Why the Sacramento Kings were one of the BIG winners of the NBA Draft

Why the Sacramento Kings were one of the BIG winners of the NBA Draft

nathan Grubal NBA writer for No Ceilings and founder of Draft Deeper nathan I’m sure you haven’t had too much to do these last couple weeks i’m sure you haven’t been too busy so thanks for taking some time out of your day to hop on the show but no I I know it’s been crazy so thank you man we appreciate it Alan it’s been a constant grind like you said for not just weeks but months really for the whole team as we try our best to to get as much intel in as possible make sure that we have all of our evaluations in order we have plenty of meetings to make sure that we’re making all the right decisions with everything we’re doing it’s a lot of work everyone knows if they do their own boards and mocks and have their own platforms they know how much work goes into it but we love it man that’s why we do it well I was going to say Nathan I I saw a post this morning that said that uh No Ceilings nailed 16 draft picks in their correct positions i’m telling you right here Nathan I look I didn’t see Meek Clifford to the Kings obviously they didn’t initially have a pick i just had Maxim Reo on my big board and I’m walking around here like I’m the man Nathan and I didn’t even give him a number i just said “Go get him.” And he ended up sliding so kudos to you and your team for nailing on on at least 16 that’s great
no 100% like I said a lot of intel a lot of hard work goes into any sort of mock draft that you’re putting together like that leading up but yeah we had we had 16 picks nailed right on the nose we had 13 more that were within a range of about four draft spots give or take either direction so we were one of the most accurate mock drafts in the entire media space which is something that we have to be incredibly proud of as an independent collective so hats off to to everyone on the team especially guys like Tyler Rucker Tyler Medcaf Cory Taliva really going at it getting a lot of that intel in and making sure that we have our ducks in a row and and and we kind of deserve some of that respect in the space so glad it’s finally starting to to really pay off in a big way especially this year
hell yeah you do let Let’s start here Nathan and tell me if this sounds familiar sacramento continues the undrafted free agent formula of just getting pure bleep holes on two ways that are going to physically dominate in the summer league and G-League cardwell talking about Dylan Cardwell is nice get on that type of deal nathan you wrote that about Dylan Cardwell give us your breakdown on the UDFA that the Kings picked up last night after the draft helen you made me a little nervous when you started reading that tweet because I’m not sure yet all of it was made for the radio airways but I’m glad we uh I’m glad we got that bleep in there uh no Dylan Cardwell uh experienced center out of Auburn played next to Janai Broom here for a few years at Auburn helped them really find a lot of success in the SEC and the the thing about Cardwell is that he’s he’s not going to necessarily jump out at you from a box score perspective right he’s very much so a player who if you dive into the tape you’re really going to start to appreciate all the dirty work that he does he feasts on the offensive glass he dunks everything around the basket and is pretty much a 70% career finisher uh from the field for his career a high block rate guy career 8.9% block rate someone who again he’s going to rebound he’s going to block shots he’s going to set hard screens to the top he’s one of those guys who can certainly seal off defenders as a driver’s coming to the basket to create an open lane for for his guards or wings as they’re coming to the basket so he’s one of those nice dirty work guys who you know he he’s not necessarily a high mistake player he’s going to be able to stay on the floor avoid committing a ton of fouls and he’s the type of guy that you can sort of count on to just eat up minutes at the center position and and that’s really what you’re looking for even in the second round but but on the undrafted free agent market you’re just looking to bring guys into your organization who are going to limit their mistakes and be able to just stay on the floor as much as possible without killing you on either side of the ball so Cardwell that’s a really nice pickup for the Kings and he he’s going to help them win some summerly games allan you know the Sacramento Kings love to win games in Las Vegas that’s right of recent so he’s going to help him keep doing it
they’re talking to Nathan Grubel NBA writer for No Ceilings and founder of Draft Deeper let’s take a step back here Nathan and I know Kings fans are a bit confused there were some there were some jokes going around that they don’t know how to react because they were actually happy with the draft and national media was actually giving the Kings a lot of kudos even though they got kudos for Deon Carter last year it just didn’t work out the same way because of injuries and things like that what did What did you think of the Kings draft this season or this 2025 goround as a whole i thought they the Kings picked up a lot of value in this draft i really like what they did from start to finish you mentioned it at the top the the trade in to get Nick Clifford at the 24th pick that that to me was was a home run type of pick uh Nate Clifford experienced wing out of Colorado State started his career at Colorado transferred down to Colorado State really got his reps in as a primary guy for that team right some sometimes it’s better to be in an environment where you’re the guy and you get experience handling you know a lot of highlevel pick and roll type of offense you’re a primary decision maker for the team and Nick handled himself well offensively but was also one of the better experienced defensive wings that we had in this draft class you can make an argument he was one of the top five defensive wings in the entire class really bouncy athlete at 66 someone who can hammer that ball home can shoot the three ball well enough i think he’s proven over