Grade the deadline (2025 edition)

Grade Monte’s trade deadline

  • Total voters
    81
Tetsujin

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#1
#1
Against immense pressure from exterior forces and so on so forth, Monte McNoBalls turned De’Aaron Fox, Huerter’s rotting corpse, JMac, Alex Len, and Colby Jones essentially turned into Zach Lavine, JVal, Laravia, and 2.5 first round picks (Soon to be two firsts and two seconds).

As we live in a time of instant gratification, I must ask you all to…

GRADE THE TRADE(S)
 
TaxMan

TaxMan

Starter
#9
#9
Tetsujin said:
Current depth chart:

Domas/JV/Isaac
Keegan/Trey
DDR/Laravia/Crawford
Lavine/Keon
Malik/Devin/Mason

Might be the actual deepest this team has been in 20+ years.
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Watching that game last night.... understanding there are defensive issues, I think our season is going to depend on how well Monk and Zach gel in the back court. Maybe it was just an overall off game for both (and transition period), but everything just looked very uncertain and clunky in the way they played together.
 
captain bill

captain bill

All-Star
#11
#11
I’m undecided and wait-and-see, but for the purposes of the poll I voted B-/C+. If you asked me before yesterday’s game it’d probably be B or B+

Biggest issue is we should’ve just traded Fox without going to his agent and letting him snake us. But I like the return in terms of LaVine, altho obviously after last night the first thing on my mind is defense. I like adding Val as well, but it’s a big TBD

This could easily turn into an “A” deadline if thinks go right so I’m not turning in my purple-tinted glasses. But right now, my feeling is we got a good return out of a bad situation, but the FO gets some negatives for putting themselves in that spot by giving Klutch the opening to Fox us over
 
funkykingston

funkykingston

Super Moderator
Staff member
#14
#14
Tetsujin said:
In my defense, I don’t think Jae is very long for the team give his last tweet.

I completely forgot about McBuckets, much like Doug Christie has this season.
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Yeah, hard to say what was going on with Jae's tweet. But if I'm counting correctly the Kings currently only have 12 guys under NBA contracts including him. Even if they sign IJ to a traditional deal, they have no need to cut Crowder when they'd still have 2 open roster spots.
 
E

ESP47

All-Star
#16
#16
notoriousBEN3 said:
I’m going with a B-/C+

I think we got solid value overall, but I’m still very concerned about the defense. We shall see.
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I went with the same grade for similar reasons.

JVal is a really good player but his tools aren't really the tools that the Kings need off the bench. Then again, his size can force teams to not be able to go small on us at the 5 and can force them to play their crappy, awkward big man.

Really wanted us to get some picks and at least a Vassell + wing from the Spurs. LaVine is most likely a treading water type trade at best but the odds are he won't be as effective as Fox with his injury history and whether or not he can acclimate to the roster seamlessly.

LaRavia is a solid move. Definitely received way more value than what we sent out but he's not really a needle mover right now. His stats do show a nice upward trajectory that has shown to be pretty effective in predicting whether a player will become good or just meddle in mediocrity. He has a better chance of being good than he does mediocre from the numbers. Not foolproof but we'll see.
 
gunks

gunks

Hall of Famer
#17
#17
Undecided. Maybe a "B" right now that could go up or down a letter depending on Lavine's fit moving forward.

Getting JV is huge, he'll be a great backup to Domas. I don't know anything about Laravia so I'll just have to see how he looks with us.

Big ??? around Lavine. Obviously Fox screwed us out of a bidding war so getting another Allstar caliber guard + picks is about as good as we could have hoped for, but I need a bigger sample size than last nights atrocious game against Orlando before coming to any conclusions on our new starting 5. Defense will probably be bad bad, but Foxy was always overrated on that end due to his steals.

I would have preferred it if the FO went after bigger forwards vs Lavine because I'm a huge fan of what Keon brings in a larger role, but maybe Monte got the yips on trusting the youth after Keegan failed to blow up into the offensive powerhouse the FO thought he would be in the "run it back" season.
 
