NBA Draft: 5 best destinations for Ben Simmons

Let’s be honest. The Sacramento Kings haven’t done a lot of things right in the last decade as one of the most futile and dysfunctional organizations in the entire NBA. However, their decision to draft center DeMarcus Cousins No. 5 out of Kentucky in the 2010 NBA Draft was one of the better draft picks made by any team in the last five years. Cousins is a superstar in this league and is the most gifted center arguably since Hakeem Olajuwon.

That being said, Sacramento finds itself again on the outside looking in at a Western Conference playoff spot. Through 69 games, the Kings are 27-42, in 11th place in the Western Conference, and have the seventh-worst record in the NBA.

With a decent to fair chance of getting a great pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, the Kings for all their incompetence may actually be one of the better situations for Simmons to land in this summer’s draft. Ideally, he’d replace either Ben McLemore or Rudy Gay out on the wing, as another ball-handler on the court not named Rajon Rondo.

The Kings seem to have a good duo down low in Cousins and big man Willie Cauley-Stein. With Simmons potentially going to Northern California, that could mean that the lowly Kings might have a shot at landing a top-notch coach to hopefully get them out of a decade’s worth of quagmire on the hardwood.

Could it end up being a chemistry nightmare with Simmons, Cousins, and Rondo, not to mention the constant interruptions from owner Vivek Ranadive and general manager Vlade Divac? Potentially, but Simmons already seems like a player whose floor will end up being Gay’s, a small forward that slashes, can create his own shot, and average 15 points per game for 10 seasons in this league.

Simmons can already distribute the basketball better than Gay and potentially has a better handle of the ball already. If he can get a respectable coach to teach him how to play great defense and most importantly utilize a jump shot, we’re looking at possibly a Kawhi Leonard caliber player with the Kings.

Should Simmons progress into a star by the end of his second season in the league, Sacramento could go from a Western Conference doormat to maybe even a four or five seed with he and Cousins turning the lowly Kings into a winner.

With Sacramento, Simmons won’t have to drastically alter his game. It compares favorably to Gay’s already and that seems to do fine with the Kings. How he develops in his first few years in the league could determine how good Simmons will become.

Next: 3. New Orleans Pelicans