How Stanford's Maxime Raynaud Fits with the Sacramento Kings

Maxime Raynaud entered the second round of the draft on Thursday night as the best player left on numerous boards. Somehow, he ended up falling to the Sacramento Kings with the No. 42 pick in the NBA Draft, which was also the number he wore in his time at Stanford. There is a good chance that the Kings will be overjoyed with the selection.

For starters, Raynaud is a seven-footer that can stroke it from deep. In 2024-25 he dropped 67 three pointers and was making them at a 34.7% clip. He's not Steph Curry, but Curry also doesn't have Raynaud's size. In addition to his range, Raynaud also averaged 20.2 points and 10.6 rebounds per game, and sprinkled in 1.7 assists and 1.4 blocks as well.

Matt George of ABC 10 up in Sacramento also reported that he heard that Sacramento was a preferred destination for Raynaud and his camp. He speculated the reason to be that the Kings need shooting from their bigs as well as rim protection, and knows he can provide those skills to the roster. He may also see Sacramento as a place where he could earn some legitimate playing time.

According to the ACC Network, the big-man out of Stanford is one of just three major conference players to average 20 PPG & 10 RPG with 50+ threes in the last 25 seasons. The other two? Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony. Again, he may not quite be those players, but he has a unique skill set that should make Kings very excited to watch him on the court.

ESPN college basketball insider Jeff Borzello posted on social media after the Draft, "Pretty comfortably the best value pick of the second round. Looked like a surefire late first-rounder for most of the last month, was one of the standouts at the draft combine. 7-foot-1, averaged 20 and 10 and attempted 5.5 3s per game last season. Should make an early impact."

This is a guy that ESPN had landing with the Boston Celtics in the first round heading into Wednesday, and then when they passed on him, had him landing with Boston again with the second pick of the second round. Plenty of people were surprised to see him drop as far as he did.

Part of the reason for that could be the concern over his defensive ability, with scouts believing that he still has a little bit to learn. The counterargument there is that he picked up basketball as a senior in high school, and is still fairly new to the game. He's been growing as a basketball player by leaps and bounds each season, and there is plenty of developmental growth left to be made.

He's also proven to be a quick study (he went to Stanford and majored in mathematics after all), so that development could come quickly. He fits great with the Sacramento Kings because he'll be able to help with the spacing of the team, along with star Domantas Sabonis, while also providing a bit of rim protection because of his size.

Given that he's a second-round pick, there's no guarantee that he'll be on the main roster immediately, but he certainly has the talent to be with the Kings from day one. The big questions that will loom are how much of an issue his defense ends up being, and whether Sacramento clears some of the logjam at center ahead of him to get him playing time.