Kings trade rumor SZN 2023-2024 edition!
- Thread starter Tetsujin
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Sabonis never was or will be a 4. He is a pure 5, one of the strongest centers. And strength is his biggest strength on defensive side as well. He was forced to space, when he played with Westbrook and looked crap. His fit with Jarrett Allen would be awfull on both end of the floor. The same goes for Wendell Carter jr. He is a pure five and cannot stretch the floor enough to play with Domas. If you are looking a blueprint of how to build a defense around Domas, look Denver and their roster. While you cannot compare Domas to Jokić, he 's not on his level, they have one thing in common: neither offers rim protection.
Also, we don't need Dejounte Murray. He 's overrated. He can't play offball. That's why the backcourt with Trae Young didn't work and it wouldn't work here. I think if they trade him, they get less back than they paid for.
I think Jonathan Isaac could work next to Sabonis. Or maybe Miles Bridges, but he is a high usage player (his stats are a little overrated) and his 3 point shot is just passable, so I have my reservations. But I don't see too many options in the market right now or in the foreseable future for the kings to find an optimal solution to upgrade 4. We should draft for this position and develop the player, even if it takes 3 or 4 years. Imagine where we would be if we had drafted Jalen Johnson. I have a feeling we will be saying the same in four years about Tidjane Salaun or if he 's not availablle, Tyler Smith. This team still has time to wait that long. I think going completely in the win now mode is wrong. Because as it is, right now and for the next two years, kings as they are, are a play in team, and then, when Houston and San Antonio come along, a play out team. Even if we add Isaac or Miles B., I don't think we become a top 4 seed. Kings need way more than one piece to become a contender (well, not if that one piece is Victor, Chet or Cooper Flagg). But I have little faith in Monte. He drafts players that have an established floor, when you should draft for ceiling. Even the transfer of Durte is an example of this: high floor, great rookie year, but extremely low ceiling. I don't believe he will ever be worth more than what we paid for him.
Also, we don't need Dejounte Murray. He 's overrated. He can't play offball. That's why the backcourt with Trae Young didn't work and it wouldn't work here. I think if they trade him, they get less back than they paid for.
I think Jonathan Isaac could work next to Sabonis. Or maybe Miles Bridges, but he is a high usage player (his stats are a little overrated) and his 3 point shot is just passable, so I have my reservations. But I don't see too many options in the market right now or in the foreseable future for the kings to find an optimal solution to upgrade 4. We should draft for this position and develop the player, even if it takes 3 or 4 years. Imagine where we would be if we had drafted Jalen Johnson. I have a feeling we will be saying the same in four years about Tidjane Salaun or if he 's not availablle, Tyler Smith. This team still has time to wait that long. I think going completely in the win now mode is wrong. Because as it is, right now and for the next two years, kings as they are, are a play in team, and then, when Houston and San Antonio come along, a play out team. Even if we add Isaac or Miles B., I don't think we become a top 4 seed. Kings need way more than one piece to become a contender (well, not if that one piece is Victor, Chet or Cooper Flagg). But I have little faith in Monte. He drafts players that have an established floor, when you should draft for ceiling. Even the transfer of Durte is an example of this: high floor, great rookie year, but extremely low ceiling. I don't believe he will ever be worth more than what we paid for him.
Big question is how can Sac find an equivalent to Aaron Gordon.
If you expand that to Gordon and M Porter, then our Keegan HB pairing falls short of Gordon. Keegan definitely better than Porter on D.
Isaac sure seems like a fit
Who else is out there similar to A Gordon? Unique blend of power and athleticism.
If you expand that to Gordon and M Porter, then our Keegan HB pairing falls short of Gordon. Keegan definitely better than Porter on D.
Isaac sure seems like a fit
Who else is out there similar to A Gordon? Unique blend of power and athleticism.
I think with the twitter becoming "X" officially now I can't enter a twitter link anymore, so ok copying/pasting the tweet itself... (tried replacing x with twitter but the link doesn't open afterwards)
(Mod Note: Looks like embedding still works if you replace "x" with "twitter"...I'm not sure what went wrong for you but I've added the tweet below.)
The Sacramento Kings are the favorites to win the Jonas Valanciunas sweepstakes, per
@BovadaOfficial
Sacramento Kings: +400 Los Angeles Clippers: +500 Charlotte Hornets: +550 Utah Jazz: +550 Chicago Bulls: +550 Washington Wizards: +650 Oklahoma City Thunder: +650 Brooklyn Nets: +750 New York Knicks: +900 Philadelphia 76ers: +900 Los Angeles Lakers: +900 Indiana Pacers: +1200 Memphis Grizzlies: +1600 Detroit Pistons: +2000 Golden State Warriors: +2200 Phoenix Suns: +2500 Toronto Raptors: +2800
Valanciunas and Sabonis don't work well together in "Lietuva" and I don't know if they can co-exist in the lineup or/if Jonas can settle coming from the bench playing for a limited time. Somehow it makes no sense for me for the Kings to be favorites to sign him.
