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With March Madness on and the Kings going nowhere fast, I've been paying more attention to college basketball as of late than I have to the Kings themselves. Most of that of course is trying to pay attention to certain draft prospects that could be Kings come June. Last year, I fell in love with Willie Cauley-Stein's game and thought he'd be a perfect fit for the Kings next to DeMarcus Cousins. Early returns have been fairly positive, although his playing time has been sporadic as of late.
This year, my focus has turned to Oklahoma's Buddy Hield. Hield is easily the best scorer in the tournament, and he displays impressive poise in big moments as well. Check out some of his highlights from a dominating performance against VCU.
He looks like an NBA player already, doesn't he? That's partly because he's been at it so long, playing all four years at Oklahoma and currently the only Senior in DraftExpress' current mock draft lottery.
The more I watch Hield, the more I feel that this is the type of guy that the Kings will become enamored with come draft time. We still don't know if the Kings will even have a draft pick this June since they lose it if they finish out of the bottom 10, but given Sacramento's effort as of late I'd be pretty surprised to see them drop out of the standings (and at this point, why would they want to).
The Kings have made it clear that they want help now. They want to be relevant sooner rather than later. That's why Hield strikes me as someone the Kings will focus on early. He's got experience, a multitude of offensive talent and also fits one of Sacramento's biggest needs at Shooting Guard, even if he is undersized for the position in the NBA.
I don't know nearly as much about college basketball or draft prospects as other analysts who follow them much closer (like our own Bryant West), but I do know a lot about the Kings and Hield seems like exactly the type of player that will be heavily in the conversation for Sacramento when it comes time for them to pick.