If you still haven’t watched SMBH, you can do so here.

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About Small Market, Big Heart:

Small Market, Big Heart is a full-length documentary designed to share the compelling story of the people of Sacramento and their battle to get and keep a professional sports franchise over the last 27 years. This story has many heroes, but one common theme – a community with a huge heart. As a small market, Sacramento has faced enormous adversity, first in landing an NBA franchise and then maintaining that franchise through both good and bad economic times.  The one constant has always been incredible community support, as the Kings have sold out all of their games in 19 of 27 seasons in Sacramento.

Over the last year, faced with the possibility of losing their team, grassroots movements fought to engage political leaders to fight for Sacramento’s one and only professional franchise.  The outcome was nothing short of a miracle, as the combined efforts of many, led to an NBA first — a one year extension for a city to get a new entertainment and sports complex built.

This film will illustrate Sacramento’s struggle to remain relevant in the high-stakes game of professional sports.  The story is told through the eyes of long-term members of media, former and current members of the Sacramento Kings franchise, local politicians and lastly, the common members of the Sacramento community that stood tall in the face of adversity.

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This season’s Mr. Irrelevant placed seventh in Rookie of the Year voting.  Isaiah Thomas received no first place votes, but finished with 28 total points towards the NBA’s annual award honoring its best first-year player.

Only Thomas and this year’s winner, Kyrie Irving, won multiple Rookie of the Month awards.  Thomas earned honors in February and March after becoming the Sacramento Kings’ starting point guard.  Drafted 60th overall, Thomas finished with season averages of 11.5 points and 4.1 assists in 25.5 minutes per game.

See the final voting tally after the jump.

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“It is becoming clearer that the foundation of Think Big is built on fabrication and deception,” said Maloof spokesman Eric Rose in an email statement to media Monday evening. “The name of the organization should be changed to Think Big Fraud.”

Last Friday, CBS 13 reported that the Maloofs hired an ex-FBI agent to investigate the possibility of forged signatures in a letter to NBA Commissioner David Stern.  That letter, which requested new ownership for the Sacramento Kings, was sent by local business leaders during last month’s Board of Governors’ meetings in New York.

In response to the story, Think Big Executive Director Chris Lehane sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Eric Holder.  The letter requests the Department of Justice to investigate if the Maloofs’ latest hire is an attempt to “harass and intimidate prominent and respected citizens of the region.”

“Second, given the history of professional sports owners being severely sanctioned for the use of private detectives involved in comparable activities, it would appear that the Maloofs are possibly exposing themselves to sanctions,” reads a portion of Lehane’s letter.  ”Former New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner was permanently suspended by Major League Baseball for hiring a private detective to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield.”

Lehane’s letter can be read in its entirety in a link after the jump.

Think Big Sacramento Letter to U.S. Attorney General’s Office

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From the official press release:

Sacramento, Calif. – The makers of the documentary Small Market, Big Heart will make their film available for online viewing beginning this Tuesday at 9 a.m.

The film, which tells the story of Sacramento’s fight to get and preserve its only professional sports franchise, including the events surrounding a relocation attempt in 2011, will be available at www.smallmarketbigheart.com.

The collapse of the most recent deal for a new entertainment and sports complex in downtown Sacramento is disheartening for many. Because of this, the makers of the film believe it is an appropriate time to spotlight the passion of the Sacramento community through an Internet release.

Small Market, Big Heart premiered at The Crest Theatre and aired on KTXL Fox 40 in January. While Part 2 is not yet complete, an epilogue featuring Mayor Kevin Johnson has been added.

For more information, follow Small Market, Big Heart on Twitter @smbhdocumentary and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/smallmarketbigheart.

In addition to the film’s official website, you can catch the movie here. Cowbell Kingdom will share the film when it goes live in a post tomorrow morning.

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Who is Manny Pangilinan?  Rafe Bartholomew of Grantland and author of Pacific Rims, a book on the history of the Philippines love affair with the game of basketball, joins us on the Cowbell Kingdom Podcast to shed some light on the wealthy Filipino business magnate.

An excerpt from the conversation where Bartholomew discussed the All-Star Weekend that featured Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans that Pangilinan organized for the Philippines last summer.

