2022 Trade Deadline Grades

[codydaze]

Full details of 2022 trade deadline moves:

Out:
Tyrese Haliburton
Buddy Hield
Tristan Thompson
Marvin Bagley
Robert Woodard (waived)
Jah'Mius Ramsey (waived)

In:
Domantas Sabonis
Justin Holiday
Jeremy Lamb
Donte Divincenzo
Josh Jackson
Trey Lyles

Thoughts on the deadlines? Where do we go from here?

[codydaze]

I'm giving it a B because losing Haliburton stings and ideally I would have liked to move Holmes for a stretch 4. We are loaded on wings now and I love the depth we have, a potential bench unit of Davion/Donte/Jackson/Harkless/Holmes looks really good.

I think we have a legit shot of grabbing a play in spot and possibly even sneaking into the 8 seed now. The head coaching hire this summer is going to be more important than any of these trades by a long shot. Grab a good coach and possibly get that stretch 4 in free agency and we can be a really good squad next year.

[LightTheBeam]

I voted A. I mean look at the lists and compare them. We cleared out so much junk, got the best player, and somehow managed to keep our picks in fact add another 2nd?

Thats wild to me.

[LightTheBeam]

I'm giving it a B because losing Haliburton stings and ideally I would have liked to move Holmes for a stretch 4. We are loaded on wings now and I love the depth we have, a potential bench unit of Davion/Donte/Jackson/Harkless/Holmes looks really good.

I think we have a legit shot of grabbing a play in spot and possibly even sneaking into the 8 seed now. The head coaching hire this summer is going to be more important than any of these trades by a long shot. Grab a good coach and possibly get that stretch 4 in free agency and we can be a really good squad next year.

You have Jackson getting minutes over Lamb?

[codydaze]

I'm giving it a B because losing Haliburton stings and ideally I would have liked to move Holmes for a stretch 4. We are loaded on wings now and I love the depth we have, a potential bench unit of Davion/Donte/Jackson/Harkless/Holmes looks really good.

I think we have a legit shot of grabbing a play in spot and possibly even sneaking into the 8 seed now. The head coaching hire this summer is going to be more important than any of these trades by a long shot. Grab a good coach and possibly get that stretch 4 in free agency and we can be a really good squad next year.

You have Jackson getting minutes over Lamb?

It can either way I think. Not huge on one over the other. I think Jackson brings some more playmaking and defense but also more inconsistency. I could see it play out to whoever is feeling it that day getting the minutes.

[BoogieTime]

B. Domas trade looks good after a day. If he re-signs that could be our ticket to respectability. Don't like Holmes here with no big time Sf/pf move. Holmes value is going to wither away if they don't start him with Domas, if his value is low now

[SacKingZZZ]

High B. Teams on track, finally.

[codydaze]

B. Domas trade looks good after a day. If he re-signs that could be our ticket to respectability. Don't like Holmes here with no big time Sf/pf move. Holmes value is going to wither away if they don't start him with Domas, if his value is low now

I always thought Holmes was ideally a bench big anyway. Your ceiling is limited with him starting but getting 20 minutes off the bench is great. Don't want to see them starting together for sure.

[Silver Man]

Solid B.

Woulda been higher if we could turned Holmes into PJ. But not a bad deadline for us.

[LightTheBeam]

Weird post deadline feeling.

For the first time this season, I can't wait for the next game. I don't want to wait till Saturday damnit!

A hopeless Kings fans now re-arranging my haircut, movie tickets and Saturday errands to make sure i'm in front of a TV at 4pm!

[jeffjtk1234]

“A,” easily. People are sleeping on the lyles pickup. I’d consider starting him with Saboner.


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[jeffjtk1234]

Weird post deadline feeling.

For the first time this season, I can't wait for the next game. I don't want to wait till Saturday damnit!

A hopeless Kings fans now re-arranging my haircut, movie tickets and Saturday errands to make sure i'm in front of a TV at 4pm!

Yeah man I’m stoked for the game


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[KF10]

On the pieces we got in return, I give it an A.

[jeffjtk1234]

Monte went bpa in back to back drafts and was able to unload one of those players for a bonafide all star big, while dumping buddy's albatross of a deal.

