The Sacramento Kings were very active in the 2016 NBA Draft. They traded the No. 8 pick to the Phoenix Suns (who selected Marquese Chriss) in exchange for the rights to Bogdan Bogdanovic, the No. 13 pick of the 2016 NBA Draft and No. 26 pick of the draft.
Bogdanovic has looked like a really solid player in his 1st NBA season this year at the age of 25, averaging 11.2 points, 3.1 assists and 2.7 rebounds on 46% shooting from the field and 39% shooting from three-point range.
The player they selected with the No. 26 pick (former top recruit in the country) Skal LaBissiere, is a work in progress but has at least had some flashes in his opportunities in almost two seasons with the team.
The player they took with the No. 13 pick, Georgios Papagiannis from Greece, has been a different story.
He has spent the majority of his time in the G-League and has been awful in his limited opportunities, especially this season, averaging 2.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in 7.4 minutes per game in 16 appearances.
Although he is still only 20 years old, his inability to progress thus far has already caused the Kings to cut bait on him midway into his second season.
Sources: The Kings are waiving center Georgios Papagiannis, who was their No. 13 overall selection in the 2016 draft.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 8, 2018
The Kings will still have to pay the rest of Papagiannis’ $2,301,360 salary this season and his $2,400,480 salary next season.
While overall the trade has netted them some definite value overall, and Chriss has had his share of growing pains on and off the court in Phoenix, it looks pretty bad for a team to cut a lottery pick less than two full seasons into their rookie deal.
It is a black mark on the Kings scouting department and inability to properly assess talent, something they seemed to get right in the 2017 NBA Draft with the promise that rookie point guard DeAaron Fox has shown.
We’ll see if Papagiannis ever returns to the NBA, my hunch is that he will not.
