Rival Report: Kings show new vision, draft Acuff Jr.

You probably don’t give a damn with the Sacramento Kings did during the draft. They haven’t been a contender since Andrej Stojakovic’s daddy was shooting threes in the California capitol.

But here in Dub Nation, we believe in knowing your enemies. Not in a conspiracy board and red string kind of way, but like in a “Sacramento is 90 miles from Chase Center and just picked seventh in the draft” state of mind.

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So let your Gold Blooded King give you the official Kings draft debrief. Lucky you!

The Kings came into draft night with a very specific hole in their roster where a point guard used to be. De’Aaron Fox was sent to San Antonio to detonate their title dreams in the NBA Finals traded away. Dennis Schröder came and went in the blink of an eye. And Russell Westbrook, a future Hall-of-Famer, was holding down the position the way you hold down a job you know isn’t yours for long.

Sacramento needed a star. And by golly they may have found exactly that.

With the seventh overall pick they selected Darius Acuff Jr. out of Arkansas, and Sacramento may have discovered its point guard of the future.

Acuff averaged 23.5 points and 6.4 assists last season, shot 44% from three, and won SEC Player of the Year under John Calipari. Calipiari is a coach whose guard pipeline reads like a Hall of Fame waiting room: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Devin Booker, De’Aaron Fox, Jamal Murray, Tyrese Maxey, Derrick Rose, John Wall. When Calipari vouches for a guard, you don’t dismiss it.

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Calipari told a story about his star guard:

Darius walked in, we just lost to Alabama. I had four guys fouled out of the game. I’m playing with two guys the last overtime that hadn’t played all year. He’s trying to will us to win. His foot is so bad, he scores 49 … I said listen, ‘You should take the next game off.’ He was in a boot. We were playing Missouri at home. He looks at me and he said, ‘Do you know we lost?’ And he got up and left. Like, I’m not sitting out we just lost a game. You don’t want that? You don’t want a guy that he is going to give you everything he has?”.

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/rival-report-kings-show-vision-002401403.html

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Publish date : 2026-06-30 00:24:00

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