i'm not clever enough with the machinations of nba trades to come up with any useful hypotheticals, but it seems to me that every team in that list above outside of the lakers owns a more favorable bargaining position than the kings when it comes to potential trade packages. and even the lakers are at the draft spot many consider to be the last stop on the board before things get dicey (with embiid, wiggins, parker, exum, randle, smart, and vonleh most often predicted to be drafted in the top-7)...
the point is, apart from the 8th pick, the kings don't have much to dangle in pursuit of a trade for immediate help. there's ben mclemore, of course, but just as with a draft pick, when you trade for a player like mclemore, you're trading for hopes-and-dreams, rather than for a tangible asset, because you don't know what mclemore will become, just as you wouldn't know what the 8th pick (and the player associated) would become. sometimes those hopes-and-dreams have considerable value, like trading for a top-3 or even a top-5 pick, or, say, trading for a young player like michael carter-williams. but a package that features an 8th pick that could turn into an athletic question mark in aaron gordon and an athletic young shooter in ben mclemore who couldn't shoot during his rookie campaign? i'm not sure that such a package, even with any other combination of kings-under-contract-and-not-named-demarcus-cousins tacked on, is going to yield anything exciting in return...
of course, the news that the kings are willing to dive head first into the kevin love sweepstakes has been exciting to consider--inconceivable though it may be--but only because of the caveat that PDA is willing to make a trade without assurances that love would re-sign. that seemed to add the tiniest sliver of possibility to the rumors despite the fact that just about any kings' offer to minnesota would leave much to be desired. however, in most other non-kevin love scenarios, the kings wouldn't have the perceived advantage of being willing to trade for an impact player on the final year of his contract. other teams will simply be able to make better offers for just about any player the kings may be attempting to pursue via trade...
none of this is to say that the kings won't be able to swing a deal, but i do think that most of the other lottery teams who are willing to trade out of the draft are capable of putting together more attractive packages than the kings, leaving the kings to scrap for whatever they can get. it strikes me as more likely that the kings will be in a position to trade down in the draft to pick a guy they can develop slowly, while potentially bringing back a serviceable veteran in the process. i just have a hard time seeing them making a splash by trading the 8th pick, short of another risky buy-low scenario a la rudy gay. larry sanders fits that description, and he's been brought up most often around these parts. that may be the best the kings can do...
