Vlade Divac: ‘Time will tell if I was wrong’ to pass on Luka Doncic in 2018 NBA Draft

Vlade Divac: ‘Time will tell if I was wrong’ to pass on Luka Doncic in 2018 NBA Draft

Former Sacramento Kings general manager Vlade Divac had a tenuous stint as general manager of the organization from 2015-20. It’s much easier to general manage in hindsight, but perhaps his biggest blunder was drafting Marvin Bagley over Luka Doncic No. 2 overall in the 2020 NBA Draft.

Divac, six years later, still believes it’s too early to question his decision to draft him over Doncic, a five-time first-team All-NBA honoree who was viewed as a can’t-miss European prospect at the time.

“At that position, I already had De’Aaron Fox, whom I had drafted a year earlier,” Divac said, according to NBC Bay Area’s Joel Soria. “At the time, I believed Fox was a player who could become a franchise star in the coming years.

“Time will tell if I was wrong. As things stand now, it seems I was, but I still have faith in Fox having a great career.

“I could’ve taken Luka, but then I’d have had to trade Fox. Interestingly, Phoenix also passed on Luka, and at the time, their coach was Igor Kokoškov, who had coached Luka in Slovenia. Atlanta drafted Luka, but they traded him away.

“It was Dallas that eventually took him. I love watching Luka; I really enjoy his style of basketball. I had my own reasons for making that decision. Maybe I made a mistake, but time will tell.”

Bagley was a consensus top-5 prospect out of Duke at the time. His NBA career, unfortunately, has been hindered by myriad injuries and stagnant growth. He’s still in the league on the Washington Wizards, but has played for three different organizations and has appeared in more than 50 games just once since entering the league.

Doncic, meanwhile, is arguably a top-3 player in the sport. He led the Mavericks to their first NBA Finals in over a decade last season while finishing top-3 in MVP voting. He posted a league-most 33.9 points, also a career high, plus 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists on 48.7 percent shooting and 38.2 percent from 3-point range.

For his career, the 6-foot-7 guard has averaged 28.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 8.7 assists. I don’t think time has to tell whether or not it was the wrong move, in retrospect … it was wrong. The longer you are an executive, the more misses you’ll accumulate. No general manager is perfect; Divac certainly wasn’t perfect, though he was also put in a disastrous organizational situation.

That’s a different discussion for a different day. I digress.

Fox’s admission shouldn’t have held any weight for Doncic, considering both players would’ve been on rookie contracts. If that backcourt figure it out together after three or four years, then you make those decisions. When you’re drafting as high as the Kings always were–being in the top-8 in the nine drafts leading up to the 2018 draft, including in the top-5 four times–drafting for need becomes superfluous. Draft the best player and figure it out later. It was a bad move and only continues to age worse.

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