Well, I’m sitting here watching the Western Conference Finals and it can’t get any more painfully obvious to all us Kings fans that the off-season is officially in full swing in Sacramento, and, well, the Kings front office is going to need all the inspiration they can get to move this teams back onto the winner’s track. I’m stuck comparing these two teams have in Minny and OKC to what we’ve currently got cooking Sacramento and welp, this thread wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t trying to cope by reading the genius, ingenious and psychotic trade ideas we all seem to come up with every year. Star level guard play? Yep, Kings need it. A plethora of lengthy defenders and three point shooters? Get them in a Kings jersey. Athletic, youthful prospects who have yet to reach their seemingly endless ceilings? Sign me the hell up.
So for the uninitiated here at the Kings Herald, Asinine Trade Ideas was a fanpost that we had pinned for forever, where any and all of us could come in, dump in most inane or insane trade ideas and sit back and watch the discussion erupt. I’d like to make this a more regular feature, especially during the off-season when hope starts to wiggle its way back into our hearts, and deep down we all know our one idea, the right idea, could be the difference between the Kings going big or going home yet again next season. There’s a million different ways to attack the Asinine Trade thread, but we’ve always recommended using the trade machine at Fanspo – it makes your crazy seem a little more sane when it actually fits into the CBA, but that’s a suggestion, not a requirement!
“Fear is the mind-killer, the little death that brings total obliteration”
So to kick off this thread, I’m doing what I do best and I’m immediately running towards youth. During the NBA Combine last week, Will Guillory of The Athletic reported that Oklahoma guard and presumed Top-10 pick Jeremiah Fears said that he’d met with the Sacramento Kings, an odd tidbit of info considering Sacramento doesn’t currently have a pick until the second round. I’m assuming here that if Sacramento has had discussions with Fears, they really, really like the kid – I doubt his agent even allows a conversation to happen between them if they Kings aren’t showing some real signs of moving up to get him. So who wants out of the Top 10 in this draft and what do the Kings have to give up? I think the easiest path to Fears is something through Brooklyn, who are a year into building the team and culture they want under our boy Jordi – and who better to serve up on a platter than the young, but not that young, leader of men, position of need filler, Devin Carter. My full deal goes something along the lines of: Devin Carter, ’27 Spurs pick (Top 10 protected) for the Nets #8 pick in this years draft. Nets get a starting point guard and a bulldog to set the tone in Brooklyn who still needs enough polish that he won’t will them to too many wins (or a back-up in D’Angelo Russell picks up his $18 million player option), as well as another first rounder that’s just protected enough to be worth it for both sides. Carter works well playing next to Russell, or next to Cam Thomas, or coming off the bench for either of them, and he’s old enough that Brooklyn won’t have to wait half a decade for him to mature into who he’s going to be as an NBA player. On the other hand, theKings get their point guard for the future, and like they did when the grabbed George Hill for Fox’s rookie campaign, opt to go out and grab a veteran free agent point guard like Tyus Jones or, gulp, Russell Westbrook to hold it down while Fears adjusts to life in the NBA. Sidenote before wrapping up: if Jeremiah Fears nickname isn’t “The Mind Killer” or “The Little Death” (shout out to Frank Herbert’s Dune), then we have to cancel all nicknames forever.
Is it the best trade you’ve ever seen? No. Is it asinine? A bit.
Now it’s your turn. Go nuts!
Darius Garland & Max Strus to SAC for DDR & Malik, which means King in Arabic. Probably need to throw a pick or two in there to get Cleveland over the line.
Cleveland is a 2nd apron team and would need to get below that so they can trade multiple players in one deal. I do like that trade though.
CLE’s salary cap for next year is WILD. If I remember, their at 220mil with only 11 players.
Maybe the Kings could poach Isaac Okoro by using the MLE and just absorb his contract?
Interesting. Well unless we play Devin Carter as our backup “3”, that could be a play.
That would be a solid move, but would put the Kings into the tax by the time the roster got to 14. Highly doubt Vivek would sign off on that.
