NEW YORK — Only one thing’s for certain every NBA trade season: Some team, somewhere, is bound to fumble a bag.
This year, of course, it’s the Sacramento Kings — who haven’t made the playoffs in 16 years and counting — who are racking up frequent-fumbler mileage as the trade deadline gets closer.
Perhaps showcasing Tyrese Haliburton’s skills front-and-center in an effort to seduce an opposing team into making an offer was the plan all along. If it was, it was a bad one that worked more in Indiana’s favor.
The Pacers reportedly parted ways with All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis, journeymen Justin Holiday and Jeremy Lamb and a 2027 second-round pick in exchange for the Kings’ promising second-year guard, streaky scorer Buddy Hield and veteran big man Tristan Thompson.
You have to give something to get something, and the Pacers weren’t going to just give away a player like Sabonis, the best player involved in this deal. He is a two-time NBA All-Star and one of the few players who’ve come out on top after going toe-to-toe with Sixers MVP candidate Joel Embiid.
But giving up Haliburton after what he’s shown fans in Sacramento — 14.3 points and 7.4 assists on 45% shooting from the field and 41% shooting from 3 — is a terrible blunder. And Hield still has untapped potential as a scoring option in only his sixth NBA season.
Pairing Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox makes basketball sense. The two project to be a pick-and-roll nightmare, especially given Sabonis’ abilities to score on all three levels of the basketball court.
The Kings, however, will have to keep in mind that Sabonis is only under contract for two more seasons after this one. Unless they start winning when it matters, they risk watching him walk away in free agency for absolutely nothing while knowing they gave up what could have been nine years of developing Haliburton as Sacramento’s new star.
The Kings might not be done making moves. Their lineup as it stands leaves a lot to be desired and they project to start Sabonis at the five alongside Harrison Barnes, Mo Harkless, Davion Mitchell and their star guard De’Aaron Fox. That lineup will need some improvements if they hope to close the gap between themselves and the West’s 10th seed.
Lord knows they’re unlikely to climb much higher than that.
But the Kings aren’t the only team that botched a mid-season trade this year.
Give some more frequent-fumbler miles to the Portland Trail Blazers, who reportedly traded smooth-scoring guard C.J. McCollum, high-flier Larry Nance and three-and-D wing Tony Snell to the New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for shooter Josh Hart, guard Tomas Satoransky, guard Nickeil Walker-Alexander, forward Didi Louzada — who has logged a grand total of seven minutes this season — a 2022 protected first-round pick and two second-round picks.
In short: The Trail Blazers moved from McCollum, a perennial All-Star snub, and did not receive a player who has All-Star potential in his future (unless you’re unrealistically optimistic of Walker-Alexander).
This deal comes after Portland traded Robert Covington and Norman Powell — two veteran impact players on any playoff team — to the Los Angeles Clippers for Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and a second-round pick.
It would seem like the Blazers are trying to hit a hard reset on the franchise, that has long been delusional about its championship aspirations, if it wasn’t for their refusal to take the most logical leap of faith and trading Damian Lillard.
The Blazers have lost every trade they’ve made this year, and this most recent McCollum trade, according to ESPN, was done with the intention to build a legitimate championship contender around Lillard. But who’s going to want to go to Portland after seeing the fate of their former co-star guard?
McCollum has been rock-solid in Portland for eight seasons. If you’re going to trade a player like him, you either send him to a championship contender or to a big city of his choosing.
New Orleans is neither. It’s a market similar to Portland. The Pelicans are in NBA purgatory; they’re barely good enough to make the playoffs, not bad enough to tank for a draft pick and not in an attractive enough market to lure free agents.
Odds are, with McCollum’s free agency looming in 2024, the Pelicans are going to end up trading him later down the line to avoid losing him for nothing in free agency.
It’s a bad look if you’re the Trail Blazers and an even worse look if they don’t land whatever marquee talent Lillard is hoping flocks to play with him in Portland. Even if that talent does come, history has proven it will not be enough to get the Trail Blazers over the hump out West.
