. BOOOOOOOGIE!!

Also Could Of Taken - No one. Cousins is the best player from this draft, no matter what John Wall & Paul George try to tell you. Took Hassan Whiteside in the 2nd, who promptly was run out of the league. Five years later he has reemerged with Miami as a defensive force, but the Kings can't be blamed here. He was a 7 footer with immense upside. It just didn't work out. At this point, we had Evans & Cousins and thought maybe the future was bright.

2011 - Holy crap, how wrong we were. This is where the wheels well & truly came flying off the cart. Firstly, again, the Lottery Gods chose to smite the Kings, dropping us from 5th to 7th. As Kings fans know, we have a long, complicated history with the 7th pick, and being back in that spot didn't fill any of us with confidence. Then, on draft day, came word that we had agreed to trade Beno Udrih & the 7th pick as part of a three team deal that brought back John Salmons & the 10th pick, which we spent on media darling (but not actual NBA player) Jimmer Fredette. Salmons had a longer, more expensive contract that Udrih, and at that point, wasn't even as good as Beno, whom we had pulled off the waiver wire to shore up the PG spot, which, was again shaky after we finally learned that Evans wasn't a PG. The thinking went that Jimmer could be a NBA PG, as well as sell a whole lot of jerseys. I'm not sure there has been a more wrong line of thought in recent NBA history.



Also Could Of Taken - The trade was a disaster, even more so when you remember we passed on Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, the Morris brothers, Nikola Vucevic, Iman Shumpert, Tobias Harris, Kenneth Faried, Nikola Mirotic, & Jimmy Butler. We took Tyler Honeycutt early in the 2nd, passing on Chandler Parsons. The only thing that saved the 2011 Draft from being an F minus, was a short, explosive PG we took with the 60th pick, Isaiah Thomas.

2012 - Well, this draft was nice in the sense that the lottery didn't knock us down any rungs. We had the 5th worst record & we got the 5th pick. This draft was a disaster for who we selected. If you don't remember Thomas Robinson from Kansas, I wouldn't blame you. He was traded to Houston midway through his rookie season. Shock of shocks, the undersized power forward didn't fit in alongside emerging star Cousins, and his work ethic was being questioned. Trading him was the right move, as three other teams have given up on him since then. He currently toils for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Also Could Of Taken - Hoo boy, here's where things get ugly. We took Robinson 5th. Damian Lilliard went 6th. For a franchise on a seeminglly endless search for a long-term answer at PG, we've passed on a shocking number of all-star level talents. Harrison Barnes went 7th. Andre Drummond went 9th. Barnes could of been an answer at SF, Drummond is a natural fit alongside Cousins. Neither are Kings. The 2nd round was a story of a huge near miss. We picked 36th overall, drafted Orlando Johnson & traded his rights to Indiana for some desperately needed cash. Who went 35th? Defensive Player of the Year candidate Draymond Green. This has gotten depressing.

2013 - Welcome to one of the worst drafts in recent memory! The five best players (in no particular order) from this draft so far were drafted at 2, 15, 27, 6... and then a bunch of guys for the fifth spot, including the Kings pick, Ben McLemore! An athletic marvel of a SG, he's taken a big step forward in year two. There is hope here. No one from the 2nd rd has really distinguished themselves, so getting a kid who can handle minutes at PG in Ray McCallum is a win.

Also Could Of Taken - When McLemore fell to 7, it was a huge shock. There was talk he might have gone 1st overall. The players who have distinguished themselves weren't really in consideration at # 7. The Greek Freak went 15. Rudy Gobert went 27. These were real lottery tickets that just happened to pay off.

2014 - The Lottery Gods strike again! Knocking us from 7 to 8. That doesn't sound like much, but it meant the difference between a really strong prospect like Julius Randle & picking from the second tier. We settled on SG Nik Stauskas, The King of the North, Sauce Castillo. Critics will say we took our second athletically challenged (i.e. white) "best shooter in the draft" in four years. In Nik's defense, not very many top ten picks have to deal with three coaches in their first season. It's starting to look like Coach Karl has rebuilt some of that confidence, which can only help the Kings, be it for next season or in a trade.

Also Could Of Taken - It's really too soon to get super judgemental about this draft. Lots of experts love PG Elfrid Payton, but I am nervous about the long term viability of a PG who cannot shoot. Doug McDermott would of been an interesting option as a stretch 4 for us, as would of Adrien Payne. But let's give it another year before we openly mock the 2014 Draft.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and when a butterfly flaps it's wings, etc. If we draft Curry in 2009, then maybe we aren't in a position to draft Cousins in 2010. Or if we taken Lilliard in 2012, then we aren't in a position to trade for Rudy, etc. But for fun (or to make myself miserable), let's just look at what our roster could of been:

PG - Steph Curry (09), Isaiah Thomas (11)

SG - Ben McLemore(13) Danny Green (09)

SF - Kawhi Leonard (11), Chandler Parsons (11)

PF - DeMarcus Cousins (10), Jason Thompson (08)

C - Andre Drummond (12) Hassan Whiteside (10)

Of course, keeping that much young talent is not financially realistic, but wow. Even if we identified Cousins, Curry, Leonard, & Drummond as the core, that's a team would content for championships. The point of all this is to highlight how critical making the right decision at the draft is to a franchise like Sacramento. The Kings Golden Age was built on one incredible trade, one big free agent, and a ton of savvy drafting. But Webber & Vlade don't do anything in Sacramento without Jason Williams, Peja, Hedo, etc. Similarly, we will waste the career of DeMarcus Cousins & Rudy Gay unless we start nailing these draft picks.

I've said it before, I'll say it again...

It's hard out here for a Kings fan