They would need to do some cost cutting with trades. But it’s the type of moves to make with the TPEs and other salary exceptions for those teams that have are above the aprons. Otherwise, why have Exceptions if you aren’t goin to use them?
I can see the Kings using the TPE in chunks to fill cheap around the edge players that want more than the Vet Minimum. It may be the only way to get the roster to 14.
I imagine the Kings will bring back isaac Jones on the cheap, but they should not bring back TD at $2.5M. He’s totally redundant with this roster.
That would be 9 rostered players with 5 to go, and only $19M in space under that tax. There isn’t much wiggle room, especially if you take on Okoro’s $11M.
And potentially extensions for Keegan and Keon. Financially not is a great spot for a play-in team.
I don’t think their extensions would kick into until the 2026-27 season, but they do need to be taken into account.
I like the idea of using DC to get a top ten-ish pick to pick a PG. Under this trade, I don’t see why we would need to give up the ’27 Spurs pick. At most, a couple of 2nd rounders would be enough, although I think DC for a pick in the 8 to 15 range is fair.
I absolutely hate that idea, give up our top 10 pg pick from last year to take a different top 10 pg pick this year.
Let the dude have an offseason, he is a fantastic rebounder, showed an ability to shoot from range, plays tough defense etc…we give up on people so fast for the chance somewhere else, crazy to me lol
This was solely me operating on the assumption that Sac would actually want Fears enough to give up something to get high enough to grab him, then working backwards to deal that wouldn’t give me a migraine.
I hear ya. I also know that Fears is more of a PG, and Carter is more of a SG. I can see where it could balance the roster by having a lead guard type of guy instead.
I do like Carter, think he will be better in year 2.
Fears screams Malik Monk 2.0 to me, watch film, you will see a monk clone imo
I saw a lot of that on a YouTube scouting report. Kind of a mix of Monk and Fox. Not a “true PG”, but maybe he has that in him?
Definitely contemplated 2 seconds instead. Feel like the protected pick was protected enough that Sac would think their timeline could afford to give it up without missing out on a true Spurs cash.
Not against trading into the top 10 for a PG. If the prospect is “that guy” then absolutely do it. I think at this point I’d rather save valuable assets and trade into the end of the 1st and take Tyrese Proctor while signing or trading for a solid veteran starter.
Not sure.
The SAS pick is not hugely valuable since they will be top 4 in West by then. DC just did not perform that well. Was this an injury thing?
Don’t know Fears- I would do it if he is close to Fox in ability and performance but that would take a crystal ball. He might be Davion.
Future picks are so much more valuable than a recent past pick. This is like buying a car. Value diminishes immediately
Garland is fine but why would Cavs trade him. and Okoro? no.
Davion? Tell me you don’t know his game without telling me lol
How about DDR for Cole Anthony and Jeff Howard?
Howard is salary filler to make the trade work. Cole is a solid young PG who can help balance the roster in the short term.
Something small like this is what I hope to see
Just treading water, waiting for the right PG to land on our heads. If so, Ty Jerome instead.
I look at any ddr trade as addition by subtraction, especially if its a pg or tall wing
Personally, I don’t think Ty Jerome is suited for anything more than being a 6th man type.
I like him, but I don’t think he’s starter-level quality; a little bit like a less-impressive version of Monk.
Good point. He’s a solid 6th man, but ideally not a starter on a good team. Someone is going to overpay for him this summer in a shallow free agent pool. Hopefully it’s not the Kings, who really need another combo guard like a hole in the head.
Call it in
Anthony does fit the mold of the small tweener guard.
I like this one. It isn’t flashy, but rights some wrongs. Orlando could also use DDR’s scoring. The Kings do fill the hole at PG, but create another one on the wing. More would still need to be done, as a move like that very likely doesn’t increase wins, which doesn’t seem to be Vivek’s goal.
Swap in da Silva for Howard, that would be good.
I’d prefer DDR for Anthony and Johnathan Isaac. Even thought he is often injured, Isaac’s game is perfect for between Sabonis and Keegan. Kings may need to add additional compensation to pull that one off.
