How the Kings can be Successful
This February, the Sacramento Kings were viewed as the laughingstock of the League when they sent the League’s best Center to New Orleans for seemingly next to nothing. Though it looked bad and unfair at the time, this time, Vlade Divac may know what he’s doing.
The Trade
The now infamous trade gave up Demarcus Cousins, (and Omri Casspi) while acquiring Tyreke Evans, Buddy Hield, Langston Galloway, and a 1st and 2nd Rounder from this year’s draft. This 1st Rounder ended up becoming the 10th Pick in the draft and the Kings themselves landed the #3 Pick, but unfortunately the 76ers had a protection right giving them the opportunity to swap picks with Sacramento leaving them with the 5th Pick. This is still a very good spot to have in this star studded Draft.
The Draft
In the Draft, my personal Mock sees the Kings getting a nice duo from Kentucky scooping up De’Aaron Fox at #5 and Bam Adebayo at #10. This bolsters their Starting Five immediately as they prepare for the offseason.
The Offseason
In the offseason, the Kings have a lot of ground to make up and have some moves to make. Coming off the books will be Rudy Gay, Tyreke Evans, Darren Collison, Langston Galloway, Ben McLemore, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Isaiah Cousins, and Jordan Farmar. The Kings bring back Evans on a cheaper 2 yr/15 mill deal and bring back Galloway and Cousins on minimum deals leaving the rest to walk. In the offseason, they ship Kosta Koufos and Anthony Tolliver to Denver along with a 2018 1st for Danilo Gallinari. They head into the 2017–18 Season with a Rotation of:
PG: De’Aaron Fox/Langston Galloway/Isaiah Cousins
SG: Buddy Hield/Aaron Afflalo/Malachi Richardson
SF: Tyreke Evans/Danilo Gallinari/Caron Butler
PF: Skal Labissiere/Bam Adebayo
C: Willie Cauley-Stein/Georgios Papagiannis
The Growth
Hield, Labissiere, and Cauley-Stein have all shown flashes of greatness for the future in this season alone. I predict that Buddy Hield will be a household name within 4 years or less averaging aroun 21 PPG with 7 APG. De’Aaron Fox will have a spotlight scoring wise in Sacramento and take the Rookie of the Year Honors averaging 15/6/4. By 2020, Labissiere and Cauley-Stein could potentially be one of the best bigmen duos in the league. The youth and potential of this Sacramento team is dangerous.
The Conclusion
Overall, although the Boogie trade seemed very one-sided and Vlade Divac and the Kings’ Front Office looked like some of the dumbest humans on Earth, it really isn’t all that bad. This was an under the radar trade to help the Kings out for the future with some young stars leading the way. So, who’s to say the Kings lost the trade…Only time will tell.
