{"id":138507,"date":"2025-05-08T04:26:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T08:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=138507"},"modified":"2025-05-12T17:12:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T21:12:57","slug":"assessing-sacramento-kings-first-pre-draft-workout-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/08\/assessing-sacramento-kings-first-pre-draft-workout-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessing Kings\u2019 First Pre-Draft Workout Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though the 2025 NBA Playoffs are in full swing, so is the 2025 NBA Draft cycle. Indeed, teams are now bringing prospects for pre-draft workouts. Among those early bird organizations are the Sacramento Kings, who recently added BJ Armstrong to their now Scott Perry-led front office, per an official team announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With their first-round pick heading to the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>, the Kings will only have their second-round pick (No. 42 overall) available.<\/p>\n

Assessing Kings\u2019 First Pre-Draft Workout Group<\/h2>\n

According to The Sacramento Bee\u2019s Jason Anderson, the Kings \u201cbrought in six NBA prospects for their first pre-draft workout Monday at Golden 1 Center<\/a>:\u201d Texas Tech forward Darrion Williams; Missouri guard Tamar Bates; Florida center Rueben Chinyelu; Georgia guard Silas Demary Jr.; Villanova guard Wooga Poplar; and Kentucky center Amari Williams.<\/p>\n

Darrion Williams<\/h3>\n

Williams is the most highly-touted prospect out of the group. A junior, he transferred to Texas Tech after his freshman season at Nevada, morphing into a truly draft-worthy player. At 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds, he\u2019s an inside-outside scorer who can get it done on- or off-ball. He\u2019s also got real playmaking upside, his court vision and passing precision genuinely strengths of his game.<\/p>\n

Williams averaged 15.1 points, 3.6 assists, and 1.3 steals per game in 2024-25. Following his workout with the Kings, he also completed<\/a> a pre-draft workout with the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n

Tamar Bates<\/h3>\n

Bates is a senior who played for Indiana for two seasons before transferring to Missouri. With the Tigers, Bates emerged as a full-time starter for the first time. A 6-foot-5 guard, his best strength is his 3-ball, which is invaluable in today\u2019s league. Whether that leads to him being drafted is a toss-up, but he has the look of a potential two-way signing.<\/p>\n

Bates averaged 13.3 points and 1.3 steals per game in 2024-25, shooting 39.7 percent from 3.<\/p>\n

Rueben Chinyelu<\/h3>\n

Chinyelu is likely flying under-the-radar because he doesn\u2019t have head-turning numbers. A sophomore in 2024-25, he had just 10 games scoring in double-figures, six games with double-digit rebounds, and four games with double-doubles. However, he\u2019s an intelligent and passionate player with nice physical tools as an athletic 6-foot-11 center.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Apr 7, 2025; San Antonio, TX, USA; Florida Gators center Rueben Chinyelu (9) reacts after cutting down a piece of the net after winning the national championship game of the Final Four of the 2025 NCAA Tournament at the Alamodome. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chinyelu averaged 6.0 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks per game in 2024-25. This week, the Nigeria native also completed<\/a> a workout with the Portland Trail Blazers.<\/p>\n

Silas Demary Jr.<\/h3>\n

Demary has basically been a starter ever since he arrived at Georgia, coming off the bench just once in 70 games. A crafty on-ball creator at 6-foot-5, he can penetrate from the perimeter with relative ease but has no problem letting it fly from beyond the arc. In fact, Demary led the Bulldogs in made free-throws (127) and made 3s (58) last season. He also led the team in steals (56), underscoring his impact as a handsy defender.<\/p>\n

Demary averaged 13.5 points, 3.1 assists, and 1.7 steals per game in 2024-25, shooting 37.4 percent from 3.<\/p>\n

Wooga Poplar<\/h3>\n

Poplar is one of those intriguing NBA Draft prospects that didn\u2019t focus on the sport until he was in high school. With that being said, he must be something of a prodigious talent if he\u2019s on the verge of playing<\/a> in the world\u2019s best professional basketball league, right? An athletic wing, Poplar has shown he can play a 3-and-D role at both Miami (FL) and Villanova, which he should also be able to do early in his NBA career.<\/p>\n

Poplar averaged 15.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game in 2024-25, shooting 38.7 percent from 3.<\/p>\n

Amari Williams<\/h3>\n

Williams was a mid-major standout who had a successful four-year stint at Drexel before transferring to Kentucky for the 2024-25 season. A spectacular shot-blocker, he won the Defensive Player of the Year award three times while he was in the CAA conference. Though he didn\u2019t receive the same recognition in the SEC, he continued to play quite well<\/a>. Not only did he shine as a rim-protector but as a passer, low-post scorer, and rim-runner.<\/p>\n

Williams averaged 10.9 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game in 2024-25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though the 2025 NBA Playoffs are in full swing, so is the 2025 NBA Draft cycle. Indeed, teams are now bringing prospects for pre-draft workouts. Among those early bird organizations are the Sacramento Kings, who recently added BJ Armstrong to their now Scott Perry-led front office, per an official team announcement. With their first-round pick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":138522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,4,1608,773,15,62,556,3,23],"tags":[777,2382,776,2902,98,1508,860,50020],"class_list":["post-138507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kings","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-bucks","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-news","category-trailblazers","tag-florida-gators","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-missouri-tigers","tag-nba-draft","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-villanova-wildcats","tag-wooga-poplar"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138507"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139174,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138507\/revisions\/139174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}