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QWERTYLICIOUS

QWERTYLICIOUS

Starter
#20
#20
All things considered, a solid B-/C+. None of the picks screamed "Yeah, we hit this bad boy out of the park" by any stretch of the imagination. BUT, considering what we had, what position we were in, and what needed to happen, I am perfectly content with this roster and assets moving forward.

In Monte, I Trust!!!
 
Padrino

Padrino

All-Star
#24
#24
Feels like a "B" to me, which also feels like about the best you can do as a GM when one of your star players holds you over the barrel.

Personally, I was hoping any Fox trade would net more first rounders of consequence, and I was likewise hoping that any Fox trade would result in Keon Ellis' permanent elevation to the starting unit. Zach LaVine could be an interesting replacement for Fox if not for the defensive weaknesses all over the roster. As fun as the Beam Team was, I don't think it's particularly wise to repeat the all-offense look. The rest of the league adjusted pretty quickly to what the Kings were doing in year one, and the Kings weren't able to counterpunch very effectively in response. Keon Ellis has felt like the closest thing to a counterpunch the Kings have had on their roster, and it's just going to keep getting harder and harder to justify not starting him as the starters get shredded defensively.
 
T

The_Jamal

Hall of Famer
#25
#25
ESP47 said:
I went with the same grade for similar reasons.

JVal is a really good player but his tools aren't really the tools that the Kings need off the bench. Then again, his size can force teams to not be able to go small on us at the 5 and can force them to play their crappy, awkward big man.

Really wanted us to get some picks and at least a Vassell + wing from the Spurs. LaVine is most likely a treading water type trade at best but the odds are he won't be as effective as Fox with his injury history and whether or not he can acclimate to the roster seamlessly.

LaRavia is a solid move. Definitely received way more value than what we sent out but he's not really a needle mover right now. His stats do show a nice upward trajectory that has shown to be pretty effective in predicting whether a player will become good or just meddle in mediocrity. He has a better chance of being good than he does mediocre from the numbers. Not foolproof but we'll see.
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Big reason I was freaking out about the contract is LaRavia is like... a legit prospect here. Grizz are kicking themselves for declining the option for sure. IF you keep him, this is an A deadline, no doubt. If not, I think your B-/C+ is about right
 
iowamcnabb

iowamcnabb

Hall of Famer
#26
#26
Padrino said:
Feels like a "B" to me, which also feels like about the best you can do as a GM when one of your star players holds you over the barrel.

Personally, I was hoping any Fox trade would net more first rounders of consequence, and I was likewise hoping that any Fox trade would result in Keon Ellis' permanent elevation to the starting unit. Zach LaVine could be an interesting replacement for Fox if not for the defensive weaknesses all over the roster. As fun as the Beam Team was, I don't think it's particularly wise to repeat the all-offense look. The rest of the league adjusted pretty quickly to what the Kings were doing in year one, and the Kings weren't able to counterpunch very effectively in response. Keon Ellis has felt like the closest thing to a counterpunch the Kings have had on their roster, and it's just going to keep getting harder and harder to justify not starting him as the starters get shredded defensively.
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I agree. The short term answer is more creative rotations that feature 2 defenders on the court at the same time and the long term answer is eventually trading one of Lavine/Deebo for a stud wing. OR, bringing Deebo off the bench next year at 36. Maybe he would accept it at that point especially when the team shows him the data.
 
pdxKingsFan

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
#30
#30
Jdbraver137 said:
The team got bigger and we got a legit replacement for Fox.
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Knowing this organization will never pull the trigger on a full reset (at least in its current state) it's hard to be mad.

From my vantage point our franchise is still a laughingstock and punching bag around the league for a lot of teams in sorrier states than we are, so I would like to at least get this franchise back to respectable before we attempt an uglier rebuild.

Especially with Domas and Keegan.

But we can and should re-evaluate our options the next two offseasons if things go sideways. Good news is once that pick conveys to ATL we have full control. Most teams that went all in on 5-10 seeded rosters will have far longer pain periods with nothing to show.
 
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