Following a 41-point loss to *checks notes* the Memphis Grizzlies with Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. in street clothes, it may be time to pull the plug on the 3-13 Sacramento Kings.
They’re one of three teams (Washington, New Orleans) that rank as a bottom-five offense and defense, per Cleaning the Glass. Only the Wizards (minus-15.7) have a worse non-garbage time point differential than these Kings (minus-14).
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There’s context to add — they’ve been implementing new pieces, particularly at point guard, and they haven’t always had their full assortment of players. Domantas Sabonis, their lone tenured star, has been in and out of the lineup, and is now slated to miss roughly a month of action with a partially torn meniscus. Keegan Murray, one of their few bright young assets, just made his season debut in the aforementioned beatdown from the Grizzlies.
(Davis Long/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
But it was a wonkily built roster to begin with; that it’s gone haywire this early, with head coach Doug Christie likely searching for more ways to ask his team to play hard as we speak, should be a loud signal to pivot and reposition for a younger and hopefully more fruitful era of Kings basketball.
There’s an obvious caveat that it’s easy for me, Person with Laptop and No Organizational Stressors™️, to make this call to action. But man, fans of the Kings deserve a lot better than the product they’ve gotten this year. Let’s get some direction in the building.
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With that, I set out on a journey to find roster fits for the highest-paid veterans on the roster: Sabonis, Zach LaVine, and DeMar DeRozan.
Domantas Sabonis, center, 29
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17.2 points (56/20/73 shooting splits), 12.3 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.2 steals this season
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$42.3M this season, $45.5M next season, $48.6M in 2027-28
Even if you remove the latest injury, Sabonis is one of the more difficult players in the league to examine within a trade context.
He’s clearly a talented basketball player, with multiple All-Star (3x) and All-NBA (2x, both third team) selections under his belt. The bulk of his value comes offensively: He’s an elite screener, a strong passer for his position, a hound on the glass and, at his best, someone who can win on the block with strength-based finishes. He’s generally been a good floor-raiser because of those skills.
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On the other hand, Sabonis doesn’t truly threaten teams from the perimeter. A 39.6% clip from 3 in the three seasons prior to this one sounds good, but 1.4 attempts isn’t nearly enough to shift game-planning and closeout necessity. Unfortunately, he’s down to a career-worst 20% (on only 1.8 attempts) this season.
Though Sabonis can sprinkle in some get-your-weight-up post finishes, his post touches have gotten progressively less productive — and, quietly, less voluminous — over the years. In playoff settings, where teams are more dialed into how he wants to win — and do a better job of disrupting his early, deep seals — he’s been a tad underwhelming as a primary option.
With the caveat that GeniusIQ tracking can sometimes muddy the waters between what counts as a post-up vs. an isolation, this is what it’s looked like for Sabonis over the past four seasons:
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’22-23: 6.1 post-ups per 100 possessions, 1.11 PPP (elite!)
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’23-24: 5.1 per 100, 0.95 PPP (solid!)
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’24-25: 3.5 per 100, 0.8 PPP (this is bad!)
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’25-26: 2.6 per 100, 0.74 PPP (this is worse!)
There’s roster, coaching and scheme context to add — we’ve seen his post-up and handoff volume (still high in a vacuum, just lower than usual) swapped for work as a pick-and-roll screener, for example, which makes some sense in light of the guards on the roster — so there’s room to argue he could pop more in a different context.
The bigger thing for me is finding a defensive infrastructure that truly works for Sabonis. In a vacuum, he’s at a weird intersection where he’s not quite mobile enough to be a consistently impactful space defender, nor does he have the length and timing to consistently impact things at the rim if he’s in a drop. I think he’s better operating at the level of screens as a base, but that still requires a level of backline competence around him to 1) provide the rim protection he lacks, 2) force turnovers at a high rate or 3) all of the above.
Finding teams with the appropriate roster context for Sabonis, the assets to acquire him and the financial flexibility (or appetite) for his deal is a tough needle to thread, though not impossible. The teams that would intrigue me, if they expressed interest:
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Atlanta: The defensive infrastructure, in terms of athleticism and scheme, is there. It’s also surprisingly easy to build out a deal around the expiring contract of Kristaps Porziņģis — or a pure Trae Young-Sabonis swap, though I do not see that happening for, like, six different reasons. Sabonis could help give the Hawks some direction in the half-court and would certainly help them on the glass, coincidentally the two primary areas in which the Hawks have struggled despite their 7-3 run without Young. There would be quite a bit of money tied into Sabonis, Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels (extension kicks in next year), and that’s before getting into a Young decision if he isn’t part of a Sabonis trade. They’d really have to believe in this group, but it is doable.
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Golden State: This would almost certainly need to be a multi-team trade in light of the Warriors being restricted by the second apron. As someone who enjoys a little trade machine exploration, there’s some fun stuff you can come up with involving Brooklyn, for example. There was already offseason smoke centered around the Kings’ interest in Jonathan Kuminga, and the Nets were routinely brought up as a cap space option before they used it elsewhere — it feels like that could at least be a conversation starter. Sabonis would be such a natural fit in Golden State’s split-heavy, movement-heavy offense, though. I’d worry about any minutes where Sabonis isn’t tethered to Draymond Green, but there may be enough speed on the bench to offset some of those worries.
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Toronto: The Raptors, from a we-have-the-contracts standpoint, can get themselves into virtually any trade discussion they want to. Like, Sabonis and Keon Ellis for RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl is an easy thing to plug in. I think there would need to be a lot more deliberation than that, of course, but Sabonis in place of Poeltl as a “delay” and general post hub is where my brain starts churning. And in terms of a defensive backline partner at the 4, I don’t know how many better options exist than Scottie Barnes.
