Kings trade rumor SZN 2023-2024 edition!
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
If Jimmy Butler is a King, Keegan is on the Heat. One of the many problems with this is matching salary would probably require HB and KVon. So:
Fox Davion
Duarte Monk
Butler Kessler
Lyles Sasha
Sabonis Javale
you have Jimmy for this year, next year and then he has a player option the following year.
Fox Davion
Duarte Monk
Butler Kessler
Lyles Sasha
Sabonis Javale
you have Jimmy for this year, next year and then he has a player option the following year.
I think Marks' take is about right here. We don't want to become a team that's too top-heavy in the Double Apron Era, because it really hamstrings your ability to surround your stars with the necessary role players, or to retain your up-and-coming stars (Keegan, to a lesser extent Monk). I'm fully on board with no trade, if that's what happens.
If we do make a trade, I think it needs to be one of those Corliss-for-Christie trades that goes a bit under the radar but brings in the glue player that we need. I don't know who that glue player is (DFS? I'm skeptical), but at the time that we got Christie I sure didn't know him at all.
If we do make a trade, I think it needs to be one of those Corliss-for-Christie trades that goes a bit under the radar but brings in the glue player that we need. I don't know who that glue player is (DFS? I'm skeptical), but at the time that we got Christie I sure didn't know him at all.
Interesting- if DFS is really costing a rotation player and a first, and Royce is costing seconds, you could do the following:
Sac sends: Davion, Sasha, Duarte, Kessler, 2026 FRP, 2025 SRP, 2027 SRP
Brooklyn sends: DFS, Royce
Davion and Sasha are both fringe rotation players. Davion would get run as a point guard in Brooklyn, especially if they trade Dinwiddie. Sasha would be a nice spacer for them, especially if they are intent on playing Simmons. Duarte and Kessler are salary match. You could also do the trade with Javale instead of Sasha.
Rotation would be so strong and flexible
Sabonis/Javale/Len
Barnes/Lyles
Keegan/DFS
Huerter/Royce/Colby
Fox/Monk/Keon
I kept Barnes with the starters for continuity, but you would see tons of mix and match lineups. I would see a minutes division like:
Sabonis (34) Javale/Len (8) Lyles (6)
Barnes (24) DFS (12) Lyles (12)
Keegan (26) DFS (14) Royce (8)
Huerter (26) Monk (14) Keegan (8)
Fox (34) Monk (14)
Sabonis, Fox, Keegan- 34
Monk- 28
Huerter, DFS- 26
Barnes- 24
Lyles- 18
Javale/Len, Royce- 8
In the playoffs you might tighten the rotation up and squeeze Royce a bit.
Sac sends: Davion, Sasha, Duarte, Kessler, 2026 FRP, 2025 SRP, 2027 SRP
Brooklyn sends: DFS, Royce
Davion and Sasha are both fringe rotation players. Davion would get run as a point guard in Brooklyn, especially if they trade Dinwiddie. Sasha would be a nice spacer for them, especially if they are intent on playing Simmons. Duarte and Kessler are salary match. You could also do the trade with Javale instead of Sasha.
Rotation would be so strong and flexible
Sabonis/Javale/Len
Barnes/Lyles
Keegan/DFS
Huerter/Royce/Colby
Fox/Monk/Keon
I kept Barnes with the starters for continuity, but you would see tons of mix and match lineups. I would see a minutes division like:
Sabonis (34) Javale/Len (8) Lyles (6)
Barnes (24) DFS (12) Lyles (12)
Keegan (26) DFS (14) Royce (8)
Huerter (26) Monk (14) Keegan (8)
Fox (34) Monk (14)
Sabonis, Fox, Keegan- 34
Monk- 28
Huerter, DFS- 26
Barnes- 24
Lyles- 18
Javale/Len, Royce- 8
In the playoffs you might tighten the rotation up and squeeze Royce a bit.
I might just cut Len/McGee out of the rotation at that point.
Lyles has shown he can play some small ball 5 and Finney-Smith plays some small ball 5 in BKN right now. You could probably get away with playing exclusively small ball 5 if you have a combination of Lyles-DFS-Murray-Barnes at SF, PF, and C. That should give O’Neale more than 8 mpg (which is a lot lower than he normally gets). Maybe with certain matchups you’d have to resort to Len though.
EDIT: However, I don’t think it’s wise to surrender a 1st round pick at this point. I think we should hold those close to the vest and keep our options open for a big swing down the road (if needed). Instead, we should just do this trade at the deadline…
Royce O’Neale
for
Davion Mitchell
Chris Duarte
2025 POR 2nd
This is how the rotation could look if we do that trade…
Fox (34) / Monk (14)
O’Neale (26) / Monk (14) / Huerter (8)
Murray (30) / Huerter (18)
Barnes (26) / Lyles (20) / Murray (2)
Sabonis (34) / Len (14)
Fox = 34 min
Sabonis = 34 min
Murray = 32 min
Monk = 28 min
O’Neale = 26 min
Huerter = 26 min
Barnes = 26 min
Lyles = 20 min
Len = 14 min
Lyles has shown he can play some small ball 5 and Finney-Smith plays some small ball 5 in BKN right now. You could probably get away with playing exclusively small ball 5 if you have a combination of Lyles-DFS-Murray-Barnes at SF, PF, and C. That should give O’Neale more than 8 mpg (which is a lot lower than he normally gets). Maybe with certain matchups you’d have to resort to Len though.
EDIT: However, I don’t think it’s wise to surrender a 1st round pick at this point. I think we should hold those close to the vest and keep our options open for a big swing down the road (if needed). Instead, we should just do this trade at the deadline…
Royce O’Neale
for
Davion Mitchell
Chris Duarte
2025 POR 2nd
- We add a long, 3&D wing who can help us shore up our defense on the perimeter this year while still providing floor spacing for Fox/Sabonis.
