Sacramento Kings mailbag: Is it too early to repick the 2022 NBA Draft?

It’s time to open the mailbag!

Welcome back to the Sactown Sports Kings‘ mailbag, where we’ll answer all your questions about the Sacramento Kings. Every week, we’ll rotate hosts to answer your questions, this week, Nick Cattles and Ramie Makhlouf will take a crack at your questions.

Onto your questions:

Should we change the goal for this team from making the play-in to being a playoff team? 

Matthew, via that Sactown Sports text line

Yeah, I’ve been saying that since the summer league Matthew. Yeah, it should be playoffs. This team is, I think they stick around the playoff picture. And it’s not just because of what the Kings are doing. The landscape and the picture of the Western Conference has changed. I’m not going to go through every single team with you. But if you look at it, there aren’t a lot of teams behind the Kings that you look at and go, “oh, they’re gonna figure it out and turn it around.” And I don’t think the teams ahead of them are necessarily, not all of them, I’m not saying the Kings are the best team in the Western Conference, but not everybody ahead of them is out of reach. I think the King stay in the mix for the top five, top six, maybe even top four teams in the Western Conference.

Who has been more important to the Kings this year, De’Aaron Fox or Domantas Sabonis? 

Mark, via that Sactown Sports text line

I think it’s Domas. I think Domas is the most important player on this team. He facilitates the offense, his strength in physicality down in the paint, and competitiveness. And also you don’t really have anybody who can replace Domas. I mean, you’re playing [Chimezie] Metu
at small ball five right now, if Domas went down with an injury, and hopefully, he doesn’t, but if he went down with an injury you’re left with Richaun Holmes and Alex Len, who aren’t playing right now. They’re completely out of the rotation. So for me, because of his uniqueness, his importance to the offense, and also the fact that you just lacked depth at his position, Domas. I would roll with Domas being more important than De’Aaron Fox.

Is it too early to say the Sacramento Kings should have selected Bennedict Mathurin or Jaden Ivey over Keegan Murray?

Robert, via that Sactown Sports text line

Yeah, I think it is. And also you have to look at why you made the pick. And I don’t think it’s a secret to anybody that most people going into the draft knew those guys probably had higher ceilings than Keegan Murray. But those were teams, organizations that were looking to build for three, four years down the road. The Kings made the play-in or the playoff, their number one objective for this year, and Keegan Murray, I still think is the most NBA-ready guy and that will play out over the course of 82 games. So even big picture-wise, we don’t know who’s gonna be the best player. And when you look at why they drafted Keegan Murray versus those other guys, I think it still makes sense for the Sacramento Kings.

Thank you for all the submissions. Have a question? Text us at 916-339-1140 or email us at kingsmailbag@sactownsports.com.

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