the course of his college career he’s improved on the three-point shot that’s going to be key for him but another one of these high motor hustle type of guys a Josh Hart level rebounder from the wing position he was a guy who could average over 10 rebounds a game for you uh excellent playmaker from second running secondary actions even coming in at the top running some pick and roll for you so I I’ve written multiple times for No Ceilings i actually went through and did a series called So You Think You Can Be an NBA role player i would invite people to go read that on no sillings NBA.com because I pointed out Nick specifically as one of these wings who when we look back and we sort of think about what is an NBA role player we’re generally not looking at guys who just stood in the corner maybe put some threes up and and sort of held their own defensively they were guys who commanded a lot of usage were the best or second best player on their respective college teams they were used to doing a lot and Nick’s one of those guys who can come in scale his game down high field high motor type of player great character guy to have in the locker room
great stuff from Nathan Grubal NBA writer for no ceilings be sure to check out that that article that he mentioned about being a role player because that that’s where we’re going Nathan i I and I joke about the Andre Robersonsons of the world you know when it was hey we got our our defensive guy that just not going to cut it anymore and you could make the argument I mean even the Carusos and the Lou Dorts them being able to play together and I don’t want to you know slight Caruso at all because I do think he can do some things offensively but the Thunder that’s just a a completely different model and I’ve been kind of arguing back and forth with people about the the Kings setup right now and I call them uh Nathan the the Sacramento designated hitters because they just have too many guys that can do one thing but not another so you bring in somebody like Meek that can that can do some uh some some other things on the court nathan I’m going to continue to test your your knowledge here with Isaac Nogz Gonzalez now this was a different situation coming out of the the Rip City remix so he was already doing some things in the G-League there was the international draft so are you are you familiar with him and can you give us a little breakdown on the other uh undrafted free agent that the Kings picked up
am I familiar allan I wrote his profile the No Sillings NBA draft guide in case anyone didn’t get a copy of the draft guide you can still go pick it up i know that the draft happened but you need to go find information about these guys to understand what the what the Sacramento teams are getting into so I wrote that profile about Isaac but listen fun guy 6’5 guard as you mentioned played for the Rip City Remix this past year in the G- League was a part of the G- League International draft incredibly fun passer he’s one of those very creative guys who he almost has like eyes in the back of his head you’ll see him whip the no look passes the the behind the back no look passes you know those fun dumbbs that you’ve seen from some of the some from some of the more fun guards that have come into the NBA think like Fakuno Compazo if you remember Kazo who came in played a little bit of the time that’s the kind of passer he can be and he is a ferocious defender on the perimeter he’s one of those guys who creates all sorts of havoc great offball defender certainly can lock you up a bit in one-on-one situations and isolations on the perimeter the the thing about Isaac though man he has a tough time putting the ball in the basket and that that can be something that can really limit somebody’s career in terms of upside he wasn’t necessarily horrible when he got inside the arc he has a decent floater he can finish a bit at the basket but uh his shooting mechanics are are not the greatest i I I’ll leave it at that don’t don’t want to be too down on the young man but that’s certainly an area where if he puts in the time the effort and the the Kings coaching staff the Stockton staff can work with him on improving his shot i mean he’s got some of the other elements to his game to where he understands what’s going on at both ends of the floor at a high level you you put more of that scoring stuff together he could be he could be a gem that we end up talking about a few years down the road from now
well Nathan as soon as we get off the phone here during one of these breaks I’m going to get to your profile and everybody that’s listening uh should should do that as well great stuff one more for you Nathan because I you know what I can be a little bit facicious when it comes to the draft because every season it feels like we have this cycle where this besides the last season when that was supposed to be just a horrific draft but besides that this is going to be a loaded draft and then it turns into well actually only five guys are going to be good no actually it’s going to be 10 honestly the whole thing is going to be great there’s going to be no misses and I’m seeing what happened right now these last couple nights in 2025 with all the movement that we saw and everybody is high on everybody and now I’m looking at 2026 and I’m saying and I’m already seeing it Nathan and I know you know no no no no no you don’t understand 2026 is going to be something we’ve never seen is 2026 is that draft supposed to be everything that everybody’s talking about and if you’re the Sacramento Kings is it a strong enough draft where you think look not to get into trades or things like that but do you say “Hey we want to we want to make sure that we’re positioned in this crazy Western Conference where nobody is we just found out oh the Jazz are going for Jaylen Brown so they’re not trying to tank you nobody’s trying to tank.” But maybe you you start to push forward some of the the younger pieces to say “Hey we’re going to do what the Wizards say and say we’re just developing our young talent in order to position ourselves a little bit better for what’s supposed to be a very very loaded 2026 draft.”