That was something that when I first heard they were planning I said it’s never going to happen.  It just costs too much money, it’s too crazy – it sounded like spin to me.  And then when it happened, it flipped the script on everyone where it’s like “Wow, they really do have the money to pull off a lot more that we thought that they were willing to do.” So it made something like buying a team suddenly seem not so crazy and perhaps overpaying for one.  Because if you look at the way they sort of justified spending all that money on that NBA All-Star Weekend in the Philippines it was because…literally people were calling M.V.P. a hero because he got Kobe Bryant and got him to play in a real game…That sort of goodwill definitely transfers over to M.V.P.’s brands.

Listen after the jump…

Music Credit: Ronald Jenkees – Guitar Sound

Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS.

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Two summers ago, the Kings were touting Tyreke Evans as the franchise savior.  After a season of injury followed by a season of reality, Evans’ future as a King seems murky and uncertain.

Keith Smart made a bold move when he shifted Evans from point guard to small forward.  Really, there was very little he could do but make the change.  The results were mixed as expected, but Evans has a laundry list of items to work on regardless of what position he plays.  After three seasons, it’s a make or break time for one of the team’s cornerstones.

Positives

Like Marcus Thornton, Evans can score.  He can also defend, pass and rebound.  While his numbers were down this season, Evans still finished the season averaging 16.5 points, 4.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game as he adjusted to a new position on the offensive end.  Clearly these numbers fall short of the lofty standards he put forth as a rookie, but the team around him is considerably better.

Evans shot 45.3 percent from the field.  That number would be acceptable if it wasn’t so heavily dependent on one area of the floor.  Evans shot 60 percent from the field at the rim where he took an incredible 492 shots, only 46 less attempts around the basket than DeMarcus Cousins.

During the season, Evans, at the urging of his brothers, brought in highly-regarded shooting coach Keith Veney to work on shooting basics.  What we saw after that point in the season was a complete abandonment of the 3-point shot.  Following Veney’s arrival on March 14th, Evans went just 1-for-12 from long range over his final 20 games.  Shockingly, Evans went 2-for-6 from around half court on the season for a robust 33-percent accuracy.  That’s 13 percent better than his overall 3-point shooting stroke.

With Evans’ physique, he has the ability to guard three positions.  At a little over 6-foot-5, with an incredible 6-foot-11.25 wingspan, Evans should be able to guard wings that are considerably taller than him.  He has the length, strength, size and athleticism to be an elite defender and he is in one-on-one situations.

Evans’ 1.33 steals per game were good enough for 10th place amongst NBA point guards and a tie for fifth among small forwards.  But similar to Thornton, the majority of Evans’ steals came in isolation defense, not from effectively playing the passing lanes.

Evans is a good rebounder for a point guard, leading the league from the position at 4.6 rebounds per game.  But as a small forward, he was good enough for just 15th place and over his final 12 games, he averaged just 2.5 rebounds which is completely unacceptable.

Negatives

I feel like this is about to go the way of Jimmer Fredette.

This was supposed to be the year for Tyreke Evans.  It was supposed to be the season that he put the Kings on his back and became a cross between Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.  Ok, maybe that is too much of a stretch, but potential was supposed to become production in year three.  The foot was healed.  He spent the elongated off-season working out with Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook.  This year was supposed to be his launching pad.

Instead, Evans’ development stagnated.  Plenty of critics will say he regressed, but the stats show otherwise.  They say that he was basically the same player we saw in year one, but that he shot the ball nearly two times less per game and he drew fewer fouls.  A lot less in fact.  If we take the 1.9 less shot attempts (which equates to 1.8 points per game) and his 1.6 fewer attempts from the free throw line, Evans would have averaged 19.9 points per contest, a smidge off the 20.1 points he averaged as a rookie.

Above, we looked at the basic breakdown.  Below, the zones are better defined and shot attempts are added in, which shows us some interesting trends.

As a wing, Evans felt more comfortable with the left side of the court on offense.  He is a heavily right-handed ball handler, so this makes sense.  If you trace an arc from the left elbow, through the top of the key and end at the right side of the rim, you can see where Evans makes his living. Unfortunately, I am not the only person in this world with this information and defending a player who makes his living on one path, isn’t exactly difficult.

What does this say?  It says that Evans is predictable.  It also shows you that he has some work to do.

