Tankathon Update: The Kings Sputter to the End

Welp, the end of another season is nigh, and the Kings look to be in a semi-familiar spot. With Orlando’s win Sunday night, Sacramento is all but assured to have the 6 spot in the ping pong ball supply. Here are some notes:

Good news and bad news:

Between 2005 and 2015, the sixth worst team has moved up 5 times, twice to #1, twice to #2, and once to #3.

That’s 50% of the time.

But

Those 5 picks were:

Andrew Bogut
Greg Oden
Hasheem Thabeet
Evan Turner
Enes Kanter

— Carmichael Dave (@CarmichaelDave) April 9, 2018

Yikes. YIIIIIIKES.

It doesn’t get much better when you look at the last few years of players taken at 6:

Isaac

Hield

Willie Cauley-Stein

Marcus Smart

Nerlens Noel

Damian Lillard

Jan Vesely

Ekpe Udoh

Jonny Flynn

Danilo Gallinari

Yi Jianlian

Brandon Roy

Martell Webster

Josh Childress

Now, of course past is most certainly not prologue, and the next franchise player could be just sitting there. By now, you’ve probably already mentioned in your head the names Donovan Mitchell, Kyle Kuzma, or even Dennis Smith. It happens. But the odds are against it.

Then again, when aren’t the odds against the Kings? Maybe we are due for a break.

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