Sabonis play last night was literally business as usual. That's what he does and how he plays. And he can be better with the team with more reps and practice. How can you look at this new roster construction and not be excited for the future. AND they kept their first this year and have an asset for Holmes they can unload in the summer.

I get it, we loved Hali, but look at the return.


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[rpa]

Somewhere between a C- and a D-. They can't get an F since they didn't trade any future FRPs--so that's a win (I guess). Overall reasoning:

Everything really comes down to timing and direction. There are other bits here and there (acquiring vets) that I'll talk about, but at the end of the day it's all direction related. The Kings are a bad team. They've been on a treadmill of below average for 15 years now. They didn't have the in-house talent to compete. What's more, the lack of sellers this year (and last!!!) gave them the perfect time to do what I'll call an "opportunistic rebuild". An "opportunistic rebuild" isn't like what Hinkie did; it's not bottoming out for multiple years and building from the ground up. It's recognizing that, for whatever confluence of reasons, your team sucks this year. Maybe your star is having a bad year, maybe you kept a crappy coach too long, maybe you've been depleted by injuries. You're bad, whatever. Or, put differently: you're worse than what you should be.

That was the Kings this year. They're probably a 30-some-odd win team if Fox doesn't **** the bed for the first 3 months of the year, but going into the trade deadline they're sitting around 20 wins and they look to have a lottery ceiling of the 5th pick. Couple that with the fact that there are so few sellers at the deadline and you have an opportunity to sell high on your existing talent, get a good pick, and all the while you're doing this with a cabinet full of talent that's underperforming.

Portland and (ironically) Indiana both appear to be doing this exact same thing. Lillard is injured and the team sucks. If they were the Kings they'd have tried to buy vets to keep the team afloat until Lillard came back, maybe make the play-in, and then either lose there, or get stomped by the Warriors or Suns. What did they do instead? Let Lillard rest, traded vets for some young guys, developed their existing young guys, and got ready for a top pick in the draft.

In this alternate reality where the Kings are (*gulp*) smart, they sell off Barnes and Holmes for assets (picks, young players); they take whatever they can get for Hield & Bagley to attempt to clean up the culture; they continue to rest Fox so they can feed Davion more minutes alongside Haliburton; and they give more minutes to Metu, Jones, et al to try to develop them into acceptable role players next year. Then they head into the lottery with the 5th or 6th best chances to move up. Maybe they do and secure Jabari Smith, Chet, etc. Maybe they grab the 4th pick (likely Ivey) and they line up a trade for a star instead of drafting yet another guard.

Either way, the above strategy allows the Kings to take advantage of their current situation and solve their biggest problem (lack of talent) via a larger talent injection at the draft than what they'll get now after the trade.

This isn't to say I think Sabonis is bad or that I think Haliburton is the next Nash. No, the problem is that this team picked a direction that fundamentally misunderstands what their problem is for the myopic target of merely being the 6th worst team in the conference instead of the 3rd or 4th worse.

[jeffjtk1234]

So you draft Ivey who plays the same position as fox Hali and Mitchell? I just don’t get it


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[BoogieTime]

Somewhere between a C- and a D-. They can't get an F since they didn't trade any future FRPs--so that's a win (I guess). Overall reasoning:

Everything really comes down to timing and direction. There are other bits here and there (acquiring vets) that I'll talk about, but at the end of the day it's all direction related. The Kings are a bad team. They've been on a treadmill of below average for 15 years now. They didn't have the in-house talent to compete. What's more, the lack of sellers this year (and last!!!) gave them the perfect time to do what I'll call an "opportunistic rebuild". An "opportunistic rebuild" isn't like what Hinkie did; it's not bottoming out for multiple years and building from the ground up. It's recognizing that, for whatever confluence of reasons, your team sucks this year. Maybe your star is having a bad year, maybe you kept a crappy coach too long, maybe you've been depleted by injuries. You're bad, whatever. Or, put differently: you're worse than what you should be.

