Every single trade last year was a failure

#31
We have 6-7 players under firm control. That leaves 2-3 slots that have honest expectations of seeing the floor in a mostly limited capacity. It's not like Sacramento was going to sign a 30 million per year free agent. I think it's lost sometimes that we actually decreased his annual salary with this deal (which is also declining).
Who are the 6 to 7 players under control? In 2 years, when this team should be peaking, Bagley will be the only player still on a rookie contract. If the magic of this year's free agent signings were no guaranteed third seasons, then the team will be Fox, Buddy, Bagley, Barnes, and maybe Bogi. So that is a lot of faith in this year's rookies, and whoever they draft next.
 
#32
Who are the 6 to 7 players under control? In 2 years, when this team should be peaking, Bagley will be the only player still on a rookie contract. If the magic of this year's free agent signings were no guaranteed third seasons, then the team will be Fox, Buddy, Bagley, Barnes, and maybe Bogi. So that is a lot of faith in this year's rookies, and whoever they draft next.
I mean, if Bagley turns out to be the next Tim Dumcan, only signs one max deal coming off his rookie contract, and then gives a 40% discount or more for the remainder of his career, then we could have a 20-year run. Otherwise, this team will have a cycle just like everybody else. It’s not 2K.
 
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#33
Who are the 6 to 7 players under control? In 2 years, when this team should be peaking, Bagley will be the only player still on a rookie contract. If the magic of this year's free agent signings were no guaranteed third seasons, then the team will be Fox, Buddy, Bagley, Barnes, and maybe Bogi. So that is a lot of faith in this year's rookies, and whoever they draft next.
Fox (2 years + RFA)
Buddy
Barnes
Bogi (RFA)
Bagley
Dedmon (3 years, I get that he might be best suited as 3rd big)

That's 6 guys that are supposed to be the mainstay of our rotation that we will have for at least 4 seasons if we wish.
Giles obviously we may be giving up on or we may have a backdoor deal, if the former is because of Holmes - we got him for 2 years at a cheap price and he seems to like Sacramento if we wish to resign him.

We also have an option year of Bjelica who is actually more than competent as a spot starter and rotation piece when Bags comes back.

That's a lot more continuity than many teams can offer.
 

Entity

Hall of Famer
#34
I regards to Barnes. His best year he averaged 19/5 on 13 shot attempts per game. With us he average 14/5 on 6 shot attempts. We got to many looking at the pts number and nothing else. To me those stats are equal. I feel if he shot 5-6 more times a game he would be getting hitting the 20 mark
 
#35
1) Iman Shumpert for Burks and a 2nd:

I think we can all agree this was low-key one of the worst trades we could've made. Shumpert was the heart of the team, nicknaming the team "the scores". He was absolutely beloved by his teammates. Dumping him destroyed team chemistry and was the beginning of our downfall. Also, on the court he was a decent player. Meanwhile Burks played limited minutes, showed nothing and then mostly sat on the bench the rest of the year. And now he's not even on the team. This trade never made any sense.

2) Skal Labissiere for Caleb Swanigan:

This looked like a neutral swap on paper, but now it looks like a loss. Skal is providing decent bench minutes for the Blazers while Caleb has done quite literally nothing. He rides the pine nearly every game and appears to have some issues with his weight. It's not a crushing trade but still a loss nonetheless.

3) Justin Jackson & ZBo for Harrison Barnes:

This is the only trade that's up for debate. Barnes has been a solid contributor, but he's not making anywhere near a big enough impact to justify his brutal $85M contract. He's a useful player, but you can see why Dallas was fine with giving him away. He doesn't really elevate a team. Meanwhile Justin Jackson is starting to look like the player we thought he could be. He's been an efficient role player off the bench. His shooting percentages have been higher ever since he left the Kings.

When I look at this and then also take into account the FA signings which to date haven't panned out, I really question Vlade. Where I was once sure the team was trending upward, I'm now not so sure.

1.) I was not happy, I thought it ruined some chemistry, but we took a shot at Burks who had been pretty good up until that point. We got a 2nd, but at the end of the day, Shumpert is out of the league right now. It's a small win because we got a 2nd.

2.) I thought this was a move to help Skal when he was pretty far down the bench on our team. I didn't like it, it's looking more and more like a mistake given injuries and what just happened with Giles.

3.) This was a big win, still is a big win. He is the 12th highest paid SF in the league, and if you look at this list

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/contracts/small-forward/

There are not many guys below him that are better and if they are they are on rookie contracts and we couldn't get them. He's the 59th overall in Annual Average Salary in the league. Most sites have him in the 80s for ranking on players, but a good amount of players ranked ahead of him are on rookie contracts. Would I have liked to see it be say 18MM a year instead? Sure, but it's not out of line what so ever.
 
#37
Here are a few things to consider with the Barnes signing.

He is the best SF the Kings have had in years. He may not be great at any one thing, but he is good at almost everything. He is also very unselfish. He went from being the 1st or 2nd option in Dallas to the 4th option in Sacramento seamlessly.

You may argue that he isn't worth what he signed for, but I believe he is for the Kings. There was nobody in the FA market that was coming to the Kings in the same class as him. SF was a major weakness that had to be fixed if the Kings had any thoughts of making the playoffs. This contract fills that need for the next 4 years.

I don't think Barnes would've opted out of his contract without knowing that the Kings would give him a long term deal somewhere in the same neighborhood. Next year's FA crop looks to be much weaker which could've made him a much more sought after player than this season. Instead, the Kings saved a little this season & don't have to worry about looking for a SF next season.