Sacramento Kings Receive Slightly Above Average Trade Deadline Grade After Making Blockbuster Deal

With these moves, Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes gave their trade deadline a C+ grade.

“It's fair to quibble with Sacramento's decision to take back a costly late-20s star in LaVine, particularly because he adds yet another offense-only starter to a franchise that already has too many of those,” Hughes wrote about the LaVine trade. “But unless the Kings were willing to torpedo this season by holding onto Fox and trying to trade him over the summer (which might even have produced a worse return), this is a defensible move.”

Of course, it was a tough decision for the Kings to trade away Fox, but with him not committing to the franchise long-term, it was a deal they thought they had to make. They were able to replace Fox with another All-Star in LaVine, but Fox’s skills will be missed in Sacramento.

The Kings were also unable to land either of the two wing players that they were reportedly aggressively pursuing. Sacramento’s top priority was to land either Cameron Johnson from the Brooklyn Nets or John Collins from the Utah Jazz, but with them trading Fox, they decided not to pursue the wings and instead deal for LaRavia.

Sacramento now enters the second half of the season sitting 10th in the Western Conference standings as they continue to push for at least a Play-In spot.