That was the Kings this year. They're probably a 30-some-odd win team if Fox doesn't **** the bed for the first 3 months of the year, but going into the trade deadline they're sitting around 20 wins and they look to have a lottery ceiling of the 5th pick. Couple that with the fact that there are so few sellers at the deadline and you have an opportunity to sell high on your existing talent, get a good pick, and all the while you're doing this with a cabinet full of talent that's underperforming.

Portland and (ironically) Indiana both appear to be doing this exact same thing. Lillard is injured and the team sucks. If they were the Kings they'd have tried to buy vets to keep the team afloat until Lillard came back, maybe make the play-in, and then either lose there, or get stomped by the Warriors or Suns. What did they do instead? Let Lillard rest, traded vets for some young guys, developed their existing young guys, and got ready for a top pick in the draft.

In this alternate reality where the Kings are (*gulp*) smart, they sell off Barnes and Holmes for assets (picks, young players); they take whatever they can get for Hield & Bagley to attempt to clean up the culture; they continue to rest Fox so they can feed Davion more minutes alongside Haliburton; and they give more minutes to Metu, Jones, et al to try to develop them into acceptable role players next year. Then they head into the lottery with the 5th or 6th best chances to move up. Maybe they do and secure Jabari Smith, Chet, etc. Maybe they grab the 4th pick (likely Ivey) and they line up a trade for a star instead of drafting yet another guard.

Either way, the above strategy allows the Kings to take advantage of their current situation and solve their biggest problem (lack of talent) via a larger talent injection at the draft than what they'll get now after the trade.

This isn't to say I think Sabonis is bad or that I think Haliburton is the next Nash. No, the problem is that this team picked a direction that fundamentally misunderstands what their problem is for the myopic target of merely being the 6th worst team in the conference instead of the 3rd or 4th worse.

I think they understand their problem quite well and went about addressing it. They are a poor ownership fiscally who took a beating with the Kings and their other downtown projects during covid. On top of that they were bleeding funds being a bottom 5 attendance team and their ticket prices or going down too.

Bringing in talent now changes the fiscal direction. Their is a buzz, and tickets will be bought once again.

If they were to remain a poor standings team and they missed in the draft, the poor ownership would be looking at half a decade or more of 11,000 people buying 8 dollar tickets etc.

That is their direction, as for the direction on the floor, its debatable. On RealGM we are a separate type of fan than the casual Sacramentan who just wants to have a good time. They dont understand 3-4 year possible horizons, they just want competitive basketball and maybe the attendance was a mandate for change. There are arguments for/against bottoming out to rebuild, some times it works and some times it doesn't. If they continued to blow top picks we may go decades without competitive basketball, though I understand your point.

[jeffjtk1234]

Somewhere between a C- and a D-. They can't get an F since they didn't trade any future FRPs--so that's a win (I guess). Overall reasoning:

Everything really comes down to timing and direction. There are other bits here and there (acquiring vets) that I'll talk about, but at the end of the day it's all direction related. The Kings are a bad team. They've been on a treadmill of below average for 15 years now. They didn't have the in-house talent to compete. What's more, the lack of sellers this year (and last!!!) gave them the perfect time to do what I'll call an "opportunistic rebuild". An "opportunistic rebuild" isn't like what Hinkie did; it's not bottoming out for multiple years and building from the ground up. It's recognizing that, for whatever confluence of reasons, your team sucks this year. Maybe your star is having a bad year, maybe you kept a crappy coach too long, maybe you've been depleted by injuries. You're bad, whatever. Or, put differently: you're worse than what you should be.

That was the Kings this year. They're probably a 30-some-odd win team if Fox doesn't **** the bed for the first 3 months of the year, but going into the trade deadline they're sitting around 20 wins and they look to have a lottery ceiling of the 5th pick. Couple that with the fact that there are so few sellers at the deadline and you have an opportunity to sell high on your existing talent, get a good pick, and all the while you're doing this with a cabinet full of talent that's underperforming.

Portland and (ironically) Indiana both appear to be doing this exact same thing. Lillard is injured and the team sucks. If they were the Kings they'd have tried to buy vets to keep the team afloat until Lillard came back, maybe make the play-in, and then either lose there, or get stomped by the Warriors or Suns. What did they do instead? Let Lillard rest, traded vets for some young guys, developed their existing young guys, and got ready for a top pick in the draft.