- His ballhandling/passing would allow us to swap him for Huerter in the starting lineup without us losing much in that department (I don’t consider him big/long enough to be our starting 4. He’s more of a 2/3 to me).
- His rebounding would be great to have as well since he’s above average for a SG
- He’s not a high volume scorer so that would allow for Barnes to step back into that 4th scoring option in the starting unit (vs. the 5th scoring option)
- We’d keep all of our future 1sts in tact and when the pick conveys to ATL this draft (most likely), we’d have maximum flexibility in trading all of our picks again.
- If we can resign him to a reasonable deal, his trade value may be worth more than what we paid for him (good ROI).
This is how the rotation could look if we do that trade…
Fox (34) / Monk (14)
O’Neale (26) / Monk (14) / Huerter (8)
Murray (30) / Huerter (18)
Barnes (26) / Lyles (20) / Murray (2)
Sabonis (34) / Len (14)
Fox = 34 min
Sabonis = 34 min
Murray = 32 min
Monk = 28 min
O’Neale = 26 min
Huerter = 26 min
Barnes = 26 min
Lyles = 20 min
Len = 14 min
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Yeah- I probably would too. Not sure if Brown would do it, as he has never shown the desire to go with a small ball 5 for long stretches, but you would definitely have the personnel to do it. A Lyles-DFS-Keegan-Barnes-Fox lineup when Domas sits would be very versatile and actually have plenty of size. That is the trick with small ball 5 lineups- you don't want to go miniature everywhere. You actually want to have size/shooters at the 2-4 positions so that you can switch on defense and take advantage of the space you get from having Lyles at 5. You could also run small ball lineups with Lyles-DFS-Keegan-Royce or even Lyles-DFS-Keegan-Huerter.
I wonder if the Kings could pry Tari Eason from the Rockets. I've been high on him forever and he's pretty close to exactly the type of player I want between Murray and Sabonis - athletic hustle player with an edge who rebounds well, offers some rim protection and is shooting 36% from 3 on decent volume.
Barnes & Portlands 2025 2nd rounder for Eason and the ghost of Jeff Green works, but I don't know why that would interest the Rockets.
And I don't think they have a ton of use for Davion. Hmm.
Eason was my draft crush in 2022 and I think McNair could have made an aggressive move to get a midround 1st to nab him, but worse than that is that several of my draft crushes in 2021 are playing much, much better than Davion. I wanted Wagner (who went a pick earlier) but I said at the time that I would have taken Sengun or Jalen Johnson at #9 over Mitchell. How nice would it be to have a talented point forward like Johnson or a near Sabonis clone right about now?
Barnes & Portlands 2025 2nd rounder for Eason and the ghost of Jeff Green works, but I don't know why that would interest the Rockets.
And I don't think they have a ton of use for Davion. Hmm.
Eason was my draft crush in 2022 and I think McNair could have made an aggressive move to get a midround 1st to nab him, but worse than that is that several of my draft crushes in 2021 are playing much, much better than Davion. I wanted Wagner (who went a pick earlier) but I said at the time that I would have taken Sengun or Jalen Johnson at #9 over Mitchell. How nice would it be to have a talented point forward like Johnson or a near Sabonis clone right about now?
A couple of things, with the way this current team has been playing, we could put KD, LeBron, or Kawhi on this team and we still wouldn't make it out of the 2nd round. This team is not ready for the bright lights and gets easily frazzled. Because of this, it would not be wise to trade for Jimmy Butler. We're not a championship level team. Sending off your best young player on a rookie contract would set this franchise back. It'd be a different story if the Kings were in a position to be contenders, but we're not.
We would be the Jimmy Butler Timberwolves 2.0.
2nd point, people are insane to think we should give up a 2026 1st rounder for Royce O'Neale... why are we trading a 1st round pick 2 years down the line for a 30-year-old rotational player who comes off the bench for a bottom 10 team? Are people also unaware that he's a pending UFA this offseason? Nevermind. Saw that the trade was also for DFS
We would be the Jimmy Butler Timberwolves 2.0.
2nd point, people are insane to think we should give up a 2026 1st rounder for Royce O'Neale... why are we trading a 1st round pick 2 years down the line for a 30-year-old rotational player who comes off the bench for a bottom 10 team? Are people also unaware that he's a pending UFA this offseason? Nevermind. Saw that the trade was also for DFS
Agreed. The Rockets aren't looking for what the Kings have to offer. They are big game hunting, which makes sense. Houston has always had major stars when they've been good and they have the picks and assets to make a big splash and still have lots of nice young pieces.
For the Kings to get Eason I think it'd pretty much have to be as a third team in a trade.
For the Kings to get Eason I think it'd pretty much have to be as a third team in a trade.
Eason's not really making enough for there to be *contract* reasons that we would be a third team, but if Houston manages to line up a big deal with a team that doesn't feel a big need for Eason, it's the kind of thing where we could sneak in and throw a FRP to Houston and a small salary to the other team to snap him up. That's probably a super-underrated use of a FRP, if it could be swung. Big if.
Eason was one of my top choices if the Kings slid down in that draft and as much as I'd like to have him, I don't see any reason why the Rockets would have to trade him. Even in their current situation if all their players develop nicely.
The only thing that gives me hope is the fact that they still don't play him as many minutes as he deserves.
The only thing that gives me hope is the fact that they still don't play him as many minutes as he deserves.
The Rockets signed Brooks to a significant FA contract (4 yr/$80M I believe) and they are starting him over Eason and Whitmore, so the front office seems to like what he adds to the team. I personally prefer Eason, ESPECIALLY if their respective contracts are part of the conversation, but Houston doesn't seem to feel similarly.