(Mod Note: Looks like embedding still works if you replace "x" with "twitter"...I'm not sure what went wrong for you but I've added the tweet below.)
The Sacramento Kings are the favorites to win the Jonas Valanciunas sweepstakes, per
@BovadaOfficial
Sacramento Kings: +400 Los Angeles Clippers: +500 Charlotte Hornets: +550 Utah Jazz: +550 Chicago Bulls: +550 Washington Wizards: +650 Oklahoma City Thunder: +650 Brooklyn Nets: +750 New York Knicks: +900 Philadelphia 76ers: +900 Los Angeles Lakers: +900 Indiana Pacers: +1200 Memphis Grizzlies: +1600 Detroit Pistons: +2000 Golden State Warriors: +2200 Phoenix Suns: +2500 Toronto Raptors: +2800
Valanciunas and Sabonis don't work well together in "Lietuva" and I don't know if they can co-exist in the lineup or/if Jonas can settle coming from the bench playing for a limited time. Somehow it makes no sense for me for the Kings to be favorites to sign him.
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This is a completely bonkers take and I'm 100% here for it! Sabonis averaging 8 threes a game while Fox lives in the paint would certainly have made us league pass darlings and I bet both guys would have ended up on the All-NBA team again because of it. The modern NBA ladies and gentlemen!
I hadn't considered Valanciunas as a free agency target before, but as a third big he would be an embarassment of riches. I don't think he fills Barnes' spot in the starting lineup but he only averaged 23.5 mpg for the Pelicans this season anyway which is more of a bench role, despite his 82 starts.
Here's where I go to the dark side...
As much as I love Malik Monk -- and as a fan I absolutely re-sign him for whatever he wants, not even a question -- if I put on my dispassionate GM hat the smarter move here is likely to let him go get his money elsewhere (or facilitate a sign and trade) and spend that money on Valanciunas instead. We have guard depth but our front court beyond Sabonis is currently a mess and Monk doesn't add any value on defense.
This plan would leave us with a solid top 7 of Fox, Sabonis, Murray, Valanciunas, Ellis, Huerter and Mitchell with the #13 pick and some decent trade chips in Barnes (18m trade value / 2 years remaining), Lyles (8m trade value / expiring), Duarte (5.9m trade value / expiring with waivable cap hold to retain RFA rights) and Vezenkov (6.6m trade value / expiring with additional option year remaining) to use to fill the rest of the rotation. That's 38.5m in salary we can match, most of it expiring.
I hadn't considered Valanciunas as a free agency target before, but as a third big he would be an embarassment of riches. I don't think he fills Barnes' spot in the starting lineup but he only averaged 23.5 mpg for the Pelicans this season anyway which is more of a bench role, despite his 82 starts.
Here's where I go to the dark side...
As much as I love Malik Monk -- and as a fan I absolutely re-sign him for whatever he wants, not even a question -- if I put on my dispassionate GM hat the smarter move here is likely to let him go get his money elsewhere (or facilitate a sign and trade) and spend that money on Valanciunas instead. We have guard depth but our front court beyond Sabonis is currently a mess and Monk doesn't add any value on defense.
This plan would leave us with a solid top 7 of Fox, Sabonis, Murray, Valanciunas, Ellis, Huerter and Mitchell with the #13 pick and some decent trade chips in Barnes (18m trade value / 2 years remaining), Lyles (8m trade value / expiring), Duarte (5.9m trade value / expiring with waivable cap hold to retain RFA rights) and Vezenkov (6.6m trade value / expiring with additional option year remaining) to use to fill the rest of the rotation. That's 38.5m in salary we can match, most of it expiring.
Don't get me wrong because Fox needed to improve the 3 but his over-reliance on it this season completely undid what makes him great. And I don't really want Domas jacking them up but just being a threat to shoot 3 or 4 a game and make 2 of them would be big and at least open the door to explore alternate rotations with him. I think he is best as our "center" but finding the ideal PF to put with him - someone that can hit 3s and alter and block shots is sort of asking for a high lotto pick to fall into our laps (and cap space) for free. I assume that's why folks entertain Grant's ridiculous contract.
