Darius Acuff Jr. is already dragging the Sacramento Kings back into the spotlight, and the rookie chatter around him is hard to ignore.
The Kings’ seventh overall pick is being floated as a Rookie of the Year candidate, even if the odds are long at 7%. Sacramento is betting on Acuff as a cornerstone in the middle of his development, and the buzz around him has only grown because of how closely the draft played out with Brooklyn.
The Kings and Nets were tied together in the buildup to June’s draft. Sacramento held the seventh pick, while Brooklyn sat one slot ahead at No.
- Acuff’s links to Sacramento only made the fit look cleaner: general manager Scott Perry coached his father at Eastern Kentucky in the 1990s, and both share the same birthplace, Detroit, Michigan.
Brooklyn was in the mix too. In one version of Kevin O'Connor's mock, Acuff was projected to the Nets, and O'Connor said that part of the logic was to tempt Sacramento into giving up extra draft capital to move up one spot and land him.
That draft connection makes this Kings-Nets matchup even more compelling, but the real hook is the rivalry between Acuff and Brooklyn’s Mikel Brown Jr.
Brown, the sixth overall pick, has gone head-to-head with Acuff plenty of times already. They’ve met multiple times in high school, once in college and again in the Las Vegas Summer League. Their paths have been crossing for a while, and now they’re doing it again as top lottery picks.
The two spent their senior seasons in Florida, with Acuff at IMG Academy in Bradenton and Brown at DME Academy in Daytona Beach.
Their first high school meeting came on Jan. 26, 2025, and Acuff came out on top, leading IMG to a 65-63 win over Brown and DME.
Two months later, they were back on opposite sides in the McDonald's All-American game. Acuff played for Team East, Brown for Team West, and this time Brown got the better of his rival as Team West beat Team East 105-92.
They met again when college season arrived, this time in a December matchup between Arkansas and Louisville. On Dec. 3, 2025, the Razorbacks won, and Acuff put together one of his best all-around performances of the year, finishing with 17 points on 6-for-18 shooting and handing out 10 assists for his first double-digit assist game of the season.
Now the rivalry has made its way to the NBA, with both players entering the league as lottery picks and their track record already giving this game a little extra edge.
In Other News...
Kings Still Have Three Spots To Fill As Offseason Wait Drags On
The Kings are still carrying three open roster spots into the late stages of the offseason, and for now there is little urgency to rush anything. Sacramento has taken a measured approach as it tries to work within tight salary cap constraints, keeping an eye on the market while avoiding commitments that could box the front office in before the right opportunity comes along.
A few of the names and scenarios that once seemed like natural fits have shifted around them, and the market has not exactly sped up to force a decision. With so little buzz around some of the players Sacramento has tracked, the Kings can afford to wait a little longer, even if the offseason drag is starting to make those unfinished spots feel more notable by the week. [Read more 🡒]
Kings May Revisit A Familiar Defensive Option For Darius Acuff Jr
The Kings already added Precious Achiuwa early in the 2025-26 season, giving the roster a physical defender who can help stabilize things around rookie point guard Darius Acuff Jr. Now theres another familiar name in the mix, with Sacramento reportedly exploring Victor Oladipo as a possible addition as he works his way back into the NBA after injuries. For a team looking for more toughness on that end of the floor, the idea fits the broader direction of the roster.
Oladipo and Achiuwa briefly overlapped with the Miami Heat, which makes the possibility of a reunion in Sacramento an interesting wrinkle. The Kings would not just be chasing another veteran guard, but a player whose defensive presence could ease some of the pressure on Acuff as he grows into the position. Whether that conversation turns into anything concrete is still unclear, but it is the kind of low-risk, high-upside defensive option that can linger around a team for a while once it surfaces. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Just Got A Harsh Reminder About Their Biggest Question
The Kings got a pretty blunt external verdict in NBA 2K27, where the team lands in the leagues lower tier despite having established headliners like Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis. It is the kind of rating that does not decide anything in real life, but it does capture the uneasy place Sacramento has found itself in, with enough talent to matter and enough questions to keep the ceiling in doubt.
Darius Acuff Jr. is a big part of why that conversation feels more urgent now. The rookies strong standing among first-year players has already fed the idea that he could take on a major ballhandling load and help steady the offense in a way Kings fans remember from the De'Aaron Fox era, but the job description is still the real issue. Sacramento does not just need Acuff to be good, it needs him to be the kind of primary initiator who can change how the whole attack functions. [Read more 🡒]