Kings GM excited about a possible Vezenkov fit: 'It made it easy for us' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: BasketNews/Begum Unal Credit BasketNews/Begum Unal

Last evening, the Sacramento Kings acquired rights to Sasha Vezenkov from the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for the 46th draft pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.

Free throws this season

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Talking to the media in a post-draft press conference, the Kings' general manager Monte McNair was asked about their new acquisition from the EuroLeague.

"I'll start by saying that the intrigue with him is his size with his shooting. He's somebody who can hit threes at a high clip, and also can play make, he just shows his feel out there on the court," McNair said.

"The fact that he's done it at arguably the next-best league in the world at an age where he's just entering his prime, we love to see that. I keep pointing to the fact that when our scouting department, our analytics, our strategy group, when all these things line up, and he's another guy who it did for," the GM explained.

McNair likened Vezenkov's addition to that of Keegan Murray, the 4th overall pick the team selected in this year's draft. The versatility on both ends of the court, the positional size, and overall being a good human being drew the Kings to Murray. The same applied to Vezenkov.

"Being able to acquire his rights, we'll see what we do going forward. He's just another guy that we're excited to welcome to the Kings," the Kings operative continued. "At the end of the season, wanting to add shooting was a priority, and so going at one of the best shooters who's got great positional size in one of the best leagues in the world who's already producing, that made it easy for us."

"Sasha is a guy we see fitting with Domas' [Sabonis] passing, with [De'Aaron] Fox's ability to collapse defenses, just another guy who can stand there and hit shots," McNair explained. "We all know how important that is in the league these days, we all just saw the playoffs."

Regarded as one of the best power forwards in European basketball, Vezenkov has spent the last four years with Olympiacos Piraeus. He's currently the star of the team, averaging 13.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.5 assists for 17.8 PIR in the EuroLeague.

"We're excited about the fit. We'll talk more with him and see where we're at. He's somebody who we know can play at a high level, and that excites us," McNair ended his statement.

Full Monte McNair's post-draft press conference:

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