Kings’ Vlade Divac explains Luka Dončić’s draft-day snub. Plus, WNBA playoffs are underway

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There is an incredible level of chaos to having your first-round playoff series be best-of-three. I miss the NBA having a best-of-five.

Passing On Luka

Vlade Divac explains draft-day choice

I’m pretty sure Kings fans are sick of hearing about the 2018 NBA Draft.

Their favorite team selected Marvin Bagley III, who did not pan out with Sacramento at all – he isn’t even on the team anymore. Bagley, who was selected second overall that year, has since moved twice and is on your Washington Wizards. (Luka Dončić was taken by the Hawks with the third pick in a draft-night deal with the Mavericks. Dallas has made two conference finals appearances and reached the NBA Finals with Dončić as the star of the franchise.) The Kings are now a pretty good team, but they still haven’t made it out of the first round since 2004.

The Suns (drafted Deandre Ayton first overall) and Kings both passed on a generational talent, and I think they both ended up doing it for the same reason – or so they’ll say. Former Kings executive and star Vlade Divac was Sacramento’s decision-maker for the 2018 draft. In the past, he’s talked about how much he believes in Bagley. Recently, he spoke with a Croatian newspaper about many things, and he was asked about skipping over Dončić in 2018:

“At that position, I already had De’Aaron Fox, whom I had drafted a year earlier. At the time, I believed Fox was a player who could become a franchise star in the coming years. Time will tell if I was wrong. As things stand now, it seems I was, but I still have faith in Fox having a great career.”

Indeed, De’Aaron Fox is awesome. He’s made an All-Star team, notched an All-NBA Third Team selection two seasons ago and earned Clutch Player of the Year in 2023. Divac went on to say the difference between Dončić with Kyrie Irving and Dončić with Fox resides in Irving being a natural scorer, while Fox needs the ball in his hands. If Divac drafted Dončić, he’d have had to trade Fox.

I’m not seeing any downsides here. Phoenix went with Ayton because they already had Devin Booker and Ayton was already a local star. You can play Dončić and Booker together. Divac doubted Fox and Dončić could play together. I promise they could. And, if they couldn’t, you trade Fox for a bounty. Snubbing just doesn’t make much sense. (For years, I’ve also heard the Kings were going to pick Michael Porter Jr. second overall until his medicals caused him to drop to 14th.) Regardless of the reasons, the Kings, Suns and Hawks screwed up, even though they have good stars and recently enjoyed decent-to-great success.

Kings fans will want people to stop bringing this up. The bright side, though? Now you know how Wolves fans (Steph Curry), Blazers fans (Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant), and the first 20 teams of the 1999 draft (Ricky Davis) all feel with revisionist draft stuff.

The Latest From Shams

Griffin steps away; Embiid inks new deal

Rockets forward AJ Griffin is stepping away from basketball, sources tell me and Kelly Iko. Griffin, 21, was the No. 16 pick in the 2022 NBA draft for Atlanta, then traded to Houston this summer. The Rockets are waiving Griffin via contract buyout. Griffin averaged 7.5 points and shot 37.2 from deep in two NBA seasons (92 games).

In Philadelphia, 2022-23 NBA MVP Joel Embiid will sign a three-year, $193 million maximum extension with the 76ers, with a player option in 2028-2029, sources tell The Athletic. Embiid now has five years and $301 million on his 76ers deal, marking one of the three richest totals ever. Embiid’s career scoring average (27.

Go Viral, Ben

Who are the Ben Simmons workout videos for?

As our friends at No Dunks reminded us, one of the biggest signs of the NBA season being right around the corner is the annual posting of Ben Simmons workout highlights. It happens usually anywhere from August to late September, when some carefully curated highlights of Simmons practicing awkward jumpers start to surface. We’ve seen the degradation of responses over the years go from “Oh 💩! The league is in trouble if he’s hitting that” to people now treating it like you received a text about a USPS package that can’t be delivered, so they need you to submit your address for them.

Usually, you can point to some form of clout-chasing or engagement-farming as the reason these are posted. This past week, Instagram influencer/basketball trainer Chris Brickley posted pictures and videos of Simmons working out with him. The caption said, “@bensimmons is back to playing All-Star talent level basketball. Big season loading…” followed by an insane amount of periods for ellipses.

