Should the Sacramento Kings Stand Pat At the Trade Deadline?

Should the Sacramento Kings Stand Pat At the Trade Deadline?

Two weeks ago when we talked trade it was okay it’s a package of one of or both Kevin herder and Harrison Barnes and Davon Mitchell maybe some picks and what can you go get with that but over the last few days for Harrison Barnes specifically and over

The last couple of weeks for her for for Kevin herder you’re starting to see them contribute more and you’re starting to see the Kings look more like last year’s Kings last night wasn’t great but let’s put that aside for a second MH the pre PR three games the previous three wins

They looked like at least offensively the Kings from last year and I think it shifts the conversation a little bit because now it’s not just a matter of hey how can you get better because now it’s okay if you’re getting this out of Harrison Barnes and again last night aside it

Didn’t shoot it great last night but an Engaged rebounds assist filling the stat sheet Harrison Barnes and you’re getting a Kevin hder who is going to be a 40 plus% three point shooter and who’s going to average 14 to 17 a night and he’s going to pull down some rebounds

And he’s going to play some good defense at least solid defense right yeah he’s gonna try on defense which is like 60% of the thing but the question now becomes okay how do the kings improve at those spots because when Kevin herder wasn’t shooting it and Harrison Barnes wasn’t

Giving you anything it was easy to go literally anything will help literally anything will be better than this but now I think you have to be a little more calculated now that you get better versions of these players now it can’t just be yeah throw them out the door for

Anybody and it makes me think that as we approach the trade deadline here maybe there’s a Kessler Edwards type of move out there where it’s a future second round pick or a like couple of future seconds for a a wing type of player who may or may not contribute but I don’t I

Don’t know if there’s this big splash move coming that’s going to make them like significantly better than they are when Barnes and herder are playing like they have the last couple of weeks I mean I I get that right I just think that this isn’t about a one-year build

It’s not about one or two years of playoffs and I think that there is a danger to buying into what’s happening right now because you know again we talked about wins the win is all that matters in the end right but if you’re winning and and your team still has these glaring

Weaknesses you have to be honest about what your team is and and you have to keep resetting what the honesty level is right so you know we talked about it maybe two weeks ago would you trade Harrison Barnes and Davon Mitchell for Moses Moody and Andrew

Wiggins I mean maybe you would but at the same time I think that that deal in itself you’re like okay if this is the type of Harrison Barnes then then I probably wouldn’t do that deal first of all the money the money is hugely different right uh like Wiggins is is

Still is GNA make a whole bunch of money over the next four years or three years where Barnes is on a a more calculated deal like 17 18 19 million I’m okay with that right especially if you’re getting a a young player like Moody that may or

May not fit your system moving forward all that but like I don’t think that Wiggins makes you better and because if Harrison Barnes can be this still and you’ve found the the the way to turn the switch back on like now you just have to figure

Out how to keep the switch on you don’t have to you know you can see that he can still be a very formidable player for you you still need more though and so do I change my ideas like when I’m looking in the trade machine have I potentially

Pulled uh Harrison Barnes and Kevin herder out of potential trades and seeing if I could still work the same trades with Trey lyes uh you know Chris dwarte and Davon Mitchel that I could with the others because I think a lot of time we’re talking cap filler for for

Most of these deals like even though Harrison Barnes is under contract for another two years or or same with Kevin herder they’re realistically in a larger deal they might be looked at more as cap filler that just to meet salary right now I’m looking at different ways to get

To that salary number to see if there is an alternative route to get there and I think that you can like certain deals that you can do in a different way and so yeah I think maybe it does change the way you’re thinking about this team and

And the players that are on it but you still have to be aggressive with the idea that this is a hopefully a window of playoff runs it’s not a we got to get back to the playoffs it’s no no we need to build so we can be this team that we

Want to be like five years from now yeah so we’re a contender next year the year after that’s what you’re looking for no doubt I just that’s I guess that’s where that’s where my my question comes in and why this is so difficult yeah because I I’m I’m with you this is not

