2026 NBA Draft Needs: Sacramento Kings

The Sacramento Kings seem cursed. Making the 2023 playoffs off the momentum of the “Light the Beam” team, after not seeing the playoffs since 2006, appeared to be a turning point. Instead, that beam of hope was extinguished. They haven’t made the playoffs since; key pieces of that team have regressed or been traded, and even their head coach for that year was fired later. That coach, Mike Brown, reversed the Knicks’ fortunes in his very first year at the helm. The Kings need hope again.

State of the Team

Rebuilding: Help wanted, every position needed

Positional Strengths and Weaknesses

Guards

The Kings’ guard corps is Devin Carter and Malik Monk.

Devin Carter is the sole young guard on the roster. He was benched and struggled to see reps early in the season due to veteran guards eating minutes. After the trade deadline, he received more consistent playing time. He has struggled with efficiency the past two seasons, and his threeball declined in his second season. He needs to show major improvement if he’s going to remain on the team.

Malik Monk is one of the top sixth men in the league. He is an elite bench bucket-getter. But because the Kings struggled so heavily on defense, Monk received DNPs, saw his minutes heavily cut, and never found the consistency to establish a rhythm. The Kings need better defenders, or they risk regression from a player who would be a valuable role player on a playoff team.

Wings/Forwards:

The Kings’ wing and forward corps is Keegan Murray, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, De’Andre Hunter, and Nique Clifford.

Forward Keegan Murray had a rough campaign at age 25. He missed the first 15 games because of a thumb injury, then after a left ankle sprain, re-injured that ankle multiple times and only played 22 games. He’s been a bright spot on a struggling team in the past. His defense is rock-solid, but his offense is up-and-down. He might never make an All-Star team, but he should be a long-time starter.

Zach LaVine is an expensive, regressing, score-first wing. His best years as a volume scorer are behind him, and the Kings won’t be able to trade him next year because he carries a $48 million price tag. DeMar DeRozan is a mid-range sharpshooter. He can still take over a game offensively, but those moments are fading as he turns 37 this coming season.

De’Andre Hunter couldn’t put it all together in Atlanta or Cleveland. His 2024-25 campaign featured great threeball shooting, and he finished fourth in Sixth Man of the Year voting, but this past year might indicate that season was an outlier. He’s 28 and will be steady on both ends of the floor; he’s at his ceiling as a role player. Rookie Nique Clifford had his share of bad shooting nights, but he also showed flashes of the smart, scoring wing he was projected to be out of the draft. He’s already 24, but fully adjusting to the NBA should unlock his upside as a consistent starter.

Bigs

The Kings’ big corps is Domantas Sabonis and Maxime Raynaud

Domantas Sabonis is a truly special offensive talent at the center position. However, he’s coming off a season-ending meniscus tear, is 30 years old, and the team is far from competing. Sabonis also has a massive $40+ million contract that makes him difficult to move. He would be an asset to a competing team, and the Kings should look to deal him. Finding a suitor willing to take on his contract will be the challenge.

Maxime Raynaud had an excellent rookie year with the Kings. His offense was measured and high percentage. It was a big reason he started 56 games. However, his athleticism limits him; he isn’t a great rim protector, and he’s 23. He’ll likely start for the Kings in the future, but his ceiling on a contending team would be a high-level backup big or sixth man.

Draft Needs

The Kings are in a position where they are truly rebuilding from the ground up. Outside of Devin Carter and Keegan Murray, their other young players don’t have All-Star ceilings. What this roster needs is stability. They need a foundational player to build around, or at least a player who will make it to a second contract with the team. In this draft, they just missed out on a top three pick and are now tasked with finding elite talent with the hand they’ve been dealt.

Prospects Who Fit

The Kings have the 7th, 34th, and 45th overall picks

Bennett Stirtz (PG/Guard, Iowa)

The Kings need a full reset, and while the seventh overall pick offers tons of available talent, there are not many franchise-altering talents on the board. The Kings can look to trade down and load up on picks in next year’s draft, hoping for better lottery odds. Trading down, they would have the opportunity to pick up Iowa point guard Bennett Stirtz. At 6-foot-2, 186 pounds, with a 6-foot-6 wingspan, Stirtz is one of the oldest prospects in the draft, turning 23 in October. But what he lacks in potential, he makes up for in immediate impact and long-term stability.

Stirtz isn’t the franchise piece Kings fans would hope for but would be a fan favorite by the time he retires. Stirtz lacks elite athleticism; he lacks the size and speed to keep up with top NBA guards on defense. But he has an elite processor and is a maestro in the pick-and-roll. He possesses one of the most dynamic and translatable shooting mechanics in the draft. Stirtz is also a true ironman. He led college basketball in minutes played for the past two years, never wanting to leave the floor, and leaving everything on the court.

Stirtz offers the Kings a starting point guard who can dish to their aging roster, raising their trade value, while sticking around as a sixth man on a competing team down the road. His true shooting percentage of 60.7% on a 26.9% usage rate, along with 35.8% on 6.9 three-point attempts per night, points to a legitimate NBA contributor. His 2.44 assist-to-turnover ratio with 4.4 assists and 1.8 turnovers per game, all while leading Iowa to the second round of March Madness, is impressive.

Sacramento can’t expect Stirtz to be a Hall of Famer, but preparing the team for their next superstar is the right move. No matter how highly touted a college or international prospect may be, there needs to be infrastructure in place to give them the best chance of developing. No player wins by themselves. Trading down, getting a steady, finesse-based ball-handler who can shoot with the best of them and hustles hard every minute, is the type of player needed on a rebuilding team.

Darryn Peterson (SG/Guard, Kansas)

Just as easily as they could trade down, they could also trade up and take a swing at one of the top prospects in this year’s draft: Darryn Peterson. At 6-foot-5, 199 pounds, with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, and only 19 years old, Peterson is a truly special talent. His shot-making and athleticism rise to the level of franchise cornerstones. However, a scary ER visit with a full-body cramp due to high levels of creatine sidelined Peterson early in the season and lingered the rest of the year.

Peterson’s efficiency wasn’t great; part of this was the prior cramping issue and his incredibly high usage rate of 33.5%. His on-ball abilities lagged, his handle needs refinement, but his off-ball movement and shooting were excellent. He shot 38.2% on 6.9 three-point attempts per game, putting him in elite company at that volume. He never got to show much playmaking, as his in-and-out season didn’t create the best environment for building chemistry, resulting in a 1.0 assist-to-turnover ratio with 1.6 assists to 1.6 turnovers per game.

Peterson’s ceiling could be more clearly seen on his high school tape, where he played with more explosiveness, fewer worries, and as the primary ball-handler. His finishing, both in high school and college, is incredible. What the Kings can know for sure is that despite the lingering cramping issue, Peterson was still one of the top players in the country at the college level. Averaging 20.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game, while only playing 29 minutes per game is stunning for any 19-year-old.

The Kings need to rebuild desperately, and while the conditions aren’t ideal for a new franchise player, Peterson has the potential and the medical concerns that can make him fall in the draft and land within reach at pick two or three. They don’t need him to turn around the franchise overnight, but adding a player who can end up being the best in the class after a couple years of focused development is tempting. Peterson will need time to reach his ceiling, but he has all the tools to reach that superstar version of himself on a team that doesn’t need him to produce immediately.