Way too reasonable for an asinine trade thread!
Saw a trade article somewhere that was basically a straight swap of monk for jarret allen, that would be nice, still would need to give away demar somewhere
I seriously won’t sign up for YouTube TV (or other service depending on who has the best price at the time) when the season starts if DeRozan is on the team. I like the guy but he doesn’t fit so MOVE HIM. That goes for Lavine too unless this front office does something else to make me think there is hope for a decent season. I think Vivek loves Lavine too much so I’ve decide I can live with that for now if they do something else that is worthwhile.
Lavines game can absolutely fit with multiple styles, he can play in the flow of the game, stretches defenses and can attack downhill. You need to cover him up on the defensive side but that is true of a lot of offensive players. DDR is NOT that and you are right that he obviously needs to be moved.
yep
LaVine does just disappear at times
Love DDR but he pounds it too much
Somebody should want that scoring.
I was doing League Pass (team pass with just the Kings only though) last season and I’m glad I chose to do it monthly rather than paying a big price for the whole season. I ended up stopping in late December (before Mike Brown got fired), but then they gave me a promotion of one month for free, so I took it. At least for that time the Kings went on their win streak. I renewed it one more month after that, but then cancelled because by then the team was going nowhere. I only saw a handful of the post-Fox trade games, but in the end I’m glad I didn’t renew. I won’t be planning to renew for next season barring the Kings being a winning team, which I don’t anticipate.
I wish we could trade Vivek for a better owner.
in the most ominous voice I can must:
but what would trade for that opportunity, Klam?
I would trade Vivek for one colonoscopy without sedation.
Trade Vivek for a roll of sandpaper toilet paper.
Would you trade Vivek for a lifetime of listening to Kayte call games?
No muting!
I would listen to the Warrior’s homers to make this trade, Kayte imo is a massive upgrade to them.
Dubs broadcast are true homers and Kings are basketball lectures during a live game . A pox on both .
I would trade Kayte for a lifetime of listening to Vivek.
Some good thoughts but we are in no position to give up a young player and draft capital. We need to get younger, cheaper, and gather more draft capital.
Get rid of DDR first for some draft capital or young prospect and an expiring bad contract (shorter term). I do think Denver or Houston are good fits for DeRozan. I’ll take Peyton Watson and some salary fillers for Derozan.
I’d also take a look at Kuminga in free agency. I think his days with GS are over. If we overpay for him for 2–3 three years it won’t be catastrophic but if he works out that’s big, Murray, Sabonis, LaRavia (like him), Watson, Kuminga and maybe Ellis is an exciting rebuild start for me. So unfortunate we don’t have a first round pick this year, I hated the Huerter trade at the time and dislike it more now. Btw, we may be able to move Val to Denver for Watson and or / Strawther. Denver badly needs a back up for the Joker. Then move DDR to Houston.
Like your moniker. Do not like Kuminga- huge talent but not high BBIQ
JV salary 10 M- that’s high for a back up center and tough for an over cap team.
Denver relies more on Watson and Strawther than they would like JV
Taking a shot on a young player like Kuminga is really low risk. You said huge talent with a lot of growing to do. That’s the type of player to explore.
you mentioned MPJ being a position of need. If we are rebuilding which I think you and I have a different vision than management, we are not trying to fill positions of need. We need to get younger, cheaper and acquire draft capital and young prospects like Kuminga. I do agree he’s been a big under achiever so far. Watson and Strawther are also interesting to me. I do think Denver could use DeRozan. Need some salary fillers to make the deal.
Man that picture is depressing. We traded Hali because Fox was deemed the point guard to take us to the promised land. Now we have neither of them and we’re a far worse and older team than we were just 12 ago. And we gave up Mitchell to help facilitate getting rid of Vezenkov when we could have just bought him out? Vivek’s stench runs deep.
Monk + DDR + 2027 top 10 protected Spurs 1st for Zion. Go for the high end talent. Maybe a different training staff and coaches can get zion back to playing more.