First and foremost, Evans needs to improve with his left hand.  Nothing is more frustrating than seeing an NBA player rely so heavily on a dominant hand. Evans needs to not only use his left more as an offensive weapon, but he needs to learn how to distribute with both hands if he ever wants to become a competent pick and roll player.

With a big man like Cousins on your side, you need to have a defined two-man game.  If Evans and Cousins can ever develop chemistry, it is easy to see where the duo could dominate.  Unfortunately, Evans is not capable of using a screen effectively at this point in his career and we already discussed the issue with distributing the ball, so the two-man game is left to Cousins and Thornton which is a shame.

This plays into a larger issue with Evans.  He was moved to small forward, partly out of necessity and partly because a 25-percent assist rate just isn’t going to cut it for a winning team.  Evans learned quickly that cutting into the lane to catch Cousins’ passes for lay-ups was too easy.  But, he has no catch-and-shoot game to speak of and his ability to come off screens for a pick-and-pop is non-existent.

Before last season, basketball legend Pete Carril gave an honest assessment of Evans “in-between game”.

Here we are two seasons later and the assessment by a Hall of Fame coach is still spot on.  Evans needs to work hard this off-season at becoming a true offensive weapon.  For comparisons sake, here is a look at his rookie shooting numbers.  While there are some subtle differences, there is a huge gap between the 3-point line and the basket that Evans needs to discover and exploit.

As a playmaker, Evans needs to acknowledge that he is not going to have the ball in his hands enough for a usage rate of plus-25 percent.  He also needs to realize there is a difference between being a guy who gets assists versus a willing passer.  Andre Iguodala sported a usage rate around 18 percent and an assist rate of nearly 24 percent for the Philadelphia 76ers this season.  That should be the new bench mark for Evans.

On defense, Evans has been described in the past as a man waiting for a bus when his man doesn’t have the ball.  He needs to engage and stay engaged for every minute he is on the floor.  The days of falling asleep when your man doesn’t have the ball are over.  If the Kings want to improve as a team, Evans is the lynch pin, regardless of position.

While he has the makings of an elite defender, again like Iguodala, Evans has a player-efficiency rating against of 15.6 as a point guard, 16.3 as a shooting guard and 16.8 as a small forward.  None of those numbers say elite defender.  He needs to take the next step because the excuses are over.  His length and quickness should have him in the top two or three in steals, which equate to easy baskets.  He should be a lock-down defender at either the point or two and a very competent option at the three.

Conclusion

This is a make or break year for Evans (that is if he remains a King).  Geoff Petrie is not going to offer him a long-term deal this summer and that means he is playing for a monstrous pay day.  That also means the Kings might look to cash in on Evans’ enormous potential and spend their money on a more proven asset.

While Evans demonstrated he can hang as a small forward on an interim basis, he becomes a bigger match-up advantage at either the point or shooting guard positions.  The Kings are bent on stabilizing small forward with a shooter, either through trade, draft or free agency.  That means that Evans needs to unseat Isaiah Thomas at the point or Marcus Thornton at shooting guard.  My bet is that if Evans is still around next season, he will start at shooting guard alongside Thomas with Thornton making a run at Sixth Man of the Year.

If Evans is the starting shooting guard, he’d better show up to training camp a changed man.  The list of improvements is long: play better off the ball, shoot better from long distance, develop a mid-range game, play stellar defense and become a willing passer.  It’s a tall order, but with great talent and potential comes great responsibility.  So far, Evans has not proven he can take the type of leap both he and the Kings need to make.

Statistical support provided by Basketball-Reference, 82games.com and NBA.com.

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The Maloof family does not want to be in Sacramento.

Think about anything you have ever wanted like a job, a relationship or to take a trip.  If you want nothing else than to get hired, fall in love, or travel, you don’t give up.  You take risks and you figure out a way to make your dreams happen.

The owners of the Sacramento Kings have shown none of that here.

Go back to every single arena deal the Maloofs and city have discussed and each instance, the Kings owners have pulled out at “go time.”

Once the Maloofs kissed the Railyards plan goodbye last month, it left NBA Commissioner David Stern choosing his words carefully.

“I’m protective of the Kings’ rights to do what they can,” Stern said from New York City after the league’s Board of Governors meetings. “[The deal] made the owners of the Kings incredibly uncomfortable…this was not a transaction they wanted to go forward with. That’s their right.”

