While the Serge Ibaka for Victor Oladipo was the biggest trade of the night, the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns delivered their own headliner. After Sacramento drafted power forward, and Sacramento native, Marquese Chriss to the Suns for the 13th overall pick, 28th overall pick, the rights to Bogdan Bogdanovic and a second-round pick in 2020.
Chriss was widely reported to be a target for the Suns with the fourth-overall pick, but they opted to take Croatian power forward Dragan Bender. Then not long after the Kings selected Chriss, it was reported that he was be sent to Phoenix. An initial report by ESPN's Brian WIndhorst indicated Suns guard Brandon Knight was part of the deal, but that turned out to be false.
For the Suns, they load up on two high-upside, athletic big men who are both only 18 and will join 19-year-old Devin Booker to form one of the youngest trios in the league. Phoenix also has a plethora of young guards with Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and Tyler Ulis, another Kentucky player, to just add to their loaded backcourt, along with small forward P.J. Tucker While the fit of Bender and Chriss, both likely power forwards, is still to be determined, the Suns just seem to be stockpiling young talent.
Sacramento, which acquired the 22nd overall pick from the Charlotte Hornets in the Marco Belinelli swap, used the 13th overall pick to select Greek center Georgios Papagiannis, a 7'2", 278 lb. 18-year-old center, has played for Greece since he was just 14. Papagiannis has a 7'4" wingspan and showed nice athleticism on tape, though his offensive game and rebounding needs a lot of refinement. In a press conference on Thursday night, Vlade Divac told reporters that Sacramento will pay the buyout and Papagiannis is expected to play for the Kings this coming season.
It was one of the most shocking picks in the draft as Papagiannis was rated as the 39th best prospect in the draft by CBS Sports, while DraftExpress had him going 22nd overall, to the Kings, in its final mock draft on Thursday.
The Kings landed the rights to Kentucky power forward Skal Labissiere with the 28th overall pick, in perhaps one of the steals of the draft. Labissiere was projected by some to contend for the first-overall pick before the season, but fit terribly in Kentucky's offense and didn't seem to have the physical toughness and ability to handle other bigs. He was still rated as CBS Sports' 11th overall prospect and a projected top-15 pick by many other sites, but fell due to the rawness of his game.
Sacramento is loaded with bigs, Willie Cauley-Stein was their first-round pick last season, DeMarcus Cousins was second-team All NBA and Kosta Koufos can play a nice role. Now with the addition of Papagiannis and Labissiere, it seems clear more movement is coming and it will be needed with the Kings still thin in the backcourt.
Bogdanovic, who was selected with the 27th overall pick in 2014 by the Suns, will stay in Europe for another season before he is expected to come to the NBA as a 24-year-old. Whenever the 6'6" guard with a 6'11" wingspan comes over, he would give the Kings much needed help on the wings. It could be even more crucial for him to arrive next season because the Kings may not have a pick, with it being owed to Chicago if it is outside the top 10.
While many will grade the Kings draft negatively because they took a significant reach at 13, but found tremendous value with the 28th pick in a player who has the raw potential to develop into an All Star.