A subsequent post with just video of Simmons working out under his tutelage garnered over 181,000 likes and over 7,000 comments, and it was shared in IG stories or DMs nearly 44,000 times. Obviously, a basketball influencer/trainer like Brickley posting something about a much-maligned player is easy engagement-baiting for someone with 3.5 million followers on IG. My biggest question? Who this is for?

Simmons is a three-time All-Star, making appearances in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Since then, he’s missed an entire season due to a trade holdout and then a nerve issue in his back. He played in 15 games last season, averaging 6.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and 5.7 assists in 23.9 minutes. What is the point of trying to raise the Q rating of Simmons and the expectations around him? And I’ll remind you, I was the jackass who picked Ben for Most Improved Player prior to last season.

It’s fine to want Simmons to return to All-Star form. But who is anybody convincing with a post like this? What happens if he sucks again? What happens if he can’t play again? Is something like this worth finding a way to sully his name even further? Do you think we’re this gullible? And yes, of course, I’m picking Simmons for MIP again this year. There’s still time for him to put it all together. Big prediction loading ….

WNBA Playoffs SZN

Aces showed why they can three-peat

Yesterday, the WNBA playoffs started with four games tipping off the first-round series. As many of you know, the Aces are looking for the WNBA’s first three-peat since the Comets won four straight in the league’s formative years. The Aces are facing a really good Seattle Storm squad in their best-of-three, first-round series. And, when the Storm took an early 18-9 lead in the first quarter, it was fair to doubt if the Aces have enough in the tank to contend for their third straight title.

At halftime, the Storm held only a four-point lead over the Aces, who got only four points from the unanimous and now three-time MVP A’ja Wilson. That would be gloom and doom for most teams, but the Aces aren’t most teams. Wilson went off in the third quarter, scoring 15 of her 21 points on the night. In the fourth quarter, the Aces shut off the Storm’s water. Seattle missed all of its shot attempts in the final frame. The Aces allowed two points – free throws with 4:07 left – and that was it. Las Vegas plays again Tuesday and can end Seattle’s season then.

A’ja Wilson and Tiffany Hayes combine for 41 PTS as the Aces secure a pivotal Game 1 victory over the Storm to lead the series!

Wilson: 21 PTS, 8 REB, 2 AST, 5 BLKHayes: 20 PTS, 4 REB, 5 STL#WelcometotheW | #WNBAPlayoffs presented by @Google pic.twitter.com/oD8QSq1072

— WNBA (@WNBA) September 23, 2024

With her first triple of the night, Chelsea Gray advanced to 9th all-time on the playoff 3PM list 🎯#WelcometotheW | #WNBAPlayoffs presented by @Google pic.twitter.com/LIXEYHyUEg

— WNBA (@WNBA) September 23, 2024

Swae Lee showed love to 3x MVP A’ja Wilson after the Aces dub 👑#WNBAPlayoffs presented by @google pic.twitter.com/q8L486F0Ka

— WNBA (@WNBA) September 23, 2024

Elsewhere in the W Playoffs:

Liberty 83, Dream 69 | New York lead 1-0: The best team in the league flexed its muscles in a Game 1 win. The Liberty kind of took the fourth quarter off, so the final score doesn’t look nearly as bad as the game was. New York dominated, leading by 20 entering the final period. Breanna Stewart detonated the Dream with 20 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals. Atlanta isn’t expected to do much in this series. There’s a chance its season ends on Tuesday night.

Most Assists in @WNBA post-szn herstory for the General 🫡 pic.twitter.com/b0wKWlhQkJ

— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) September 22, 2024

Sun 93, Fever 69 | Connecticut lead 1-0: Caitlin Clark has been on fire for a month-plus and led the Fever to looking like a very dangerous team. In the first game of this series, the Sun reminded her she’s a rookie and the playoffs are a lot different. Alyssa Thomas had a triple-double (12-10-13) for Connecticut, Marina Mabrey dropped 27 off the bench, and the Suns held Clark to 11 points on 4-of-17 shooting from the field. The Sun can end Clark’s season on Wednesday.

Lynx 102, Mercury 95 | Minnesota lead 1-0: I picked the Lynx to win the title in the preseason. Honestly, though? I was just trying to be cute and not go with the Aces or Liberty. Napheesa Collier could end up making that look prescient. She dropped an easy 38 points on the Mercury as Minnesota had 30 team assists. Phoenix put up a great fight while Natasha Cloud recorded 33 points and 10 assists, but Minnesota can close it out Wednesday.