The Sacramento Kings are shopping in the veteran guard clearance aisle, and the options are getting interesting.
NBA reporter Jake Fischer reported that Sacramento is considering both Russell Westbrook and Victor Oladipo as possible signings to mentor No. 7 overall pick Darius Acuff Jr. The Kings drafted Acuff in June after his standout freshman season at Arkansas. He projects as a high-level scoring guard, and the front office wants him to have a real NBA veteran next to him to learn from.
Both options are wild in their own ways.
Westbrook was the Kings’ starting point guard for most of last season and reportedly served as “a leading voice” in the locker room during a rough 22-60 campaign. He is a former MVP, a nine-time All-Star, and one of the loudest, most competitive players of his generation. He is also 37, well past his prime, and comes with the caveat that his on-court value is not what it once was. Fans still argue about him constantly, but the locker room stuff has always been overwhelmingly positive throughout his career.
Oladipo is a completely different flavor of interesting. The former All-Star has been begging teams to give him another look after three seasons out of the league. He last played meaningful minutes with the Miami Heat in the 2022-23 season. He is 34, and if he can still walk without knee pain, someone is going to want to see if he has anything left. His prime version was one of the more electric two-way guards in the sport. That version is not walking through the door, but a slower, wiser version of it might still have value for a franchise that needs a mentor for a young guard.
The Kings clearly like the idea of pairing veteran experience with Acuff’s development. That is a smart instinct. Rookie guards benefit enormously from having a veteran teammate who can teach them how to prepare, how to handle a shooting slump, how to be a professional on the road. Not every top-10 pick figures that out on their own.
The problem is that the Kings are not the only team interested in Westbrook. At least one Western Conference playoff team is reportedly in the mix for him, and Westbrook has to decide whether he wants another season of veteran mentor work in Sacramento or one more shot at a real playoff run somewhere else. The Rockets have been mentioned as a possible landing spot.
Oladipo is a different calculation. He does not have leverage. He will probably take the best deal he can get, which the Kings could easily beat. Signing him would be a low-cost, low-risk move that gives the coaching staff a real professional in the room while Acuff learns.
The reality is that Sacramento has bigger issues than mentor selection. They are coming off a 22-60 season. They have questions at almost every roster position. Their offensive identity has been in flux for years. Bringing in a veteran guard is a nice-to-have. Actually building a competitive roster around DeMar DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine is the real job.
Somebody in the Kings front office is at least thinking about the Acuff piece the right way. That is not nothing.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
