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

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
I still don't love the trade. It feels like the move you make to keep your team within the play-in bracket for the next couple of years before you ultimately quit on the roster and have to start a rebuild in earnest. Had the Kings also received the ATL pick, or even the Spurs first rounder this year, I'd feel differently. But they were over the barrel and had to swallow a deal that represents considerably less than value for De'Aaron Fox. I would rather they had waited until the off-season to see if they could find a multi-team deal that gave them more shots in future drafts.

Now, maybe Zach LaVine makes a believer out of me. Maybe CHI was not the right situation for him and he'll be more of an impact player alongside a guy like Domas in the frontcourt. I am not confident in this hypothetical, though. And I hate the idea of a starting lineup with Monk/LaVine/DeRozan. On defense, in particular.
I just don't think we had any options after how the team looked the past 2 games. And apparently if there were 2-3 other teams Fox initially said he'd re-sign with Paul took them off the table and made everyone know. I think this may backfire on Fox down the road but it completely f'd us over.
 
Also because what is San Antonio's investment. Not like they gave up any high value picks or players in this deal. Paul got Fox what he wanted but his value around the league remains an unknown because of how he did it.

If I'm San Antonio I am not offering him a 30% max extension, he'll get maybe what Sabonis got - maybe a little less - and maybe he'll be happy.
Yep... Could totally be a 3-4 year stop over for Fox.

If a couple these draft picks they have land good players and all of a sudden you have them eligible for their extensions and a 31-32 yo Fox making 60M and wanting a new contract.. For the Spurs it would make sense to align your best assets with the Wemby timeline
 
I still don't love the trade. It feels like the move you make to keep your team within the play-in bracket for the next couple of years before you ultimately quit on the roster and have to start a rebuild in earnest. Had the Kings also received the ATL pick, or even the Spurs first rounder this year, I'd feel differently. But they were over the barrel and had to swallow a deal that represents considerably less than value for De'Aaron Fox. I would rather they had waited until the off-season to see if they could find a multi-team deal that gave them more shots in future drafts.

Now, maybe Zach LaVine makes a believer out of me. Maybe CHI was not the right situation for him and he'll be more of an impact player alongside a guy like Domas in the frontcourt. I am not confident in this hypothetical, though. And I hate the idea of a starting lineup with Monk/LaVine/DeRozan. On defense, in particular.
I look at it like this:

In the short term we remain competitive with a chance to make the playoffs.

In the long term we can trade up to 6 first round picks and 8 second rounders (after the draft and if the Atlanta pick conveys). When have we ever had a stash of picks to move in a big deal?

They need to get one or two players before the deadline not only for depth but for future salary matching. If we trade 4 seconds for Jonas/Thybulle we improve our team this year and then have 40 mil dollars in contracts between Deebo/Thybulle/Jonas and a bevy of picks to swing a mega deal that could change the franchise. That’s a much better position to be in than a Fox led first round exit ceiling team with no draft assets.
 
The problem is that we saw how bad our defense was starting Fox, Monk, DeRozan, Murray, and Sabonis. Now that defense is getting worse by swapping Fox for LaVine.

DeRozan is the obvious guy to swap out for many reasons…
  • He’s considerably older than the rest of our core. Would make sense to try and extend our window more by swapping him for someone younger.
  • Moving him and getting a PF allows us to improve our size/length (pushing Murray back to SF) or we just swap DeRozan for a bigger/longer SF
  • He’s not a good 3PT shooter, and if we replace him with a good shooter, we all of a sudden replaced two poor 3PT shooters (Fox & DeRozan) for two good 3PT shooters (LaVine & ???). That would be a significant change to the offense and spacing and maybe that ends up unlocking Sabonis that much more when the other 4 guys on the floor with him can hit 3s at a very good rate
  • He’s a weak defender at a position where we don’t have good defensive depth. Murray is the only good forward defender on the roster. I’d much rather swap DeRozan out for another good forward defender (giving us 2 good for wed defenders) vs. trading Monk for amother good guard defender (when we already have Ellis and Carter on the roster)

If you can somehow leverage the 1sts and 2nds you just acquired to bring in Cam Johnson, PJ Washington, and Day’Ron Sharpe, you have a pretty interesting team. A starting lineup of…

Monk
LaVine
Johnson
Murray
Sabonis

…is a TON of shooting and nobody is going to be able to go under on Sabonis’ screens with those guys (otherwise, they’ll just pull from 3). That’s going to give Sabonis a lot more space in the lane when he rolls to the basket.

Then off the bench you have…
  • Your two defensive aces at guard in Ellis and Carter
  • A big, long, athletic forward in Washington (7’2.5” wingspan, 8’11” standing reach, & 230 lbs) who can do a little of everything (shoot, score, defend, rebound, block shots, pass)
  • A PF/C who can stretch the floor and bring some toughness in Lyles
  • An upgrade at C in Sharpe who can help keep the team afloat while Sabonis rests
At that point, we’re talking about a merged trade of…

Fox
DeRozan
Huerter
McLaughlin

for

Lavine
Johnson
Washington
Sharpe

…I think you’d see the fanbase come around more if that’s how this trade deadline ends up working out because at the very least the team would finally have a balanced roster.
I agreed with your assessment. I been saying the same thing. Getting Lavine ain't going to bolster the team overall defense. In fact, it's going to be worst without Fox. So, which spot is likely needed to change to upgrade the team defensive strength? DeRozen. Getting Cam Johnson with his length can help in not just defense but other areas as well such as rebounding. This also make the overall team offense more lethal. If not Johnson, then someone like Collins from Jazz. Then you can move Murray to the SF spot and Collins as the PF to help with blocking shots and rebounding.
 
