Thanks for the link! For anyone curious, it starts at 36:00, but I think the entire podcast was worth a listen.
If things keep going the way they have been here, that's an agent that's going to start losing clients.
I wouldn't be completely surprised if it was the player who didn't want to come, but used their agent to tell the message. Stein probably wants to be favorable to the player so he phrased it as the agent as the one refusing the trade.
I'm trying to see who the possibilities are. A couple have suggested Siakam, but it could've been someone who ended up being traded for a different package. Any trade around a big player would've 100% included the #4 pick at the minimum. Just to guess, it was probably #4 overall, future 1sts, and possible pick swaps depending on the player caliber.
Possible Candidates:
- Jerami Grant: Detroit -> Portland - Procida (36th overall pick) '23 1st, '25 2nd, '26 2nd
- easily could've been this trade with the Pistons. We've had trade history with them with the Bagley trade and I think this would've been able to get done without #4. Just swap in our '23 1st instead.
Unlikely Candidates:
- Rudy Gobert: Utah -> Minnesota - Beasley, Beverly, Kessler (22nd pick), Vanderbilt, '23 1st, '25 1st, '27 1st, '29 1st (protected), '26 pick swap
- Those collections of players didn't do much for a tanking(planned) Utah team. Kessler was not seen as the player he is today. The T-Wolves were already a playoff team who won 46 games when they made this trade, so it would've come under the assumption that the 1st round picks would be late ones. Our 4th overall would've canceled out '25, and '27 picks. Although not sure we do this for Gobert.. but it's possible.. but I doubt it.
- Donovan Mitchell: Cleveland - Sexton, Markkanen, Ochai (14th pick), '25 1st, '27 1st, '29 1st, and pick swaps.
- the kings would not have been able to match those players. I put Sexton first because he was more highly regarded than Markkanen at the time.
- Dejounte Murray: Atlanta - Gallinari, '23 1st (protected), '25 1st, '27 1st, '26 pick swap
- no need for Murray on this team
- Malcolm Brogdon: Celtics - too many bench players, '23 1st
- I put him as an unlikely candidate because he isn't really much of a big name and probably would've been in the Sabonis trade if we wanted him
MOST LIKELY PLAYER:
- After typing all this up, it was probably John Collins. Rumors flew everywhere about the Kings wanting him and even getting into deep talks with Atlanta. The rumor at the time ended up being that the Hawks were underwhelmed by our offer, but it sounded like they were pretty desperate to get anything they could for him. I think he's the guy they're talking about.
Safe to say, it was probably one of these guys: John Collins, Pascal Siakam, or Jerami Grant.