About yeah hey go get that’s why Zack LaVine doesn’t make any sense maybe maybe Zack LaVine makes you a little and I don’t want to dive into a Zack conversation just follow me um maybe Zack line makes you a little better this year because it’s another score and he

Can shoot it and and oh man watch out but down the road that handcuffs you big time oh yeah it crushes you over the next three or four years you were not going to be as good as you probably could have been had you not made that move okay

Great but on the other hand I don’t look at this team even with Kevin herder and Harrison Barnes playing this well I don’t look at him go yeah that’s a title team that’s a team that’s going to go hang with with the denvers and the and

The Bostons and and the the teams at the top of each conference I’m I’m leaving out like OKC in Minnesota because I I I gotta see it with them first yeah yeah but and and Philly because Philly’s gotta make the Conference Finals and and the finals first but I don’t see the

Kings hanging with those with those teams just yet but this is what I brought up where it’s a little bit of the Rock in the hard place thing they have a group where you’re going men a a not a tiny change but a a small tweak to this rotation a small

Tweak to the starting five or the or your top seven maybe get you over the humping and maybe put you in that Contender spot but you can’t make that move without dealing a player within that group already and how much better are you getting and that’s that’s why I

Think at this at this deadline I don’t think that move is there it might not be but Kyle we don’t know all the moves that are out there no sure and I think that that’s like I I know that’s you know no no s Sherlock it is but but the fact is like

There could be something that really does make this team better and they’re weighing the damage it will do shortterm to get to the long term yeah and and that’s it’s a very difficult thing like swapping out again just the hypothetical swapping out Harrison Barnes and Davon

Mitchell for and a first round pick for Jeremy Grant sure that makes you better does it make you a contender I don’t it makes you much better it I mean it does it gives you something that you don’t have right now which is that long athletic guy

Right but is it the thing that that puts you way over the top and now you’re investing in a 29y old what you’re basically doing is running it back but with like one piece swapped out yeah a little better version of what you’re going to get at Harrison bars exactly so

If that deal like if it is there then you start weighing the other things because again I think we can put Harrison Barnes if this is who Harrison Barnes is right we can put them in a bucket that’s that’s a group of similar players and you can all rank them how

You want but the fact is they’re all like like tier three power forward SL small forwards right so the Kyle kusas the Jeremy grants the Andrew Wiggins sure like Harrison Barnes fits into that category exactly like whether you love him or not he does he fits into that c this version

Of Harrison Barnes that we’ve seen the last four games well that and the version of Harrison Barnes that we’ve seen for the last five years in Sacramento sure it’s he’s just a little bit older than all of these guys but he still fits into that same category and

Now it’s like okay how much better am I getting you know I and why I I sit here and I don’t like the idea of of trading a guy like like Trey lyes I think Trey lyes should be in Sacramento no doubt for a while but at eight million

Bucks a and if I can stack him and a couple other players and I can go get one of those other let’s say you can somehow get Jeremy Grant let’s say that the the money works with Davon and and uh Chris wte and then you got to throw

In one more minimum scale guy and along with Trey lyes and you can go get Jeremy Grant without trading Harrison Barnes now I do two things number one I get better in my starting lineup number two Harrison Barnes is a better player than Trey ly I get better in two positions at

One time with one move and so those are the things I might be looking at so I’m not playing on the peripheral I like I don’t think I don’t think you can go out there and find a player that’s going to be maybe if like again like Caruso

Becomes available and you’re able to go get Caruso and swap him in but again Caruso for me is very similar to a matis d trade or the Mason plumly trades that I was talking about last year that’s what that’s still like a you might say he’s a little bit better than a

Peripheral but he’s got to be better than the guys you have on the court those are the type of moves that an already fringed title Contender gets them over the top I think the kings are are shy not there they’re they’re the one step below that yes yeah so I think

An interesting discussion because you have to balance so many things like what would taking Harrison Barnes out of your locker room mean yeah you know what would that you know for the rest of the guys how much damage could you do in that situation and I’m not making or I

Mean I’m not making a move because of that um if there’s a trade out there that requires Harrison Barnes has put in it it is that’s the reality of the business it is there he will be 32 in the coming months like there this is the