In this alternate reality where the Kings are (*gulp*) smart, they sell off Barnes and Holmes for assets (picks, young players); they take whatever they can get for Hield & Bagley to attempt to clean up the culture; they continue to rest Fox so they can feed Davion more minutes alongside Haliburton; and they give more minutes to Metu, Jones, et al to try to develop them into acceptable role players next year. Then they head into the lottery with the 5th or 6th best chances to move up. Maybe they do and secure Jabari Smith, Chet, etc. Maybe they grab the 4th pick (likely Ivey) and they line up a trade for a star instead of drafting yet another guard.

Either way, the above strategy allows the Kings to take advantage of their current situation and solve their biggest problem (lack of talent) via a larger talent injection at the draft than what they'll get now after the trade.

This isn't to say I think Sabonis is bad or that I think Haliburton is the next Nash. No, the problem is that this team picked a direction that fundamentally misunderstands what their problem is for the myopic target of merely being the 6th worst team in the conference instead of the 3rd or 4th worse.

I think they understand their problem quite well and went about addressing it. They are a poor ownership fiscally who took a beating with the Kings and their other downtown projects during covid. On top of that they were bleeding funds being a bottom 5 attendance team and their ticket prices or going down too.

Bringing in talent now changes the fiscal direction. Their is a buzz, and tickets will be bought once again.

If they were to remain a poor standings team and they missed in the draft, the poor ownership would be looking at half a decade or more of 11,000 people buying 8 dollar tickets etc.

That is their direction, as for the direction on the floor, its debatable. On RealGM we are a separate type of fan than the casual Sacramentan who just wants to have a good time. They dont understand 3-4 year possible horizons, they just want competitive basketball and maybe the attendance was a mandate for change. There are arguments for/against bottoming out to rebuild, some times it works and some times it doesn't. If they continued to blow top picks we may go decades without competitive basketball, though I understand your point.

This trade was made considering 3-4 years down the road. Sabonis is 25. I don’t know how many times this needs to be repeated. He’s not even in his prime, and is already an all star. fox is not in his prime either. I believe they can help each other be better and unlock one another’s potential even further.

Fox was look at as a top 35 player as recent as last year. Sabonis top 40. Again, not in prime, again, haven’t played together. These are the best two players these two have played with.


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[rpa]

I think they understand their problem quite well and went about addressing it. They are a poor ownership fiscally who took a beating with the Kings and their other downtown projects during covid. On top of that they were bleeding funds being a bottom 5 attendance team and their ticket prices or going down too.

Bringing in talent now changes the fiscal direction. Their is a buzz, and tickets will be bought once again.

If they were to remain a poor standings team and they missed in the draft, the poor ownership would be looking at half a decade or more of 11,000 people buying 8 dollar tickets etc.

I could see this if not for the fact that they've been doing similar things prior to being in financial straights due to COVID. Secondly, I'd argue that creating a young, up and coming team is the clearer path to success in the short term than creating a good team. They could have done that if they'd sold off the vets and tanked the year for a pick. You get a top 4 spot and then you sell that. I'd say that's a hell of a lot more reasonable than what they're targeting now--which seems to be some combination of either a) We made the play-in and we're gonna be good (despite getting destroyed in that play-in game) OR b) We almost made the play-in and we'll be good!

There are arguments for/against bottoming out to rebuild, some times it works and some times it doesn't.

One of the main points of my post was that they didn't need to bottom out over a long period. They could be opportunistic about it and push for next year.

If they continued to blow top picks we may go decades without competitive basketball, though I understand your point.

That's the thing, though. Good trades, signings, and picks are all predicated on the same skill: talent evaluation. If the Kings sucked at draft picks they'll suck equally as much on the other 2 (see: Vlade). The difference between the last 1 (picks) and the former 2 is that it's a viable path for the Kings (signings aren't as no one will sign here) that doesn't require them to give up existing assets/talent (as trades do).

