Not playing Barnes 38min/game? You saw some of these lineups OKC for example threw out there. Nothing forced Kings to play Barnes and other vets. You dont tell players to lose games, you sit veteran players you have 5-10years worth of tape playing in the league and know what they are as players and play any young guys you can. Thats an extremely easy way to gain some draft position.
The Kings were 8-16 after the Sabonis trade. I'm sure if nothing else they were hoping to see Fox and Domas play together a bit to end the season. When that didn't happen they shut them down. Unfortunately for the tank, they ended up going 5-5 to finish the year. I'd say that was more about Mitchell than Barnes since Davion went for 20 & 10 during that stretch. Okay, 19.8 ppg and 10 apg.
But lets say the King went 0-10 in that same stretch. They'd be tied with Indiana for the 5th slot instead of the 7th. And they'd only have a 2.5% better chance of the # 1 pick and an 8% better chance of a top 4 pick in a relatively weak draft.
I'm not going to tell you not to be upset that they didn't tank hard enough. I'm just saying that for me, of all the terrible decisions the Kings have made during this long playoff drought, not trying as hard as possible to lose the last few games just doesn't bother me. Odds are they still win one game and end up tied in the 6th spot instead of being 7th. Maybe I'll feel differently if the Pacers or Blazers win the lottery. But I doubt it.
This is a draft with a consensus top 3 and yet I don't think any of them is a franchise level player. Banchero might have the clearest path to it. But when the kid who is largely the consensus top player is being compared to Michael Porter Jr and Rashard Lewis, I don't know that this will be a great draft class. Mind you, I really like Jabari Smith Jr, but I don't think there's a LeBron/Durant/Curry type talent at the top of this draft.