Way the game works and what you have to do if you’re a franchise you have to maximize your talent while you have it and you need to bail on that Talent when there becomes a point where you’ve gone to a different age like with the rest of

The players like your core is a different age and you know can Harrison Barnes play out the entirety of his contract sure but I would not bet on that at all and you know I just wouldn’t you know in my time covering the team there’s been one player with uh with a

Three-year or longer contract to play out the entirety of the contract we we I asked you this one one another time you remember who it was I don’t coost Kus oh yeah that’s right he’s the only player to play out a a three-year free agency deal or longer and actually sck the

Whole time that’s so wild one of the one of the things that when we talk trade deadline and we talk what do the kings need or not need I go back to last night’s Memphis game and I said earlier that if the Kings approached every game the way this Memphis Grizzlies team

Approaches every game where they I hate I hate but let let’s just they’ve got that dog in them like there is just like dude they are going do scrap they are going do claw and that’s just kind of the Grizzlies ethos and has been for two decades but that’s when we talk trade

Deadline and you talk a player like Jeremy Grant Jeremy Grant’s got some dog in him yeah Jeremy Grant is going to play hard on defense and he is going to go get you a bucket if you need it on offense but he can also knock it down

From the court and that’s where when Jeremy Grant like in a vacuum you go does he make you that much better like yeah probably not but if he brings that attitude to the team a little bit and makes it so your knights in Memphis aren’t like oh boy they might lose this

One or makes it so you’re not losing randomly to Charlotte or losing to a short-handed Portland team or pick your favorite bad kings loss of the year if he could turn a couple of those games around that I think exceeds what he brings just on the court from a talent

Perspective if that makes sense I hope I’m articulating that correctly no I I think I can even articulate it in a different way that might make sense when you look at Harrison Barnes you think he’s 6 foot6 6 foot7 right he’s 68 when you think of Jeremy Grant

You think he’s 69 maybe 6 yeah he’s 67 yeah it’s a great Point that’s a great point one guy plays much bigger M than he is and like his visually you think oh my gosh he he’s I legit thought he was 610 no he’s 67 with

A s foot three wingspan that’s wow and so I think that that’s what you’re talking about like there’s just a player that you like it’s always about like the noisy points of Malik monk versus the methodical points of Trey Lyles you know Trey Lyles can have 16 points in a game

And you think okay Trey LS was a big reason they won this game but you look up and you’re like when did he get to 16 yeah and then Malik Monks at 12 and you’re like I remember every single one of those yeah that guy was crazy like he

Had 12 points the other guy had 16 the other guy was more impactful yeah than your guy but it’s the way that they do it and I think that there is like this really interesting way that we view players and and just by visually watching them so like look there there’s

A tall task here to improve this team and to make it make it much better and to figure out ways to to keep building and building and you know we talked about it during the break the NBA this is actually a big deal the NBA just came out with their projections for NBA

Salary cap for next season and it’s at 141 million which a lot of people thought it was projected at 142 uh which is based off of uh like a whole bunch of TV right deals Etc ET well but also like basketball related income right so the TV right Ste is usually

Pretty Square it is what it is we know what it is right but like things like jersey sales or streaming or or ticket sales or like all that stuff it goes into it right so the salary cap actually goes down to 141 from 142 but most people were projecting projecting the

Cap to potentially go up to 145 or even 147 o and so there is like this big like today it should be like oh no because not only does the the salary cap drop by a million but also the luxury tax doesn’t go up right and so that’s a big

Deal as well so if it said at 172 where it could have been like 177 or 17 that’s that’s the whole other player that you’re fitting in that’s it’s a really big deal you know what just happened to the Warriors they just like their next season got even uglier yeah like their

Salary cap situation for next season it got worse and so that it’s a big deal especially when you’re looking at a free agent like Malik monk like Malik monk teams around the league thought well maybe I have an extra three or four million on top of this figure that’s

Gone now there there are now teams with less cap space than there were the day before and so I think all of this plays into like a larger thing that when you are building a team it just can’t be I got to go out and and get every single

