De'Aaron Fox Traded to Spurs for Zach Lavine, three first round picks

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
When not railing on Vivek he has nice things to offer but wasn't the Kings training staff ass for years? We used to talk about Arco being built on an Indian Burial Ground curse I don't know what/if Pete had to do with any of that but I'd say our training department the last however many years has been pretty competent.
The thing about Pete Youngman is that all of our players seemed to keep pulling their hammies in succession every single season. lol
 
DeMar > Johnson but the great thing is the Kings now have a huge stockpile of picks to throw around. Hopefully they keep the Kings picks out of any trades though.
Negative maybe the player but getting a guy capable of playing defense and shoots at an elite level would be huge. Lavine/Monk is pretty good enough creating offense Cam stays out of there way but still gives us 15-19ppg. Lavine, Cam, and Keegan is amazing spacing and we’d become a good shooting team overnight
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
An expiring contract has less value than the ability to straight up just take 16.8 million dollars from another team without sending salary back.
Theoretically we could buy a pick in 2025 with what space.

Not saying it's the right move - but I can see teams positioning for FA in 2026. Fox's class which was a big one.
 
Fortunately we have a relatively soft schedule after that (assuming the LOLMAVS don’t turn into juggernauts with AD) which bodes well for working LaVine into the lineup ahead of Fox’s return to Sac in a few weeks
I’d love to blow the Spurs outta the building. Those Monk to Lavine (and vice versa) alley oops gonna hit like crack in the 80’s.
 
It's possible. I would agree with everyone else here that "not really trying" Fox was a bummer to watch. Perhaps for a large number of Kings fans there will be a lift from having that dark cloud gone, just as there was a lift when Mike Brown was dismissed. Monk and LaVine are going to put up a ton of points and will probably win a fair number of shootouts for us in the coming years unless/until more trades break this lineup up. A lot of those games will probably be fun to watch if you love up and down basketball.

I may be slightly over-stating the extent of the problem, but what I saw a year ago was a young team that was trending in what (I consider to be) the right direction under Mike Brown -- giving up some of that high-powered offense from the year before in order to establish a defensive identity. Keon Ellis and Keegan Murray looked like they were going to be big parts of our future. Sabonis was becoming more well-rounded as a scorer and had proven himself to be a player everyone loves to root for (this part is still true) and we had a lottery pick to try to add to a pretty solid core which I felt was playoff worthy once everyone got healthy. On top of all that, I saw 4 teams in our division who are well into the age-related-decline phase of their current windows which gave us license to be patient with our own team-building approach.

Fast-forward to today and yet another Kings head coach has been fired, putting the lie to the idea that our franchise instability is (ever going to be?) behind us. I love Doug Christie but he's not the full-time head coach yet and how well the team plays for the next 3 months will probably play a big role in whether he gets to keep his job or not. Fox is gone. Keon and Keegan have both been mostly sidelined into bit players. Monk and LaVine are both microwave scorers and solid shooters but on defense that pairing is a far cry from the Fox and Ellis backcourt I thought we were going to have. These are not the guys I would have handed over the keys of the franchise to. And as of yesterday 25 year old Luka Doncic is now on the GD Lakers. On my birthday no less.

For years I've wanted a gritty hard-nosed team led by a SOB coach who demanded the best from everyone, who made accountability more than just a vague talking point. Finally for an all too brief 2 and a half years it looked like we had that. And now we're right back in familiar territory as a loose and fun up and down team where everyone smiles and has a great time as we score 120 a night but give up 128...

I guess if I could sum things up, before logging off to watch a movie and not think about basketball again for a long while:

I cheered for Mike Brown's laptop stunt
I cheered with Ellis on the hunt
I cheered as Curry had a pout
I cheered the end of playoff droughts
I cheered for every Murray three
I cheered each time we lit the beam
I cheered Kentucky alley-oops
I love this team but I feel duped...

I do not like this Fox-less house
I do no like the Lakers clout
I do not like how Zach plays D
I do not like these ref-er-ees
I do not like the talking heads
I do not like All-Star retreads
I do not like it most of all
When they are right to think us small.
So complaining about no defense while at the same time complementing the all time ultimate all offensive player in Luka? Give me your top Luka defensive plays?
 

