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Kings turn to fans for draft assistance
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
The Sacramento Kings are asking fans to offer input to help the team make its selections in the NBA Draft next month.
The Kings are inviting would-be evaluators to analyze the prospects through their own statistical methods and submit the results through a website. Two people will be granted access to the Kings’ draft room for the June 26 event.
General manager Pete D’Alessandro announced the plan as Draft 3.0 during an online chat on Friday. An advisory council selected from the candidates will be serve as consultants to the Kings during the draft process before the team settles on the two finalists.
“I had my analytics team here at the Kings create a website where I’m asking fans to rate college players by position in the 2014 NBA Draft,” he said. “I would like more than just the ranking for fans that are interested. I would like to know how they came to their decision. From this crowdsourcing, I will select a smaller group to be in my Draft think tank.”
From the Kings’ last four drafts, the only player to make an impact is DeMarcus Cousins, who was selected in 2010 and has a career scoring average of 17.9 points per game.
“This may not get us all the answers, but it may help us think of the right questions to ask,” D’Alessandro told ESPN.com. “We’re still going to be using traditional draft methods, traditional scouting and our own analytics. We’re looking to combine all the creative things as we look for a way to bring the answer in.”
