SACRAMENTO, CA—Scrambling to bring in more players for workouts, Kings scouts reportedly expressed concern Thursday about character issues among the 2021 NBA Draft class after multiple prospects lied to them about being excited to play for Sacramento. “How can we trust a guy who just openly praises Luke Walton?” said a source close to the team war room, noting that so many prospects had faith in the team’s capacity for player development after watching the careers of Marvin Bagley, Ben McLemore, and Willie Cauley-Stein. “It’s just a red flag when you hear prospects talking about bringing the Larry O’Brien trophy home to Sacramento. These guys clearly aren’t being up front about their willingness to play for a franchise that’s squandering De’Aaron Fox’s talents. We actually chose Fox because we could tell that he wanted to go to the Lakers. We value that honesty.” At press time, the Kings front office was reportedly leaning toward drafting a European prospect who might not know enough about NBA teams to properly judge the franchise.