Not sure what the Kings did to get grouped with the Mavs and Drake. The draft assets we got back for Fox along with Lavine are exponentially better than what the Mavs got lol
Even though one of the 1st round picks will most likely turn into 2 2nd round picks, we definitely got the better return in our deal than the Mavs got in theirs...:):):)
 
So what exactly is Demar's contract? I see a lot of comments about moving him, but Sac was considered very fortunate to get him. Does he not have to approve any trade? Doing him dirty would pretty much guarantee no one of that caliber takes a chance on the Kings for at least a generation.
Deboo scores 10 points in a row to win the game multiple times (this season!)
Kings fans- trade him.

Sometimes i feel we deserve to suck
 
IMHO, if Zach can stay healthy, this is a lateral move talent wise. Plus we get 2 1st round picks a bunch of 2nd rounders to trade for pieces.

I think the Kings continue their “pre-drama” surge in the 2nd half of the season.
Kings were severely handicapped after Fox chose his destination. No other team is going to risk their assets for a pouting Fox rental. Spurs were holding out over Stephon Castle. Lateral move with picks is a moderate win.
 

Capt. Factorial

ceterum censeo delendum esse Argentum
Staff member
So what exactly is Demar's contract? I see a lot of comments about moving him, but Sac was considered very fortunate to get him. Does he not have to approve any trade? Doing him dirty would pretty much guarantee no one of that caliber takes a chance on the Kings for at least a generation.
The talk of moving DDR basically stemmed from the idea that he didn't want to be on a rebuilding team. If we were to send Fox to SA for Castle, then DDR would probably have wanted out.

Apparently, DDR posted a pic of himself and LaVine today after the trade was announced, so it would seem that he is on board with the current roster. As such, no need to trade him.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member

Not sure what the Kings did to get grouped with the Mavs and Drake. The draft assets we got back for Fox along with Lavine are exponentially better than what the Mavs got lol
I mean I don't really love this trade and I hate San Antonio (and sorta Fox too, for now) - and most especially the gloating a-hole in my twitter timeline - but Fox made this happen and stabbed us all in the back and we came out better (imho) than a team that did it to themselves with the sorta player their fans also believed was a forever player. Also stabbed the player in the back by costing him 100 million on his next contract with the "claim" they didn't like paying the SuperMax while trading for a guy who is also set to make a 35% max contract starting next year.

so yeah, I'm just happy this is over, relatively quickly.
 
So what exactly is Demar's contract? I see a lot of comments about moving him, but Sac was considered very fortunate to get him. Does he not have to approve any trade? Doing him dirty would pretty much guarantee no one of that caliber takes a chance on the Kings for at least a generation.
i love demar but we need 2 defenders at a minimum in our big minute lineups. He won’t come off the bench (he basicallly confirmed mike asked him to do it and he was not happy) and he has a good contract that is partially guaranteed. Also, he did choose us but we were the only playoff team offering more than the midlevel. So it was business for him too
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
I feel certain it will be, based on how the team treated Keon Ellis last year. The good thing from Sacramento's point of view is that if he becomes a rotation player, Jones will be on an unbeatable contract.
Also if we convert him this year we can sign him for 3 years and have RFA rights when its over unlike Keon who we have to decline this next year to receive.

Am I right about that Cap?
 
The talk of moving DDR basically stemmed from the idea that he didn't want to be on a rebuilding team. If we were to send Fox to SA for Castle, then DDR would probably have wanted out.

Apparently, DDR posted a pic of himself and LaVine today after the trade was announced, so it would seem that he is on board with the current roster. As such, no need to trade him.
Thanks, Cap, knew I could count on you. That also puts the Castle variable in a very different light.
 
I mean I don't really love this trade and I hate San Antonio (and sorta Fox too, for now) - and most especially the gloating a-hole in my twitter timeline - but Fox made this happen and stabbed us all in the back and we came out better (imho) than a team that did it to themselves with the sorta player their fans also believed was a forever player. Also stabbed the player in the back by costing him 100 million on his next contract with the "claim" they didn't like paying the SuperMax while trading for a guy who is also set to make a 35% max contract starting next year.

so yeah, I'm just happy this is over, relatively quickly.
I also really do take offense to the "FOX NEVER HAD ANY HELP EVER" when Boogie Cousins spent most of his career dragging John Salmons, Derrick Williams and Arron Afflalo around. Was our team build perfect? Absolutely not. Was our team extremely talented around Fox? Damn right it is.