Kings using crowdsourcing, analytics to help with draft pick — and you can get in their war room

Most likely the Sacramento Kings will pick seventh in the upcoming NBA draft. There is a slim chance (3.6 percent) they could slide into the top three, there is a slightly larger chance someone leapfrogs them and they draft a slot or two lower, but most likely it is seventh (providing they don’t make a trade).

That means someone like Indiana’s Noah Vonleh, Michigan State’s Gary Harris, maybe Arizona’s Aaron Gordon.

The Kings want to know who you would pick. More importantly, they want to know why — they want to see your analytics.

They set up the draft challenge where you can not only rank the players but show your methodology. Sufficiently impress Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro and you can be part of a draft counsel and be invited to the War Room.

The Kings announced this in the most techie way possible — on reddit. Here is what D’Alessandro said.

There is so much talent and so much information out there today outside of the walls of the NBA. I told him I felt like we could tap into that vast wealth of knowledge. For that reason I was actually planning on reaching out to advanced fans and asking for their help in this Draft. I had my analytics team here at the Kings create a website where I’m asking fans to rate college players by position in the 2014 NBA Draft. I would like more than just the ranking for fans that are interested. I would like to know how they came to their decision. From this crowdsourcing, I will select a smaller group to be in my Draft think tank. A few of which I plan to invite to my war room.

The Web site has you ranking guys by position, top 5 at a spot out of a possible 10. There are no internationals on the list, so for example with point guards you don’t have to decide if you have Dante Exum over Marcus Smart.

But what the Kings really want is the attached files of in-depth research and analysis.

Maybe the Kings find some great information this way, maybe not. But it’s a great interactive move by D’Alessando and owner Vivek Ranadivé to tap into the analytics community, get them involved. It’s a smart move either way, with little to no downside.