I personally don't dislike this at ALL. If Monte wants a big to go with Domas, someone Domas knows, someone that can shoot, and most importantly someone that physical has the chance to pay off big time. Domas and Val can both just crush teams in the post which is very interesting and the difference between someone like Valanciunas and a Capela/Allen. Entering the ball in the side post is possible against a zone, having a dump off big requires either cutting off the post or collapsing a defense. Good luck collapsing a defense when they are already sitting there 3 or 4 deep.
The thing is, there's basically no way we can offer Valanciunas more than the MLE (about $13M) as a free agent - only a modest pay cut for him but a pay cut nonetheless. If we wanted to sign him to more than that, we'd have to shed $10M more than we paid him (e.g. if we wanted to give Jonas $15M as a FA we'd have to shed $25M). But even then, using the non-taxpayer MLE hard caps us at the apron, so we would only have about $27M to sign both Monk and Valanciunas if we were trying to get both. This would make the idea of signing both Monk and Valanciunas as a free agent super unlikely.
A sign-and-trade would really open up our ability to get our hands on him, but we'd have to send the Pelicans something that they wanted. Basically that would translate to Huerter or Barnes and obviously some sort of pot-sweetener. I'm more than a bit skeptical that NO would bite at a package like that, but heck, I don't know what the Pelicans are doing.
A sign-and-trade would really open up our ability to get our hands on him, but we'd have to send the Pelicans something that they wanted. Basically that would translate to Huerter or Barnes and obviously some sort of pot-sweetener. I'm more than a bit skeptical that NO would bite at a package like that, but heck, I don't know what the Pelicans are doing.
Valanciunas is basically a MLE player at this point, he made barely over per year in his last deal and he's kind of even entering that 6th man-ish type of minutes range. I would be surprised if Monte doesn't get a major trade that he likes that he doesn't move mountains to shed some type of salary at the back end of his cap.
If I’m the Thunder, I’m calling Jonas’s agent the second free agency starts (obviously ignoring the cap structure implications in this scenario) because he’d be the perfect beef in the middle to compliment Chet on the Thunder’s front line. The thing that strikes me about watching the Thunder in the postseason is that they’d probably already comfortably be waiting for the conference finals to start if only they had a traditional big man capable of standing strong against interior pick and roll dives.
My dream scenario this summer:
Trade with the Suns: Davion Mitchell for Nassir Little + #22
Draft: - Devin Carter #13
- One between Tyler Smith, Tristan da Silva, Ryan Dunn, Johnny Furphy, Nikola Djurisic or Pacome Dadiet with #22
- Adem Bona or Izan Almansa #45
Trade with NOLA: Harrison Barnes for Jonas Valanciunas (S&T)
Trade with Orlando: Kevin Huerter and a future first for Jonathan Isaac
Trade Vezenkov and Duarte for some 2nd round picks
Sign Derrick Jones Jr. (MLE)
Sign Kris Dunn (min)
Extend Malik Monk
Extend Alex Len
PG: Fox, Monk, Dunn
SG: Ellis, Carter, Colby
SF: Murray, Jones Jr., #22
PF: Isaac, Lyles, Little
C: Sabonis, Valanciunas, Len
Trade with the Suns: Davion Mitchell for Nassir Little + #22
Draft: - Devin Carter #13
- One between Tyler Smith, Tristan da Silva, Ryan Dunn, Johnny Furphy, Nikola Djurisic or Pacome Dadiet with #22
- Adem Bona or Izan Almansa #45
Trade with NOLA: Harrison Barnes for Jonas Valanciunas (S&T)
Trade with Orlando: Kevin Huerter and a future first for Jonathan Isaac
Trade Vezenkov and Duarte for some 2nd round picks
Sign Derrick Jones Jr. (MLE)
Sign Kris Dunn (min)
Extend Malik Monk
Extend Alex Len
PG: Fox, Monk, Dunn
SG: Ellis, Carter, Colby
SF: Murray, Jones Jr., #22
PF: Isaac, Lyles, Little
C: Sabonis, Valanciunas, Len
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Thing with Jval is he's not really a big minute guy anymore anyway. I think the previous chemistry with him and Domas+just absolutely crushing teams with physicality could be super interesting to see paired up.
I think you'd just rotate it where Jval might "start" but he and Domas are on the floor together for like 12ish minutes a game and then Jval is your back-up C. Also gives you some protection if Domas being an iron-man doesn't happen next season.
He's lower on my priority list for sure in terms of acquisitions, but I'd be intrigued how they employ them together for sure
I think you'd just rotate it where Jval might "start" but he and Domas are on the floor together for like 12ish minutes a game and then Jval is your back-up C. Also gives you some protection if Domas being an iron-man doesn't happen next season.
He's lower on my priority list for sure in terms of acquisitions, but I'd be intrigued how they employ them together for sure