[BoogieTime]

Somewhere between a C- and a D-. They can't get an F since they didn't trade any future FRPs--so that's a win (I guess). Overall reasoning:

Everything really comes down to timing and direction. There are other bits here and there (acquiring vets) that I'll talk about, but at the end of the day it's all direction related. The Kings are a bad team. They've been on a treadmill of below average for 15 years now. They didn't have the in-house talent to compete. What's more, the lack of sellers this year (and last!!!) gave them the perfect time to do what I'll call an "opportunistic rebuild". An "opportunistic rebuild" isn't like what Hinkie did; it's not bottoming out for multiple years and building from the ground up. It's recognizing that, for whatever confluence of reasons, your team sucks this year. Maybe your star is having a bad year, maybe you kept a crappy coach too long, maybe you've been depleted by injuries. You're bad, whatever. Or, put differently: you're worse than what you should be.

That was the Kings this year. They're probably a 30-some-odd win team if Fox doesn't **** the bed for the first 3 months of the year, but going into the trade deadline they're sitting around 20 wins and they look to have a lottery ceiling of the 5th pick. Couple that with the fact that there are so few sellers at the deadline and you have an opportunity to sell high on your existing talent, get a good pick, and all the while you're doing this with a cabinet full of talent that's underperforming.

Portland and (ironically) Indiana both appear to be doing this exact same thing. Lillard is injured and the team sucks. If they were the Kings they'd have tried to buy vets to keep the team afloat until Lillard came back, maybe make the play-in, and then either lose there, or get stomped by the Warriors or Suns. What did they do instead? Let Lillard rest, traded vets for some young guys, developed their existing young guys, and got ready for a top pick in the draft.

In this alternate reality where the Kings are (*gulp*) smart, they sell off Barnes and Holmes for assets (picks, young players); they take whatever they can get for Hield & Bagley to attempt to clean up the culture; they continue to rest Fox so they can feed Davion more minutes alongside Haliburton; and they give more minutes to Metu, Jones, et al to try to develop them into acceptable role players next year. Then they head into the lottery with the 5th or 6th best chances to move up. Maybe they do and secure Jabari Smith, Chet, etc. Maybe they grab the 4th pick (likely Ivey) and they line up a trade for a star instead of drafting yet another guard.

Either way, the above strategy allows the Kings to take advantage of their current situation and solve their biggest problem (lack of talent) via a larger talent injection at the draft than what they'll get now after the trade.

This isn't to say I think Sabonis is bad or that I think Haliburton is the next Nash. No, the problem is that this team picked a direction that fundamentally misunderstands what their problem is for the myopic target of merely being the 6th worst team in the conference instead of the 3rd or 4th worse.

I think they understand their problem quite well and went about addressing it. They are a poor ownership fiscally who took a beating with the Kings and their other downtown projects during covid. On top of that they were bleeding funds being a bottom 5 attendance team and their ticket prices or going down too.

Bringing in talent now changes the fiscal direction. Their is a buzz, and tickets will be bought once again.

If they were to remain a poor standings team and they missed in the draft, the poor ownership would be looking at half a decade or more of 11,000 people buying 8 dollar tickets etc.

That is their direction, as for the direction on the floor, its debatable. On RealGM we are a separate type of fan than the casual Sacramentan who just wants to have a good time. They dont understand 3-4 year possible horizons, they just want competitive basketball and maybe the attendance was a mandate for change. There are arguments for/against bottoming out to rebuild, some times it works and some times it doesn't. If they continued to blow top picks we may go decades without competitive basketball, though I understand your point.

This trade was made considering 3-4 years down the road. Sabonis is 25. I don’t know how many times this needs to be repeated. He’s not even in his prime, and is already an all star. fox is not in his prime either. I believe they can help each other be better and unlock one another’s potential even further.

Fox was look at as a top 35 player as recent as last year. Sabonis top 40. Again, not in prime, again, haven’t played together. These are the best two players these two have played with.


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I agree. I was saying fans exhausted after 15 years of losing who are now not turning up in record numbers may not understand 3-4 year more of horizon.

On top of ownership being being poor and needing activity at Golden 1, maybe some take fans not showing up as a mandate for a move