In the 2018 NBA Draft, the Phoenix Suns drafted Deandre Ayton with the first overall pick, the Sacramento Kings took Marvin Bagley III with the second pick and the Atlanta Hawks drafted Luka Doncic with the third pick before trading him to Dallas.
Since then, Doncic has proven to be the best player in that draft and one of the best players in the league. The front offices of the three teams that passed on Doncic have since been haunted by the question of why they did so. Vlade Divac, former Kings GM, recently spoke about his decision to draft Bagley III instead of Doncic.
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“I had De’Aaron Fox at that [point guard] position, whom I drafted a year earlier,” Divac said “At that moment, I thought that Fox was a player who could become a franchise player in the next period. Time will tell if I was wrong. As things stand now, it looks like I am, but I have faith in little Fox that he will have a better career.”
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While Fox is a great player, he’s not on the same level as Doncic, who many believe is a generational talent. The idea that Fox could have a better career is a long shot, and suggesting it seems like Divac’s way of wiggling out of admitting any error. In hindsight, drafting Doncic with the second pick would have been the right call regardless of Fox’s position.
A Fox-Doncic backcourt would have been interesting to see and at the very least, it would have been more productive than the almost nonexistent impact that Bagley had on the franchise.
James Parker is an NBA writer for Ball Exclusives, follow him on X @TheJames_Parker
