Watching the Sacramento Kings make a run at the playoffs, and lower their 2017 NBA draft pick, is like watching a straight-D student spend all his hours practicing guitar so that he can win the high school talent show. He might actually pull off some high school glory, but his time would have been much better spent studying and thinking about where he will be graduating from college in five years. Talent shows and first-round playoff berths can be a lot of fun for a night or two. But longterm NBA mediocrity and the graveyard shift at 7-Eleven are no fun at all.

You’ve heard this before: the Sacramento Kings need to trade Boogie Cousins. We’re rooting for the Kings and their fans. If the Kings make the NBA playoffs they’ll get crushed against the Warriors, land the 16th pick in the 2017 NBA draft, and be left with one more year on Boogie’s contract. He’ll leave for free agency in the summer of 2018, and the Kings will be much further away from real glory than they are now.

The Kings need to trade Boogie. Boogie needs it, too. Everyone in the NBA world wants it.

But what, exactly, does a post-Boogie-trade NBA world look like? More specifically, what can the 2017 NBA Draft do for the Kings? The good news for Kings fans is that they are positioned to take advantage of a deep draft, and their world will be much different depending on their trade partner. Realistically, the two trade partners that make sense are the Boston Celtics and the Denver Nuggets. Here’s how each of these two scenarios could go down.

2017 NBA Draft Scenario 1: The Celtics trade the Brooklyn Nets’ 2017 first round pick, Jaylen Brown, Amir Johnson, and the Celtics’ 2018 first round pick for Boogie.

Before we play this scenario out, let’s address the outrage Kings fans are feeling. Where’s the 2018 Brooklyn pick? Where’s Jae Crowder or Avery Bradley? Boogie is worth two high-value assets like a top five draft pick or a young player who is a year or two away from stardom; or, he’s worth one young star player like Myles Turner or Devin Booker. There’s too much uncertainty with Boogie’s attitude and free agency status to give up all your franchise’s assets to get him. You don’t want borderline star players in their prime like Avery or Jae. They’re awesome players but they’re not transcendent. They’ll only help the Kings win games, which should not be the goal in 2016 season. The goal for the Kings is to groom young players or collect assets that turn into star players.

This trade would guarantee the Kings were a bottom 10 team, giving them a top 10 pick. The Philadelphia 76ers have the chance to swap picks with the Kings, but the Sixers are not good and will be picking in the top 6. The Brooklyn Nets are not as awful as expected but are still a bad team that is falling fast. They’ll be bottom 3, and there is a shot at it being the #1. So in this scenario I’m letting the Kings get a lottery pick. They’ll get the 3rd and 8th picks in the 2017 NBA Draft. They’ll miss drafting Markelle Fultz, PG out of Washington, but will grab Harry Giles, PF from Duke, with the 3rd pick and take the best-available PG with the 8th pick: De’Aaron Fox from Kentucky.

Assuming the Kings can shed veteran salaries, their starting roster heading into 2017 season would be:

De’Aaron Fox

Ben McLemore

Jaylen Brown

Harry Giles

Willie Cauley-Stein

And the bench:

Garrett Temple

Malachi Richardson

Skal Labissiere

Georgios Papagiannis

This is not a playoff team, but it is an exciting team that Kings fans would love to watch and see grow. And the Kings will be loaded with more picks in the 2018 NBA draft.

2017 NBA Draft Scenario 2: The Denver Nuggets trade Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, and Kenneth Faried for Boogie.

This could be a more attractive option because it doesn’t totally depend on Kings GM Vlade Divac drafting players. Faried is thrown in to make the salaries work. This trade scenario would be less painful for Kings management because they would have two young players to prop up now. But the Kings should do everything they can to trade Faried, Rudy Gay, or any player over 26 years old.

In this scenario, the Kings would still be bad enough to land a top 7 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, and we’ll have them pick Jayson Tatum, F from Duke. Teaming Tatum and Murray together would be a lethal offensive force.

Their starting roster heading into the 2017 season would be:

Jamal Murray

Ben McLemore

Jayson Tatum

Nikola Jokic

Willie Cauley-Stein

And the bench:

Garrett Temple

Malachi Richardson

Skal Labissiere

Georgios Papagiannis

The Denver Nuggets scenario looks the most appealing but the Celtics trade offers more stardom upside. Either would be vastly better than the starting roster of the 2018 Kings if they do not trade Boogie now.