When have they truly wanted to go forth with a plan?

Admittedly, not all of the deals have been great, but at least the local politicians have put in effort after effort to create some kind of traction towards building a new arena.

There was the 2010 Convergence Plan, known as the three-way land swap that involved the Railyards, Cal Expo and Natomas.  It died a few months after the NBA backed the idea brought forth by developer Gerry Kamilos. While Mayor Kevin Johnson was not in favor of the undertaking because of the large dependency on a housing recovery, it was clear the Maloofs really had no interest in paying $10 million a year for three decades. The Cal Expo board eventually put the final stake in the deal.

There were also Measures Q & R in 2006.  The initiatives would have raised $1.2 billion through taxes with $472 million of that money to be used for an arena. Just like 2012, a “term sheet” in that deal was nothing more than a waste of time as the Maloofs claimed the real details were yet to be decided. They took their ball and went home before it went to the voters.

In 2004, the Maloofs pulled out of the Blanas-Tsakopoulos arena proposal in Natomas because they did not agree with the 50-50 split.  Two years prior, the Kings owners felt the payments to cover the loans were too high and too much of the responsibility fell on them.  This was dead before it even got any real traction.

The actions by the Maloofs this spring were nothing more than another stitch in the pattern.

Which is why the retrofitting of Power Balance Pavilion is a smoke screen.

Councilwoman Angelique Ashby said after the deal fell apart, “It was made very clear there was no funding at the Maloof and NBA level that could go into Natomas. I was shocked when (the Maloofs) said that, as they were the ones who have said they didn’t want to stay in Natomas.”

But apparently the wrinkled Arco Arena has somehow aged to perfection, like a fine wine from the Napa Valley. Not quite ready in the previous decade, it appears that we all just needed to wait until 2012 to upgrade the leaking pipes and duct-taped seats.

Not buying that?  Didn’t think so.

Built for $40 million in 1988, various contractors have gone on record in recent years backing the notion that the square structure would be better served demolished than with a new facelift.

Maloof chatter about Natomas again is all a diversion to help turn public opinion against the city and its efforts so that the family can finally rid themselves of Sacramento.

Brace for it now so you are not surprised next spring.

The Maloofs will file for relocation for the 2013-2014 season.

These antics spewed out in front of you are all to build a case to the rest of the league and then to a court of law. Yes, in front of a judge inside a real courtroom, but let’s first begin with fellow NBA owners.

The Maloofs knew with Commissioner Stern strongly backing the Mayor on the latest arena deal that they’d need to take another approach.

George Maloof tried to claim the agreement to build the $391 million Railyards project was a “bad deal for the city”, despite what two separate city consultants told the council or how the NBA’s own financial experts felt about the financing sources.

When that failed to gain traction, the public relations pitch was to feast on the unhappy residents who want to keep the current arena in their backyard. In the aftermath of the downtown plan crumbling like a dry muffin, George Maloof hinted by phone that “maybe Natomas would be the best option moving forward.”

Mayor Johnson has reiterated time and time again that the city is not interested in putting up any money to help the Maloofs with Power Balance Pavilion.

“If they choose to renovate on their own and use private dollars, that’s certainly their prerogative,” Johnson said on April 13th from New York City.

That “no,” is exactly what the Maloofs were counting on.

They need to show fellow league owners that they have made an effort and that the city that has become uncooperative.  The Maloofs can then say they offered a cheaper solution, but the city pulled back.

With this public relations campaign already heading toward its own death bed, the Kings owners are going to need a tougher strategy to be granted relocation.

Insert the lawyers.

The family has someone with forty years of experience in anti-trust suits waiting to strike. Attorney Barry McNeil is no slouch and may be a formidable foe to Commissioner Stern and the league’s legal team.

The Maloofs’ lawyers have sought email and phone conversations between the NBA and Sacramento all in an effort to build a case against the league if the owners attempt to block the move to Anaheim.

There is no doubt this will get much uglier before it gets prettier.

The brothers have said repeatedly they are “not interested in selling,” but the rest of that sentence should likely read with the team in Sacramento.

It appears the family hopes that the move to Orange County will drastically increase the value of the franchise. Forbes lists the Kings at around $300 million, which will not go far enough with the owners allegedly $205 million in debt. 

