The Whiteboard: The Sacramento Kings should draft whoever they want

The Sacramento Kings are being high-key bullied by teenagers in advance of the 2018 NBA Draft.

Making fun of the Kings is a time-honored tradition among those who follow and cover the NBA, but it’s getting to a whole new level in 2018. Now, teenage players who aren’t even in the NBA yet are getting in on bullying Sacramento.

According to Jonathan Givony during a guest spot on the Lowe Post, several top 2018 NBA Draft prospects including Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Marvin Bagley have refused to send their medical records to Sacramento. Givony went on to say that “a lot” of touted prospects are openly trying to avoid going there.

It should be noted that despite the thing with his medical records, Bagley is not one of them. He is a big fan of the Kings — or at the very least a big fan of ensuring he falls no farther than the second overall pick due to being the only prospect that doesn’t say they hate the Kings.

This is just kind of sad. How can Sacramento ever improve and finally get out of the lottery if the best young players are trying their damndest to stay the hell out of the purple and black?

The simple answer is that the Kings should completely ignore what those players want, at least when it comes to their desire to avoid Sacramento. NBA players have more leverage than their counterparts in most other professional sports, but that doesn’t mean a draft pick can really wriggle out of a team’s grasp.

There is something to be said for the idea of simply waiting a prospect out and trying to win them over. If the Kings think Doncic is a generational talent and the best option for them at No. 2, they should draft him and immediately begin working on convincing him that Sacramento is not so bad.

In the absolute worst case, Sacramento would just be forced to trade him. Despite that risk, taking a shot on the best player available seems like a must for a lottery-mired team like the Kings. It’s certainly a better option than going with a player simply because they say they like the franchise.

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