Since it was rightly pruned form the thank you thread, let me put this here, because Fox's statement is laughably offensive.
https://x.com/JandersonSacBee/status/1886446047141982429
--

The statement is incoherent.

"The love for the city is unmatched."

Who is loving? You? That's not what the statement says. "The love"... not "my love"

And even if he said (or meant) "my love for the city is unmatched"... that's just a ridiculous thing to say. He expects us to believe he loves the city more than anyone else?

We deserve the best? Just not yours I guess.

You wanted to end your career here? Complete and utter bovine fecal matter.

Normally I forgive typos. But this is clearly so phony that not only can he not be bothered to proofread it, he can't even take the time to make a heartfelt (even if typo-laden) statement.

I hope he is endlessly booed when he comes back in a Spurs uniform. I have a feeling he's gonna get a taste of Kingsfans' loyalty.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
It might depend on whether Cam is able to get those bonuses that would push him from 22m to 27m. I'm not sure what they were, but if one was an all star selection that's now gone?
 
I look at it like this:

In the short term we remain competitive with a chance to make the playoffs.

In the long term we can trade up to 6 first round picks and 8 second rounders (after the draft and if the Atlanta pick conveys). When have we ever had a stash of picks to move in a big deal?

They need to get one or two players before the deadline not only for depth but for future salary matching. If we trade 4 seconds for Jonas/Thybulle we improve our team this year and then have 40 mil dollars in contracts between Deebo/Thybulle/Jonas and a bevy of picks to swing a mega deal that could change the franchise. That’s a much better position to be in than a Fox led first round exit ceiling team with no draft assets.
The picks we got are 2nd rounders, with the exception of a pick six years from now and next year, which is the SA pick that will be in the 20s somewhere. . I don't see teams salivating for this assortment of picks. The Kings are going to be somewhere in the middle of the draft with their own picks and those typically aren't terribly valuable. If we had picks of any value, say in the top 10, I'd advocate for the Kings using them in the draft rather than trading for someone.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
The picks we got are 2nd rounders, with the exception of a pick six years from now and next year, which is the SA pick that will be in the 20s somewhere. . I don't see teams salivating for this assortment of picks. The Kings are going to be somewhere in the middle of the draft with their own picks and those typically aren't terribly valuable. If we had picks of any value, say in the top 10, I'd advocate for the Kings using them in the draft rather than trading for someone.
The SA pick is in two seasons and unprotected which means if something happens to their stars and their record tanks we get it regardless.
Having it on the books also means we can trade our own pick that year without violating the Stepien rule.
 
Remember January of last year where Fox took a vaca for the entire month? Remember nobody really knew what the heck was going on? We never did get a sensible answer. Given what we've seen this January, I can't help but wonder if Fox was having some serious trade discussions with management last January - the month before the trade deadline - and ramped down his game accordingly in order to put pressure on management. Or maybe he thought he was going to get traded and wasn't terribly motivated. I guess we'll never know, but the whole Jan 24 period was quite curious.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
Remember January of last year where Fox took a vaca for the entire month? Remember nobody really knew what the heck was going on? We never did get a sensible answer. Given what we've seen this January, I can't help but wonder if Fox was having some serious trade discussions with management last January - the month before the trade deadline - and ramped down his game accordingly in order to put pressure on management. Or maybe he thought he was going to get traded and wasn't terribly motivated. I guess we'll never know, but the whole Jan 24 period was quite curious.
I think he has been working his way out for a while but I don't think it was that. We were in the thick of it. Not even sure but weren't we like challenging for a 5 seed at least before Luka sat on Monk's knee?
 
The SA pick is in two seasons and unprotected which means if something happens to their stars and their record tanks we get it regardless.
Having it on the books also means we can trade our own pick that year without violating the Stepien rule.
Sure, if calamity strikes SA in two years, we win. If the Black Swan event doesn't happen to SA, we'll get a pick in the 20s somewhere. Not exactly a claim to fame.
 
The picks we got are 2nd rounders, with the exception of a pick six years from now and next year, which is the SA pick that will be in the 20s somewhere. . I don't see teams salivating for this assortment of picks. The Kings are going to be somewhere in the middle of the draft with their own picks and those typically aren't terribly valuable. If we had picks of any value, say in the top 10, I'd advocate for the Kings using them in the draft rather than trading for someone.
unprotected picks are always valuable. Look at the situation with Dallas, they owe a 2030 swap to the spurs that they didn’t worry about and now they might need to given no Luka. The Thunder own a top 6 protected pick from the Sixers this year. They were supposed to be contending but because of injuries that could be a top ten pick.

6 first round picks and 4-8 seconds is probably top 12 in terms of best pick packages in the league.