The Kings are reportedly exploring the commerce market to show round an underwhelming season up to now.
Regardless of an enormous splash within the low season to accumulate veteran scorer DeMar DeRozan, Sacramento at the moment sits exterior the West playoff image at 13-17 and a very disappoint 6-11 house document.
Consequently, the Kings are contemplating pursuing Washington’s Kyle Kuzma and Jonas Valanciunas, Portland’s Jerami Grant, Utah’s John Collins, and Brooklyn’s Cam Johnson. That is per a report by Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
The place did Kings go unsuitable?
It was only a couple seasons in the past that the Kings have been the darlings of the NBA and lighting the beam on repeat. Ending third within the West with a 48-34 document, Sacramento battled the then defending champion Golden State Warriors in an unbelievable first-round sequence that went the complete seven video games.
De’Aaron Fox and Damontas Sabonis have been main the league’s greatest offense however, ever since, has struggled to kick it to fifth gear. The Kings completed 14th in offensive score a season in the past and ninth to this point this season.
The addition of DeRozan has taken away from a number of the free flowing nature of Sacramento’s offense and, most notably, is right down to twenty fourth in three-pointers tried after rating sixth within the class two years in the past.
Keegan Murray got here into the league trying a deadly exterior taking pictures menace, however his diminished position appears to have affected his consistency. After taking pictures a mixed 38.4 % in his first two seasons, Murray is hitting on simply 30.2 % of his three-point makes an attempt this season. Kevin Huerter shot a mixed 38.5 % in his first two seasons with Sacramento and is now right down to 31.1 % this season.
The ball motion simply isn’t the identical and it might have Fox feeling a bit unsure in regards to the workforce’s long-term future.
DeRozan commerce on horizon?
It might sound loopy, however having signed his contract in the summertime, DeRozan turned commerce eligible on Dec. 15. Buying and selling both Malik Monk or Huerter would solely harm the workforce’s three-point taking pictures capability, so it begs the query of if Sacramento can be prepared to surrender on the DeRozan experiment already.
Kuzma, Grant, and Johnson would all current higher ground spacing choices with higher protection on the similar place as DeRozan, whereas Collins would permit Murray to slip again into the small ahead place. Grant’s contract can be probably the most troublesome to work round as he makes roughly $6M greater than DeRozan, whereas the opposite three all hover near the $23M mark.
DeRozan possible wouldn’t be the happiest camper in any of these situations, as it might not solely take him out of California — his house state — but additionally place him on groups with no aspirations of successful this season.