Perry calls up his buddy Joe Dumars and get this done!
That’s an interesting one. Do you take the chance on a potential franchise player who can’t seem to stay on the court. I like this one for discussion
I think it’s worth the risk. Give it a couple seasons. If it doesn’t work, Lavine’s contract would be ending, Zion and Domas would have 1 year left, so hit the reset button again and see what you can get for Zion and Domas.
Nope. Not unless his health insurance policy comes with him and Kings want to tank away the season. When has he not been hurt.?
Thufir Hawat for Jamis straight up.
That header photo makes me all kinds of depressed.
Seriously. Monte drafted 3 PGs, extended one, and left with just Devin Carter as a “primary ball handler.”
This has been said ad nauseum but we should’ve kept Haliburton. We had to let Fox go for peanuts a couple years later anyways. Also I swear to all that is holy if damn motherfreakin unamimous CoTY Mike Brown just stuck with Davion on Curry for Game 7 (as he had all series) we’d be in a completely different timeline/better world.
A lot really good points. It’s not out of the question, if we didn’t trade Halliburton we would have gotten Sengun instead if Michelle. How would he look along side of Fox, Halliburton and Murray.
DDR for Porzingis straight up.
Kings get:
Michael Porter Jr
Zeke Nnaji
Hunter Tyson
Nuggets get:
Zach LaVine
Nuggets reportedly had interest in LaVine at the deadline. Who knows if the new front office will also have interest, but LaVine give them another player who can create and handle, without a significant downgrade in spacing. Kings break up LaVine into multiple contracts. Porter’s value is low and he’s injured, but assuming a full recovery he’s a 6’10 lights-out shooter. Nnaji is a bad contract, but could be useful filler in future deals. Tyson is just there to make the money work, but gives the Kings a young, cheap, upside swing on a power forward.
Sounds good to me. Trade DDR + stuff to get a decent starting PG:
Starters:
New PG
Ellis
Murray
Porter Jr.
Sabonis
Bench:
Monk
Carter
LaRavia (hopefully)
JV
Zeke replacing Lyles
Isaac Jones
Not a fan of MPJ especially at 38 & 41 next 2 seasons. I don’t know if it’s his back, but his D is not nearly what it should be for a guy with his length.
But as long as we don’t have to give up draft capital, I’d do it just to get rid of LaVine.
Can we get them to give us Gordon for DDR? We’ll throw in Matina and Vlade!!!
Agreed. Seems like all MPJ does is stand around chucking 3’s.
A glorified spot up shooter on that contract, hard pass.
Me thinks the vultures are going to be circling the Nuggets this offseason. I feel there is no way they return will all of Jokic, Gordon, Porter Jr, and Murray next season. Porter Jr definitely feels like the buy low option right now, and he fits the Kings needs and timeline. Put him on the wing with Keegan.
DDR and Monk for Porter Jr and Nanji is my preferred option. Having LaVine, Keegan and Porter Jr spreading the floor for an offense around Sabonis is what I’d like to see.
The Nugs clear core is Joker, Murray and Gordon. Odd man out is MPJ. They’ll be trying to turn MPJ into two rotation players. All they need is depth around those three players.
MPJ’s contract is just as bad as LaVine’s!
Well, almost! lol
LaVine is a better player overall, but he makes as much as those three Nuggets combined. MPJ is a bad contract, but it’s smaller than LaVine and same length. For me the biggest thing is getting younger and breaking that salary up into multiple pieces.
And MPJ fills a spot of need on the roster, when healthy.
I rather have Watson and/or Strawther than MPJ at this point. You could do DeRozan for Watson/Stawther, Nnaji and Hunter. Maybe one other filler.
My god, those are insane numbers.
https://bsky.app/profile/keithsmithnba.bsky.social/post/3lppntn35yc26
I am asking for a raise at my job and bringing this as my comp.
Ask for everything right of the decimal points. 30-31 is kinda rough, only 200k. have to plan ahead.
Vivek would trade him (so would Nico)
Remember when the Kings signed Webber to one of the largest contracts in the NBA for a whopping $123M over 7 years, which was around $17M per year? Monk will make $17M next year.
