Everyone (I mean the teams competing for the top of the 2019 draft) is getting better but the Kings
This pick is getting more valuable by the day.
Atlanta and Chicago are also staying pat, but yes, the Kings look to be the bottom 5 team many around here expect. Those three teams are the only ones to have not added any players via free agency or trade so far this summer.
It's true that Sacramento hasn't added players thru trade or free agency. However, they did pick up Marvin Bagley and they'll be adding a redshirted Harry Giles. Both players are question marks. Before his ACL injury, Giles was expected to go at the top of the lottery. If he has recovered - and some players do fully recover from an ACL - he could be a ROY-type talent or close to it. How many were ready to write off Simmons and Embiid after their injuries? Bagley is another question mark. His motor and fluidity are outstanding, but his role and ability to defend are less clear. That could be a dynamic young frontcourt that will at least vault the Kings into mediocrity ... or just a pair of too-young players who don't move the needle in the ridiculously competitive West.
You could say the same things about the Hawks with Trey Young, Kevin Huerter, and Omari Spellman, or the Bulls with Wendell Carter Jr. and Chandler Hutchison. The likelihood that any set of these rookies push their respective teams, who were all in the bottom 5 of point differential per 100 possessions, into even mediocrity is incredibly low. Again, Sacramento was 29th in net rating. The difference between them and the mediocre Charlotte Hornets (20th in net rating) was greater than the difference between Charlotte and Toronto (3rd in net rating). It’s going to be borderline impossible for the Kings to improve that much on the scoreboard, so it will take a lot of good luck for them to improve even half that much and at the same time outperform their expected win total by 4-5 wins again.
It’s much more likely that we lose the #1 pick to Philadelphia than Sacramento improves to the 8-12th team range in the league.
The Kings have a lot more young talent then the Hawks and Bulls though, and thus you would expect them to improve a much faster rate. They also were a better team then those 2 last year. I think the Kings are a 30 win team this year (they won 27 last year). Now where that ultimately ends up in the standings I have no idea, but I think they have a very strong foundation for future success with some low level mediocrity this year
PG - Fox, Mason
SG - Hield, Temple, Shumpert
SF - Bogdanovic, Jackson
PF - Bagley, Labissiere, Randolph, Giles, Hayes
C - WCS, Koufos
There is a lot of young talent floating around that team, sprinkled in with a few vets. And I really like Bagley this year as I think he wins the ROY.