Trade interest in Ben McLemore is nothing new, and with the NBA Draft in a few days it's starting to heat up again.

Some interest around the league in Ben McLemore of the Kings. Teams know he is available and are calling. Not necessarily connected to picks — Scott Howard-Cooper (@SHowardCooper) June 21, 2016

Frankly, I was a little bit shocked that the Kings didn't trade McLemore at the trade deadline this year, especially when we were reading reports that McLemore was actively wanting out and the Kings were trying to respect his wishes and find him a new home. The fact that he didn't get traded then tells me that the offers the Kings were getting for McLemore probably weren't great or even good. Will that change by Thursday or later this summer? I'm not sure.

Ben's definitely been a disappointment early on in his career, particularly in his rookie year and last season. His second season offered up some hope as he improved in nearly every way, but last year was a clear regression. I can see why team's would still be interested however; He's got all the physical gifts to be a phenomenal player, but he seems to lack an aggressive mindset and doesn't have a real way to assert himself. He'll disappear for games at a time where you don't even realize he's playing, and then he'll randomly have a 20 point game and you'll remember how cool it'd be if he actually lived up to his potential.

By all accounts, McLemore is a very hard worker and spends a lot of time in the gym. So far however that hasn't translated into on court production. The Kings do have one year left of him on his rookie contract and also a new coach that might use him differently. If the Kings can't get anything of real value for him in a trade now, they might as well see how he performs under Joerger this season as they'll still have opportunities to trade him next February.

I expect the rumor mill to heat up over the next couple days leading up to the draft, but typically, most of those rumors just end up being hot air. We'll see if this one has any meat to it soon enough.