When asked if the family was meeting with Anaheim to resurrect a deal, George Maloof said “Absolutely, 100 percent no. I would never do that,” adding, “It isn’t in the works.”

However it is apparent while the Mayor and city staff were busy constructing a deal and working with NBA brass on the parking lease proposal, the Maloofs were behind the scenes creating a back-up plan if the city couldn’t pull through on its promise. George Maloof admitted over the phone that when they inquired about costs in November, relocating the Kings would come at a price tag of $150 million.

Those discussions with league officials, he said, have not been revisited in recent weeks.

It was that potential relocation fee that got Anaheim Ducks owner and Honda Center operator Henry Samueli involved in a loan last year to help the Maloofs move the team to Southern California.

George Maloof said their “financial woes have been overblown” in the public, but if the family had the cash, it is unlikely they would even consider a loan from Samueli who is thirsty for an NBA team of his own.

Best case scenario for Sacramento

The Maloofs bid to move the team is rejected in the spring of 2013 by league owners. The ensuing legal fight the following year ends in the NBA’s favor and with the appeals process exhausted, the Kings crawl back to the Capital City in what would redefine awkward situations.

Boxed into a corner with revenues not able to cover expenses and their lifestyle, the brothers come to an agreement to put the team up for sale.

A new owner swoops in, a familiar arena deal begins again downtown and the Kings open the season at the Railyards sometime in 2017.

And the worst case scenario?

The league’s owners don’t want to engage in a legal battle, say “Sorry, Sacramento” and the Maloofs somehow come up with a way to pay off the Donald Sterling and Jerry Buss camps down in Los Angeles.

There is no crystal ball here, but there is a reason history lessons are given to school-age children. Not applying those same teachings to the arena issue will simply end in heartache.

George Maloof said he and his brothers asked themselves while coming back from New York, “What have we done wrong to deserve this pounding (from the public)?”

Here is the answer no one else on your payroll will give you.

It’s not what you have done; it is what you haven’t done.

If the Maloofs truly wanted to stay in Sacramento, they wouldn’t have hired people to ensure the deals falls apart; they would have found the best of the best to make sure an arena in Sacramento did happen.

When you want something bad enough, you go to great lengths to get it, not avoid it.

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The Sacramento Kings finished the 2011-12 season with a 22-44 record.  By any standard, that is a completely unsatisfactory result.

While injuries are part of the game, the Kings went 3-12 in 15 games leading scorer Marcus Thornton missed due to injury.  The versatile two-guard out of LSU signed a lucrative four-year deal to stay with the team shortly after the lockout lifted and quickly paid dividends.

Be it as the starting shooting guard or as a sixth man candidate, Thornton is now a long-term fixture in the Kings’ rotation.

Positives

Thornton can score in bunches and he can do it from almost any spot on the floor.  This year, he averaged 18.7 points, two assists and a little under four rebounds a game while shooting 43.8 percent from the field.  His scoring average  ranked him fourth-highest amongst NBA shooting guards behind only Kobe Bryant, Monta Ellis and Joe Johnson.

One of Thornton’s best attributes is his attack-the-rim mentality when shots aren’t falling from the perimeter. He sports an impressive 68.8 field goal percentage on shots attempted around the basket.  Similar to Fredette, Thornton’s numbers drop dramatically away from the hoop.  But like Jimmer, he should spend some time this summer refining his floater.

From the perimeter, Thornton is more of a bulk shooter than a marksman.  His 34.5 3-point percentage was good enough for third place on the Kings, but not exactly something to write home about.  The numbers show an interesting trend – Thornton’s best spot by far was the left-elbow three.  That just so happens to be DeMarcus Cousins’ home base.  If the Kings can use these two more often in either a two-man game or feed Thornton from the inside-out, they could really capitalize on this anomaly.

Plenty of Thornton’s interior points came off offensive rebounds. He is one of the best rebounders in the league for his position.  His 3.7 rebounds per game ranks eighth overall, tied with All-Star Joe Johnson,  but it is his work on the offensive glass that separates him.  Thornton’s 1.7 offensive rebounds per game ties him with Tony Allen for the top spot in the league at the shooting guard position.

