The Sacramento Kings enter the 2026 NBA Draft having traded De’Aaron Fox and still searching for his replacement — and Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley projects them to find one at No. 7 in Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr. The pick is not just a projection — per Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor, sources around the league “widely believe” the Kings are targeting Acuff specifically at this slot, with multiple layers of personal connection reinforcing the basketball fit.

GM Scott Perry and assistant GM B.J. Armstrong are both Detroit natives. So is Acuff. Perry coached Acuff’s father at Eastern Kentucky in the late 1990s. That history might be coincidental context, but the basketball argument stands on its own: Sacramento has no young point guard in its rotation, and Acuff is a wiry, quick-trigger scoring creator who reads defenses like a veteran despite his freshman year resume. He averaged 24.1 points for Arkansas while posting a low turnover rate and making significant improvements as a passer, erasing his earlier reputation as a ball-dominant scorer.

Acuff’s ceiling as a dual-threat guard — handling lead-guard duties while serving as the team’s primary bucket-getter — makes him the kind of player who can justify shipping out expensive veterans and trusting a young core. He gets to his spots from everywhere on the floor, his handling is slippery and deceptive, and his pull-up game makes him nearly impossible to stop in isolation. The honest concern is defense: his effort level and instincts on that end were poor at Arkansas, and NBA coaching staffs will have to work hard to make him a neutral presence on that side of the ball. Sacramento’s ability to surround him with switchable wing defenders will be critical to his long-term success.

The direct opportunity cost at No. 7 is Atlanta’s pick: Houston guard Kingston Flemings at No. 8. Flemings is a different kind of floor general — a surgical mid-range assassin with point-forward vision and extraordinary competitive spirit. He measured only 6-foot-3 with a 6-4 wingspan at the Combine, and he shot the ball brilliantly during draft workouts. The Kings opting for Acuff over Flemings is a bet on scoring creation over passing vision, a reasonable trade-off given Sacramento’s historic appetite for bucket-getting guards.

CBS Sports’ Adam Finkelstein and Gary Parrish both project Flemings to Sacramento at No. 7, not Acuff, suggesting real organizational uncertainty remains about the pick. Tankathon also sends Flemings to Sacramento. CBS Sports’ Cameron Salerno and Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor project Acuff to the Kings, aligning with the reported intel from around the league. The split is almost perfectly even, which means this outcome isn’t guaranteed — but the reporting trail is harder to ignore than the mock-draft divergence.

If the Kings take Acuff, they’re committing to a rebuild centered on a scoring point guard who maximizes his offensive value by organizing his team around him rather than dominating the ball without purpose. His improved playmaking at Arkansas and his veteran feel suggest he can grow into a franchise-level creator, not just a scorer. That ceiling — an offensive force who can run a team — is exactly what Sacramento needs after four years of rotating through Fox successors who never quite fit.

What Other Outlets Are Projecting

Outlet	Projected Player
Bleacher Report	Darius Acuff Jr., PG/SG, Arkansas
CBS Sports	Kingston Flemings, PG, Houston (Finkelstein)
Tankathon	Kingston Flemings, PG, Houston
Yahoo Sports	Darius Acuff Jr., PG, Arkansas

Drafting Acuff at No. 7 is wise because it addresses Sacramento’s single most urgent need — a young, franchise-caliber guard — with a player who already has the scoring and processing tools to carry an offense. The connections between Acuff and the Kings’ front office are real, but they’re supporting evidence, not the reason to take him. The reason is his game, which already shows the hallmarks of an NBA-ready scorer who can grow into a true point guard. Sacramento needs a cornerstone, and this pick gives them one.