High-end player because we’ve seen what happen with the Warriors where eventually even the the like for the Kings the dearon foxes of the world all of a sudden go from a eight a$7 million player to a $27 million player in one year and then next thing you know he’s

Up to a 32 or $35 million player then the next contract is going to kick in Kick in and he’s going to get up to like $70 million player at some point right there’s all of these things that are projecting out well that’s what’s happened to the Warriors the reason why

The Warriors is not because they were ridiculously silly in freee agency is that they kept paying their own talent to and the Kings still have that they still have a guy named Keegan Murray that’s gonna get paid and then even in a way Malik monk is their own Talent he’s

A guy that had not found success in other stops yeah he finds success Here and Now how do you pay that talent and so again you can’t whiteboard this thing out for February 8th 2024 it it’s not the way it goes you have to project everything you have to

See how all of these puzzle pieces fit in together and I actually think it’s why the Kings right now have been shopping for these guys that are locked up for three or four years you know the Kyle kosas the Jeremy grants because they’re with those trades comes an

Understanding of what the future is you aren’t just trading for this year you’re trading for you’re you’re acquiring a contract as well which is why Kevin herder was such a valuable piece when you trade for him and he’s starting a you’re 65 like you understand what your

Budget is now and so I I think the kings are trying to figure out what their budget is moving forward but they also to have these pieces that are solidified that are budgeted pieces that’s a big deal because like the one Wild Card going into this offseason is that you

Have no idea what someone’s gonna offer Malik monk sure but the other guys are all locked into place so would you I um how do I put this um okay uh at the at the risk of this coming off the wrong way and we’ll figure it out then

Um would you say then the king’s goal is not to win a title this year no I I think that their goal like if it works out that they win a title sure yeah but you have to make the moves to you know first of all I think you had

To give this team an opportunity to show you what they had in the second year right the the run it back I yeah yeah yeah I I I was I was mostly on board with that okay and then Midway through the season they didn’t look like the

Running back team like up to the first 41 games they did not look like the run it back team they look like a totally different version of the previous team game 41 42 43 44 this looks like the running back team but with a better K and Murray that’s

What it looks like and so you’re you’re starting to like try to wrap your brain around what it is that you have and I think that’s it’s so incredibly difficult for for Mike Brown as a coach but also Monty McNair yeah because you aren’t just playing like like trade

Machine you’re swapping out individual players that matter that mean something to a coach that means something to other players every piece has its value in some way yeah whether it’s positive or negative and then you got to figure out how do I replace these with pieces that

Will fit yeah and and not have like the the Imon Shumpert effect yeah where team goes from way up here to like completely crumbles when they lose a guy who who basically was barely playing but it meant something to the the back end of the team the spirit of the team yeah so

I don’t know it like your question whether they’re playing for a championship no if they can make a deal that makes him a championship Contender right heck yeah you make that deal sure no question but is that deal out there and that’s and that’s where we get back

To the unknown right and that’s that deal might be out there we just haven’t heard it yet yeah and that’s where so every team is trying to thread the needle of and you get your teams like Boston where your core is dynamite and locked in and you’re going to contend

For a title every year right but you’re also trying to map out okay what is the future how do you continue contending for titles down the road yeah and the kings are are trying to ostensibly do that same thing they’re trying to contend now while also figure out how to

Also figuring out how to contend for titles down the road and typically my thought process on this is if you can nuke your next 10 years for a Championship today do it I I say that every time but with the King specifically I I don’t know that that

Trade is out there because that Earth shattering deal means like Keegan Murray’s out of here like he would have to be a centerpiece of a deal like that and I don’t I don’t think that that deal is on the table that is also going to make the Kings a championship Contender

This year okay so I’m going to flip it around before we go to break if you were to Nuke this season but give your an give yourself an opportunity to win multiple championships down the road would you do that because it’s just the opposite of what you’re thinking and I I think yes

If you had to give up this season today and it required you to make a four for one swap that you knew that there was a good chance you weren’t going to be able to recover from but it gave you the centerpiece that you needed to go along with Fox

Sabonis uh Keegan Murray then heck yeah you do it h right I mean because that Deal’s out there but I’ll tell you what it would be after the break we’re going

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