Report: The Knicks, Pistons, Pacers, And Wizards All Have Interest In Trading Up For Jaden Ivey At No. 4

There is little doubt that the Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Houston Rockets will hold onto the first three picks in next Thursday’s NBA Draft, as those teams all worked diligently this past season to land the best possible lottery odds. However, the No. 4 pick, held by the Sacramento Kings, is very much in play, particularly given the player most have fourth on their big board: Purdue guard Jaden Ivey.

The Kings have invested plenty, both financially and with draft capital, recently in their backcourt and playing De’Aaron Fox, Davion Mitchell, and Jaden Ivey together doesn’t seem ideal on paper. However, in a draft most consider to have a fairly steep drop off after Ivey, it’d be a reach to go fit over best player available at No. 4, and as such the Kings are shopping that pick in hopes of landing a helpful veteran to slide further down the lottery order.

Sacramento is playing the leverage game as best they can, indicating that, despite Ivey not sending the team his medical info, they’d pick the Purdue star if no one offers them what they want. The good news is, there are plenty of teams looking for guard help in this draft and Ivey is, far and away, the best prospect at that position, meaning there’s ample incentive to meet Sacramento’s demands. Per Adrian Wojnarowski, there are four teams in the lottery in conversation with the Kings about the fourth pick: Detroit (5), Indiana (6), Washington (10), and New York (11).

“That No. 4 pick that the Sacramento Kings hold is very much in play,” Wojnarowski said. “There are a lot of teams trying to get deals done with Sacramento so they can move up to select Jaden Ivey. That is teams close to them in the lottery, Detroit and Indiana who are 5 and 6, the New York Knicks at 11, Washington Wizards at No. 10, and even some teams outside of the lottery.”

Ivey is not beloved by every evaluator but, in short, he might be the best athlete in the draft and he took massive strides between his first and second seasons at Purdue. Furthermore, he has the size to function at both guard spots and, if Ivey were to hit at the highest level, he could be an All-Star player with the type of shot creation equity that every team seeks.

As for which team is most likely to land the fourth pick, of this group, the Pistons and Pacers can allow the Kings to simply drop back a pick or two and still target someone like Iowa’s Keegan Murray, a wing that fits what they need better, while likely still needing to send out a helpful player or at least a future draft asset for the right to move up a position. Washington and New York would require Sacramento to fall further back in the lottery, putting them at the mercy of the teams ahead with regards to who would be available, but they may be willing to offer them a better player in return along with a pick — the Wizards could probably offer the best player in Kyle Kuzma, while the Knicks could offer a younger talent, like Obi Toppin.

Given the amount of teams interested, one would expect discussions to go all the way up until draft day, if not all the way up until the Kings are on the clock, as Sacramento looks to extract the best possible package out of other teams.