Negatives

While Thornton can score from anywhere, he is the definition of “streak shooter”.  He’s either hot or not and sometimes it takes about five or six shots to figure that out.  Thornton is at his best in the first and fourth quarters, where he shoots 47.7 percent and 47 percent respectively.  Unfortunately, he shoots just 35.5 percent in the second quarter and 42.5 percent in the third.  The second quarter is clearly not acceptable, but that is the quarter that Thornton typically rests, so the low number can be attributed to a smaller sample size.

Thornton finished well at the rim, but according to his shot chart, he could use improvement from every other zone on the floor.

Thornton missed 15 games on the season with thigh contusions.  He attempted to play through the initial injury, which was bound to have an effect on his lift and field goal percentage.  We should also cut Thornton a small amount of slack on his high number of 3-point attempts.  The Kings desperately needed him to shoot and make long-distance shots to open up the lane for both Cousins and Evans.  Thornton also played with a pair of rookie point guards and played very few minutes with Terrence Williams once he was signed to the team.

One of the major issues with the 2011-12 Kings roster was that there were too many roosters and not enough hens.  By that, I mean there were too many willing shooters and dribblers and not nearly enough willing distributors.  Coming to the Kings, Thornton had spent some time with the Hornets as a lead guard during injury stints.  In his 27 games as a King during the 2010-11 season, he put up a healthy assist percentage of 15.3, but that number dropped to 9.4 percent this season.  Instead of being part of the solution, Thornton joined many of his fellow teammates as part of the problem.

Thornton finished eighth out of all two guards in rebounding, but his defensive-rebounding percentage took a major dive.  After posting an incredible 13.3 percent between the Kings and Hornets in 2011, that number dropped to just 6.7 percent this season.  I would love to attribute this number to the development of Cousins and Thompson, but Thornton’s offensive rebounding percentage actually went up this season.  Thornton loves the offensive put-back, but that ability needs to translate on both ends of the floor.

On the defensive end, Thornton came to the team with a certain reputation.  While he gives a solid effort, he struggles with technique.  Thornton has a difficult time deciding whether to go over or under a screen.  He consistently finds himself out of the play because of this issue.  The Kings play horrible help defense, which should improve with time, but Thornton needs to watch himself play defense and then compare himself to some of the leagues elite defenders.

Again, effort does not seem to be the issue, technique is.  I would love to see Thornton play with his arms extended and not lead with his head as a defender.  This would improve his ability to get through screens and cut down on the opponents passing lanes.  While Thornton’s 1.4 steals per game were good enough for sixth place among all shooting guards, he went without a steal in 17 of the 51 games he played.  When Thornton felt like getting a few easy buckets, he played the passing lanes and came away with some easy turnovers.  The Kings don’t need a gambler, but they need Thornton to be more aggressive and a more active body off the ball.

Conclusion

Thornton is a King for the long haul, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is a starter long-term.  Depending on what happens this off-season, Tyreke Evans could very well end up back in the backcourt, as the starting shooting guard for the Kings.  This wouldn’t be the end of the world for Thornton.  While he is a versatile scorer, Evans gives the Kings a more balanced game.  If the Kings add a sharp shooting wing, I could see Thornton transformed into a Jason Terry or Jamal Crawford type bench scorer, something Geoff Petrie has been searching for since Bobby Jackson retired.

If Thornton remains the starter, I expect him to improve in multiple areas.  The injuries that cost him 15 of the Kings 66 games were freak-type injuries that will have no lasting effect.  He needs to refine his shot selection and take more pride in his overall defense.  Thornton’s scoring ability is borderline elite and his ability to take and hit big shots in the clutch is welcome on any team.

If Thornton is your number one option, you might be in some trouble.  That doesn’t mean that he can’t continue to lead the Kings in scoring, but the team already began to shift towards Cousins as its go-to guy and that trend is only going to intensify.  With the make-up of the 2012-13 Kings completely up in the air, Thornton’s ability to fill up the basket will make him a valuable asset – something the Kings are not likely to give away.

Statistical support provided by Basketball-Reference, 82games.com and NBA.com.

Follow @James_Ham

Key draft dates:

1. May 30: NBA Draft Lottery (The Kings have a 7.6 percent chance to win, which are the fifth best odds behind New Orleans, Cleveland, Washington and Charlotte)
2. June 6-8: NBA Pre-draft Combine takes place in Chicago
3. June 28: NBA Draft

After the jump, the entire list of early entry candidates.

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