As the Sacramento Kings head toward the 2026-27 season, the franchise looks like it’s finally embracing a real rebuild. That makes the last five years of draft picks worth revisiting, because this is exactly the kind of stretch that usually defines where a team is headed: who sticks, who gets moved, and who turns into something somewhere else.
The biggest swing of all came in 2020, when Sacramento landed Tyrese Haliburton at No. 12.
He was considered a top-10 talent then and had even been mocked as high as No. 4-6, so getting him there was seen as a mild surprise. He flashed real brilliance as a rookie, but his fit next to De’Aaron Fox never fully took hold.
Before long, he was sent to the Indiana Pacers in the blockbuster deal that brought Domantas Sabonis to Sacramento.
That trade sparked endless debate, and for a while both sides had reasons to feel good about it. Sabonis helped lead the Kings to their best season in decades and end a record-long playoff drought.
Haliburton, meanwhile, became a star in Indiana and helped the Pacers reach the NBA Finals. Then Haliburton tore his Achilles in the Finals and is set to return this season.
Indiana now looks built to contend with him at the center of it all for years to come, while Sacramento is trying to trade Sabonis as part of its rebuild. Right now, the winner of that deal is pretty easy to identify.
The rest of that 2020 class never gave Sacramento much to hold onto. Jahmi’us Ramsey was a second-round swing that never really landed, and he has played in just 39 NBA games, with his last appearance coming in the 2023-24 season for the Toronto Raptors.
In 2021, the Kings used a top-10 pick on Davion Mitchell, and that choice always carried some baggage. Sacramento already had Haliburton and De’Aaron Fox on the roster, so Monte McNair appeared to be adding a third point guard behind a recent lottery pick and a former top-five pick who had just signed a rookie extension. Even if Mitchell had become exactly what Sacramento hoped, the pick was a strange one at the time and still looks that way now.
Mitchell eventually got moved to the Raptors along with Sasha Vezenkov in exchange for Jalen McDaniels, and at that point his career seemed to be drifting into uncertain territory. Then came another trade, this time from Toronto to the Miami Heat, and that turned everything around.
Mitchell has flourished in Miami, signed a two-year, $24 million deal last offseason, and built a reputation as a premier perimeter defender. He’s now the starting point guard on a team with high expectations after Giannis Antetokounmpo came to town.
Sacramento’s second-rounder that year, Neemias Queta, followed a slower but steadier path. He was an intriguing pick after a strong run at Utah State and showed well with the Stockton Kings.
He got chances to claim the backup center job, but never fully nailed it down in Sacramento. He eventually found a home in Boston in 2024, where his first season was limited before he broke out last year.
Queta averaged 10.2 points and 8.4 rebounds in 25 minutes per game while starting 75 games, and that earned him a four-year, $56 million extension this summer.
The 2022 draft was a quiet one for Sacramento. The Kings traded out of the No. 24 pick, sending it and Richaun Holmes to the Dallas Mavericks, who used the selection on Olivier-Maxence Prosper.
In 2023, Sacramento took another swing on the perimeter with Colby Slawson, but he didn’t catch on with the Kings. He did get some run with the Indiana Pacers last season, and Indiana signed him to a two-way contract for 2026-27, so they clearly saw enough to keep the door open.
The 2024 class brought another painful miss with Devin Carter. Sacramento was already thin at guard after trading Haliburton and Mitchell, and Carter had put up big numbers at Providence while drawing comparisons to Derrick White and Jrue Holiday. It wasn’t hard to talk yourself into him as a possible backcourt bridge next to Fox.
Instead, things went sideways almost immediately. Carter needed major shoulder surgery right after the draft, which kept him out for at least half of his rookie season.
For a team trying to win now and expecting an older guard to help right away, that was a real blow. When he returned, Carter never found a steady rhythm or a consistent role, and the Kings eventually traded him to the Atlanta Hawks while trying to trim costs and avoid the luxury tax.
Last summer brought the first draft class of the Scott Perry era, and it may end up mattering a lot for what comes next. Sacramento didn’t originally have a first-round pick, but traded into the round to take Nique Clifford. The Kings were a mess last season, but Clifford still had some encouraging stretches, averaging 8.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists while showing the all-around game that made Sacramento move up for him.
Then there was Maxime Raynaud, the 42nd pick, who beat expectations in a big way by making the All-Rookie Second Team. He put up 12.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in 26 minutes per game. How he and undrafted free agent Dylan Cardwell fit once Domantas Sabonis returns from injury is still to be seen, but Raynaud is expected to get plenty of run again.
Taken together, the picture is hard to miss: Sacramento has churned through a lot of draft capital and a lot of roster turnover, even with high picks that were supposed to become long-term pillars. Clifford and Raynaud now look like important pieces for a Kings team trying to build something new, and the next generation in Sacramento may depend on whether those young players can become real cornerstones.
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Former Kings Could Solve Sacramentos Biggest Roster Problems
The Kings keep circling back to a familiar truth: some of the players they once let go could fit the roster better now than they did when they were wearing Sacramento uniforms the first time. Keon Ellis still stands out for his defense and energy, Buddy Hield remains the kind of shooting threat that changes spacing, and Harrison Barnes gave the franchise a dependable two-way presence during his run there. Add in the younger names like Devin Carter and Davion Mitchell, and the conversation quickly turns into a reminder of how many different roster paths this team has taken.
For Sacramento, the appeal is less about nostalgia than about solving problems that have lingered around the edges of the roster. The Kings have dealt with questions about development, fit, and which pieces were moved before they could fully show what they could become, which makes the idea of a reunion more than just a what-if exercise. Whether any of these former Kings ever come back is another matter, but the fact that the discussion even makes sense says plenty about where the roster stands now. [Read more 🡒]
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Malik Monk remains one of the more interesting pieces on Sacramentos roster puzzle, not just because of what he brings on the floor, but because of what his next contract decision could mean for the Kings bigger picture. After signing a four-year deal in 2024, Monk is now eligible for an extension, and that puts the team in a familiar position of weighing present production against long-term flexibility.
Sacramentos roster planning has already been shaped by a willingness to explore different paths with Monk, and the next move could factor into how the franchise approaches future deals elsewhere on the cap sheet. There is also the wider backdrop of potential NBA expansion, which can alter the way teams think about contract strategy and asset management, leaving the Kings with another layer to consider as they map out what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Still Have Three Spots To Fill As Offseason Wait Drags On
The Kings still have three roster spots to sort out, but the offseason has not exactly pushed them toward a quick answer. With limited salary cap space, Sacramento has leaned into a careful approach while monitoring the market, looking for the right fit instead of forcing a move just to get the roster closer to complete.
Interest around some of the names on their board has also been soft enough to buy the Kings more time. Russell Westbrooks retirement altered one expected path, and there has been limited outside interest in Victor Oladipo, leaving Sacramento in a holding pattern for now as it waits to see how the rest of the market settles. [Read more 🡒]