Hey hey hey Allan sometimes you don’t even have to tank buddy sometimes you can get a team like the New Orleans Pelicans to give you a draft pick
that’s true
that very well will happen so sometimes those situations happen what what I’ll say about the 2026 draft is we we can certainly make that comment every single year about you know one year just passed now we’re looking ahead to the next and it it’s it’s the fascination with the unknown right you have another freshman class coming in you don’t know what these guys are necessarily going to bring to the table and I will say at the top of the draft
incredibly strong crop of guys at the top of the draft three players I see right now who could potentially be in place for the number one pick you have AJ Jabansa Darren Peterson and the guy who I would have number one on my board right now and probably will for the foreseeable future is Cameron Boozer son of Carlos Boozer uh 6’9 forward incredibly strong versatile player plays the game the right way can finish with either hand can go either direction has certainly improved his catch and shoot game can even hit some shots on the move and then has that defensive versatility you can move him around the chessboard whether he’s defending around the basket coming up on the perimeter you feel pretty good about what you’re getting from Camboozer on a night in nightout basis and another fun passer uh ha has that that Kevin Love type of outlet passing in his game too when you’re getting going in transition so there’s plenty of talent at the top the only thing I’ll say about the depth of the next potential class really depth of potential classes was as we move here on out i think the impact that we saw with NIL is a legitimate concern for once you get past pick 25 30 35 i don’t think this year is just a blip on the radar i do think we’re going to keep seeing guys go back to college and stay for multiple years and that that’s always going to impact the depth of the class so it’ll be another one of these things where if you and your listeners want to get smart and get a little bit out ahead on what’s coming next year study some of the incoming seniors that are that are coming back to school they’re running out of eligibility because those are going to be the guys like we saw this year they’re going to be the players who are rising up draft boards next year in a very similar position outside of again that very obvious group of freshman and sophomores that we know are going to be at the top
well we do know that the Kings love a seasoned college vet so I think that is a match made in heaven nathan I got a bonus one for you and this is just for me because it’s kind of a running joke on on the show it’s not a joke to me i really wanted this guy but he seemed to to slide a bit ends up going to Brooklyn I believe my guy Grant Nelson Alabama what happened did I have him slotted too high felt like every time I looked he was moving further and further down and maybe he was trying to position himself to Brooklyn but I don’t know if that was the case what was your take on Grant Nelson out of Alabama and maybe how he ended up going undrafted into the Nets
grant’s a fun player don’t get me wrong i I think the main thought that I would have for Grant is
I I don’t know if he’s necessarily the master of one specific thing right like you look at some of these guys who they may have some fun skills they may be a certain size but do they have that one particular thing that they can hang their hat on whether it’s shooting whether it’s defense whether whether it’s motor and athleticism i mean Grant’s certainly not a bad athlete by any means he was jamming the ball home on some people on some dunks for for multiple years in college but I’m not quite sure he has that one particular thing that a coach is going to look down the bench and say “I know I’m going to get this out of you every single night come in let’s get some minutes let’s see what you can do on the court.” So I think that’s certainly something that that NBA teams and executives think about when they’re evaluating draft prospects but again it’s it’s that what is that one one to two signature things that you can do for me that I know I’m going to get from you and then how else are you in terms of your other skills what else do you bring to the table and how much are you not taking off the table for me and my team if I put you on the floor and give you some minutes so I think Grant I’ll tell you what Grant has a chance to work his way into an NBA rotation somewhere i’m not going to rule that out for him again that type of that type of springy athlete at about 6’9 6′ 10 if he can figure out how to shoot the three ball from distance with some regularity he’s got a chance to break into a rotation somewhere
nathan Grubel I could talk to you all day but I know you’re busy getting ready for summer league and everything else to come be sure to follow Nathan Nathan Grubel NBA writer for No Ceilings and founder of Draft Deeper nathan we got to do this again man appreciate it so much and enjoy your weekend you you let me know whenever you need me Allan i’m here for you if you want to do some King Summer League reactions you know where to find me all right
let’s get it done thank you so much Nathan we’ll talk to you soon
absolutely take care
great stuff from Nathan Grubal that’ll be up if you’re just getting in your car allan I missed it it’ll be up on uh on YouTube and on the Sacktown Sports app shortly when we return and we break down it

Nathan Grubel, NBA Writer for No Ceilings and founder of Draft Deeper, joined The Allen Stiles to discuss the Kings’ 2 draft picks (Nique Clifford & Maxime Raynuad) as well as two UDFA pickups (Dylan Cardwell & Isaac Nogues Gonzalez).

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