Zach LaVine, wing, 30
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21.9 points (61/41/89), 3.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.6 steals
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$47.5M this year, ~$49M next year (player option)
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LaVine has been, and is, a dynamic scorer. One of the few things I’ve enjoyed within the Kings League Pass Experience™️ has been the way they’ve leveraged LaVine off the ball, with screens coming from different angles and heights on the floor to get him 3s or to create downhill windows. He’s shooting the leather off the ball and finishing at a high clip; he’s quietly having the most efficient scoring season (65.2 true shooting) of his career.
He isn’t a high-level (or volume) playmaker, though he can make routine interior feeds if the advantage is wide enough. The defense doesn’t quite move the needle, to be kind. He’s “gettable” off the ball despite his athleticism.
To get the best out of LaVine, you’d want to be a situation with 1) a strong defensive infrastructure so he doesn’t stand out as a weak link or at least can be covered for and 2) a player (or two) who can handle playmaking/decision-making duties so LaVine doesn’t have to.
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The teams that would intrigue me:
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Atlanta: We’re back again. Aside from LaVine likely looking for new money soon, the Hawks would have to choose between covering for a Young/LaVine backcourt defensively, or actually considering a Young-for-LaVine swap (as the foundation of a deal, not the entire thing) and hoping the collective playmaking from the group would be enough to foster a smooth scoring environment for LaVine. Again, it’s doable.
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Detroit: You certainly don’t have to question the defensive infrastructure; the Pistons have been a top-five group (currently second, per Cleaning the Glass) pretty much all year long. They have multiple pathways to get to LaVine’s salary, particularly after Dec. 15. His scoring, specifically his shooting, could be really helpful to Cade Cunningham and Detroit’s overall half-court context. I’d be more in on a Lauri Markkanen deal if Utah ever considers moving him, but it’d likely cost less to trade for LaVine. It could be a way to make a swing without having to give up everything.
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Philly: A trio of Tyrese Maxey, LaVine and VJ Edgecombe features all of the athleticism and driving juice you could ask for. In general, I’d love for some of the creation (and minutes) burden to be taken off Maxey’s plate; he’s done a lot this year, leading the NBA in minutes (40.7) and miles traveled per game (2.85). Paul George would have to be the primary salary going back, but I don’t think the Kings would (or should) take that back without picks, Jared McCain (hopefully he rounds into form soon) or some combination of the two attached. This feels like a negotiation that would ultimately fall through, but I do like the LaVine fit if the sides could work it out.
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Toronto: We’re back again. The Raptors have a strong defense and multiple frontcourt hubs that could take the playmaking burden off LaVine. Unlock the LaVine backdoor cuts, darn it. He’d also continue the long Raptor Elite Dunker heritage, if you care about that sort of thing. Barrett (losing his footing as of late) or Immanuel Quickley (finding his footing as of late) could easily be starter-salary in a potential deal; it’d just come down to finding agreeable assets from there.
DeMar DeRozan, wing, 36
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17.9 points (52/37/87), 3.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.3 steals
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$24.6M this year, $25.7M next year
You know what you’re going to get with DeRozan. He’s a maestro inside the arc, though he doesn’t get to the rim as often as he used to. Considering his floater-range work this year — he’s converting a career-best 64.3% of his shots between 3-10 feet, per Basketball-Reference — he probably doesn’t feel like he needs to right now.
(I would disagree; shots at the rim and free throws are good!)
Still, DeRozan is a smooth operator from the midrange area and remains a capable playmaker. He’s quietly making 3s this season, though the volume isn’t enough to truly move defenses. Conversely, teams aren’t afraid of DeRozan defensively.
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Because of his contract, he should be the easiest of the three to move. Because of the skill set and some of the defensive limitations, it isn’t as easy to drum up landing spots — especially if DeRozan isn’t at a place where he’s willing to come off the bench.
(He may be willing to do so in the right situation. I just don’t know that.)
The teams that would intrigue me:
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Los Angeles Clippers: It would be a bit of a homecoming for DeRozan (he’s from Compton), but more than anything, it would be nice to see James Harden get some semblance of creation help from the perimeter while Kawhi Leonard is out. The Clippers have a half-court offensive rating of 101.4 (equivalent to fourth) with Harden on the floor; that drops to 80.3 (easily last) with him on the bench. If DeRozan can’t do anything else (and he can), he’d certainly help with that. There would be defensive questions, but maybe a more effective half-court offense — and thus, not having to defend in transition as much, where they’ve been god-awful — would be a saving grace. Building a package around Bogdan Bogdanović’s salary shouldn’t be too difficult.
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Milwaukee Bucks: With Giannis Antetokounmpo likely out for a couple weeks, the Bucks could use some offensive reinforcements. Even before Giannis went down, the Bucks had one of the league’s largest drop-offs on offense — over 25 points per 100 possessions! — when Giannis would go to the bench. DeRozan could help alleviate those woes without getting in the way of the current Ryan Rollins breakout. They have multiple pathways to get to DeRozan’s salary figure; they could move former Kings target Kyle Kuzma (I probably wouldn’t right now, he’s played relatively well) and a smaller piece, or build out a larger framework including Bobby Portis, Kevin Porter Jr. and one of the vet minimums (Cole Anthony, one of the Garys, Taurean Prince for example) while possibly getting, I don’t know, the begrudgingly used Keon Ellis along with DeRozan.
