Sacramento Kings Interesting Draft Recap
- Joseph Colley
- Jun 24, 2016
- 2 min read
As expected, After the Sacramento Kings dealt Marco Belinelli to the Charlotte Hornets for the 22nd Pick in the Draft. There were some interesting moves made, let's take a look at them:
The Sacramento Kings take the local boy Marquese Chriss a Forward from Washington that graduated from Pleasant Grove High School in Sacramento with the 8th pick but then The Kings then decided to flip him to the Suns for the rights to Bojan Bogdanovic, the Phoenix Suns' 13th and 28th overall picks, and a future 2020 second round draft pick. Chriss averaged 13.7 PPG and 5.4 RPG in 34 games in his final college season.
With the 13th Pick, the Kings shocked a lot of fans and took the 7'2" Center Georgios Papagiannis out of Greece. Many thought the Kings would go with a Guard at this point in the draft but they elected to go with a big man. Last season with Panathinaikos, he averaged 5.6 PPG, 2.3 RPG, while shooting 67.8% from the floor.
With the 22nd pick in the draft (originally Charlotte's pick) the Kings selected Malachi Richardson, Shooting Guard from Syracuse. During his time with the Syracuse Orange, Malachi averaged 13.4 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 2.1 APG. This didn't come as much as a surprise due to the fact that the Kings traded Shooting Guard Marco Bellinelli for this pick, leaving a need at SG.
With the 28th pick in the draft (originally the Phoenix Suns' pick) the Sacramento Kings decided to go big man again and select Skal Labissiere out of Kentucky. Skal was once a big time recruited player coming out of High School. Labissiere, in his only season at Kentucky, averaged 6.6 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and had 1.6 BPG, while shooting 51.6 % from the field.
With the 59th and final pick for the Kings, they selected Buddy Hield's running mate at Oklahoma in Guard Isaiah Cousins. A lot of people didn't expect Cousins to be here for this pick at all. In his final season with the Sooners, Cousins averaged 12.6 PPG, 4.5 RPG, and 4.5 APG, while shooting 40.6% from the field and 41.1% from beyond the arc.
It was definitely an interesting and somewhat strange night for Vlade Divac and the rest of the Kings organization. They turned Marco Belinelli and the 8th pick into Bojan Bogdanovic, Georgios Papagiannis, Malachi Richardson, Skal Labissiere, Isaiah Cousins, and a future 2020 second round pick. That's not a bad haul for a team on Draft Night. More things are sure to come for the Sacramento Kings this offseason. This is just the start.
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