No one was sure what the Sacramento Kings would do at last week’s trade deadline. There were rumors they would be “sellers,” and move of some of their key pieces as they continued to reset a rebuild around point guard De’Aaron Fox.
Harrison Barnes, Marvin Bagley III, Richaun Holmes and even Buddy Hield were among those rumored to potentially be on the move.
All remain Kings today. In fact, there may be no bigger king in Sacramento after Barnes hit a remarkable buzzer-beater Saturday night to lift the Kings to a 100-98 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And don’t look now, but the Kings (21-25) have won four straight entering Monday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs.
But back to the trade deadline.
The Kings did indeed make some moves around the edges — acquiring guard Delon Wright from the Detroit Pistons (for point guard Cory Joseph), forwards Maurice Harkless and Chris Silva from the Miami Heat (for forward Nemanja Bjelica) and guard Terence Davis from the Toronto Raptors (for a second-round pick).
Along the way, they released forwards Jabari Parker and Mfiondu Kabengele.
None of these are earth-shattering moves designed to be featured on SportsCenter or other highlight shows. But when you’ve won seven of 10, as the Kings have, there’s no need for panic. Staying the course actually isn’t such as terrible idea.
“This year there were some maybe traditional sell/buy moves, but I think where we categorized ourselves was like value buyers,” Kings general manager Monte McNair told reporters. “We explore all opportunities and this is what came to the forefront.”
McNair is in his first year as an NBA GM, arriving from the Houston Rockets, where he served as an assistant GM under the always crafty Daryl Morey (now with the Philadelphia 76ers). It seems one of the things McNair learned in Houston is to try to keep growing, keep building, without surrendering a plethora of assets.
In other words, he didn’t want to gut the Kings’ roster. He did want to add some help — all while maintaining some semblance of roster flexibility. It seems McNair accomplished all of that.
“These guys that we acquired, the ability to help us this year, of course, but also to be a part of our future,” just really allowed is also to maintain that optionality going forward,” McNair said.
Along with that, McNair praised coach Luke Walton‘s ability to keep things together, even improve things, through it all. That’s promising news for Walton, who McNair inherited from the previous regime.
“Luke’s been great,” McNair said. “As we’ve talked about before, it’s a tough situation for him, for a new GM to come in,” McNair said. “Everybody knows what a crazy year it has been for the world and certainly for the NBA. He’s kind of juggled all that, I think, really well and has the team playing really well again.”
“Hopefully these guys will come in and stabilize even further, where if we do (experience) injuries or hit a tougher patch of the schedule, those guys can come in and give us a little more punch, especially off the bench.”
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