If OKC wins the ship I would trade him for a HAUL before paying that money.
those numbers are what straps you down way to much. Get your trophy and then get Amen Thompson type plus a bunch of other assets
If they win, they are all coming back next season. Everyone in their rotation is under contract for next season. I also don’t think you sell on a 26 year old MVP. He’ll still be in his early 30’s when that extension expires. Those numbers look outrageous now, but will be more in line as the cap rises in the coming years With the amount of picks they have there is no reason they can’t to go for 3 or 4 championships. I’d imagine they’s sell high on guys like Hartenstein and Caruso before they move their young core.
They have all those picks too. With the way the Thunder draft, just keep the young pipeline of cheap players coming through as SGA, J. Will, and Chet become better and more expensive.
$86.5 mill in the final year, sheesh.
These guys live lives normies like us could only imagine.
Open Thread for the WCF but not for the ECF, that’s not nice.
I’d call ATL about Trae Young for Zach Lavine + some of the extra pics we got in the Fox trade. It’s time they moved on from him and reset with their new core.
Daniels / Lavine / Risacher / Johnson / Okongwu.
Moving on from Lavine would obviously allow us to start Keon who I think would be a nice fit next to Trae. Then trade DeRozan for someone like PJ Washington or John Collins.
Young / Ellis / Murry / Collins or Washington / Sabonis
Idk if we’re winning 50+ games with that roster but at least it’s positionally sound and doesn’t feature 3 guards all taking turns playing ISO ball…
That Hali…. he’s not overrated.
That Pacers player looks like that guy up in the photo. Wish we had him!
Nah, the guy in the photo was underrated!
The five most asinine trades I can concoct with the help of FanSpo
#1
BUCKS:
DDR & LaVine for Lillard, Kuzma & the 2026 Pick from MIL —
The reasoning:
This allows us to truly focus on Murray for a year. Build him up as THE guy with Sabonis and see what can happen. We bottom out hard, but Kuzma is an expiring the next year and so is Dame, PLUS if he returns to even partial form that last year, we have Dame, Sabonis and Murray as a decent big 3. An extra pick as the sweetener. MIL does this because this is, oddly, one of the few places those two are a massive upgrade. This is assuming they keep Giannis.
#2 — 4-Team swap to get Ja Morant
Kings get Ja for DDR & Monk and 2 picks
Grizz get Collins, Monk, Picks
Suns break beal into smaller pieces (DDR, Clarkson)
Jazz get Beal’s massive expiring (after a year) and two pretty solid firsts for some cap filler while they’re still rebuilding. Maybe Beal has better synergy with Markannan.
#3 — CELTICS
Kings Trade DDR for Porzingis Straight up.
Kings get a better fit. Celtics get Tatum insurance for the year, major cap relief, and a moveable chip.
#4 — HAWKS
Kings Trade Sabonis for Jalen Johnson. Kings get younger as start of a youth movement and could couple with other moves.
#5 — HEAT & Hawks
Hawks get DDR
Heat get Monk and Okongwu
Kings get Niang, Ware & Wiggins.
Guard depth is decimated, front court is bolstered, and Kings if Kings can either trade a center (Ware? JV?) or sign one in with the MLE, and then you have a team with
?? / Carter
Lavine / Ellis
Wiggins / ??
Murray / Niang
Sabonis / Ware
Why? It feels like the kind of thing that the Kings would do. We love over loading an unbalanced roster in the wrong direction.
Sabonis following in his dad’s footsteps, helping Portland make the leap.
Why would the kings do that???
This should make us a playoff team next year. Might have to throw in a couple pick swaps.
Interesting draft related note I just read on the webs:
Charlotte Hornets have traded away two MVPs on draft night (and both to Los Angeles)
1996 – Kobe Bryant (Lakers, Vlade Divac)
2018 – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Hornets 11th for LAC 12th (Miles Bridges) and two 2nd rounders
See, Vlade was involved in another draft debacle as well
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