The Sacramento Kings have ended the discussion of how to handle their uneven roster and overlapping back court. They believe they found their answer to the question over whether to build around De’Aaron Fox or Tyrese Haliburton.
And like so many other moves that have led to the longest playoff drought in the NBA, this one will be under the microscope for a long, long time.
The Kings on Tuesday agreed to a trade package centered around sending Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers for big man Domantas Sabonis, a league source confirmed to the Bee’s Jason Anderson. Sacramento included perimeter shooter Buddy Hield and reserve big man Tristan Thompson in the deal. The Pacers are sending back swing men Jeremy Lamb, Justin Holiday and a 2027 second-round pick.
General manager Monte McNair, and perhaps owner Vivek Ronadive, traded their best asset for a big man in a league centered around ball handlers and perimeter players. They moved on from Haliburton, 21, in the midst of a second season in which he’s shooting a robust 41% from 3-point range while averaging 7.4 assists and 2.3 turnovers per game. All while he was on a rookie contract looking like one of the most promising players the Kings have drafted in years.
Fox, meanwhile, is having his least-efficient season since his rookie campaign, 2017-18, and has been worse than Haliburton in nearly ever metric save for points per game. But he’s the player the Kings invested in, giving him a five-year, $163 million contract extension in November of 2020.
What’s apparent in this deal: Fox’s contract made him immovable ahead of Thursday’s deadline, while the team worked hard to leak to national reporters that any return for Fox would have to be immense. The reality is Fox had less trade value given he’s due salaries of $30 to $37 million over the next four seasons.
Inefficient point guards (Fox is a career 31.4% 3-point shooter) who don’t play defense are awfully difficult to win with, particularly when they have massive contracts. The Kings better hope Fox doesn’t turn into the next John Wall or Russell Westbrook, elite athletes at point guard whose inefficiencies made them two of the least desirable players in the entire NBA to have on max contracts.
The team moved Haliburton because it couldn’t move Fox, and something had to be done to solve the positional overlap that was untenable over the long haul. At least that’s what the Kings thought.
If Haliburton goes on to thrive in Indiana and Fox doesn’t rebound from his subpar season, Kings fans will look at this move the same way they looked at passing on Luka Doncic in the 2018 draft (for Marvin Bagley), Tyreke Evans over Stephen Curry in 2009, Jimmer Fredette over Klay Thompson in 2011, firing coach Mike Malone in 2014 and the many other decisions that have led to a 15-year playoff drought. Oh, and this: The Kings could have drafted Sabonis in 2016 but instead took Marquese Chriss, who is now on his fifth team.
The Kings appear hell bent on ending this season with a strange commitment to getting into the play-in tournament.
Trading Haliburton will sting Kings fans, but Sacramento is getting back a good player in Sabonis. That’s a possible silver lining.
The son of Hall of Famer Arvydas Sabonis is one of the best passing big men in the league, like his father, and has averaged over 12.0 rebounds per game in the last three seasons, which should improve the Kings, who are 23rd in the NBA in rebounding rate. He’s averaging 18.9 points per game on 58% shooting from the field with 5.0 assists. The 25-year-old is a two-time All-Star in 2020 and 2021, though he wasn’t voted onto this year’s team.
Sabonis is in the second season of a palatable four-year, $74.9 million contract through 2024, making him a strong value, certainly a better one than Hield. And the Kings were able to alleviate Hield’s contract from their salary cap, which pays him $20.5 and $18.6 million over the next two seasons to come off the bench and offer shooting, but little else. In Holiday and Lamb, the Kings add two playable wings to the weakest area of their roster. Thompson, meanwhile, hasn’t appeared in a game in nearly a month.
By adding Sabonis to the mix with Fox, the Kings have two pillars they plan on building around and slightly more roster flexibility with Hield’s contract off the books. What remains to be seen is what happens with Harrison Barnes, who has been mentioned in a slew of trade rumors over the last few weeks.
The cost of getting Sabonis was a budding star in Haliburton, who is going to another small market team that has made the playoffs nine times since the Kings’ last appearance in 2006.
That speaks for itself.
