If the Kings get the 3rd pick then Russel would be in play. KAT and Okafor goes 1 and 2.
If the Kings pick 6th or 7th, he will be gone, probably to Knicks or Lakers.
Kings would need to go big WCS or trade the pick if they are 7th or worse. 6th pick or better, we should keep the pick.
I've been thinking about this lately. If we get the third pick, I wonder if our FO is exploring a trade with Denver. Something around the lines of Lawson & #7 for #3.
I'm not sure I would do that. I've been so against bringing Lawson to this team, but the idea of trading a rookie who likely won't help contribute much right away for a good PG should only make us more competitive today. Not to mention we'd still be in position to grab Cauley-Stein at #7 if he falls that far.
PG - Lawson/Collison/McCallum/Miller (vet min)
SG - McLemore/Stauskas
SF - Gay/Casspi (room exception)/Turkoglu (vet min)
PF - Thompson/Cauley-Stein/Landry/Moreland
C - Cousins/Aldrich (vet min)
Again, I'm not even sure if I would do it. I would have to think about it some more, but I still think I say no and take Russell. He would immediately be our combo guard off the bench and we would bring him along slowly into the starting rotation (moving Collison to the bench). He also has the size and length to play SG, so he would be able to play with Collison at times preventing a log jam for PG minutes.
The issue would be having a guard rotation of Collison/Russell/McLemore/Stauskas. Someone will have to go to give the others ample time to play, and since Collison is the vet and Russell has the most talent, it will be one of McLemore or Stauskas. Considering everyone's play styles, I think Stauskas would be the one to ship out. Russell struggles a bit on defense and needs the ball in his hands more to be effective. That gives us Collison and Russell as the main ballhandlers in the guard rotation with McLemore as the off-ball player who has shown flashes of decent defense.
Ideally we move both McLemore and Stauskas and bring back a veteran SG (Middleton sign and trade maybe? McLemore, Stauskas, Thompson, McCallum, & Moreland are all be pieces we could send over) and veteran PF to solidify the starting lineup while we have our top 3 pick developing behind the scenes waiting for his time to crack the starting lineup and help push our team over the top. Yeah, I think I definitely like that scenario more than Lawson...