Here we are in another day of are the Sacramento Kings actually going to make a move or not? All we have to show for it is a few more rumor tidbits.
Here is the latest from a HoopsHype report.
The Kings would like a first-round pick back in a deal involving Domantas Sabonis.
“In trade talks involving Sabonis, the Kings told at least one interested team that they’d like a first-round pick in return, HoopsHype has learned.”
It was reported last week that the Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Phoenix Suns and Washington Wizards have expressed interest in Domas.
The Raptors own their 2026 first round pick and are currently in fourth place in the Eastern Conference. The Chicago Bulls own their own 2026 first-round pick and have another protected (1-14) first round pick from the Portland Trail Blazers. The Bulls are currently ninth in the Eastern Conference, and the Blazers are ninth in the Western Conference. The Suns will only get to keep their 2026 first-round pick if it is worse than the Wizards’ pick or if the Wizards’ pick lands in the top 8 (and is protected). The Suns are currently sixth in the Western Conference and the Wizards are 14th in the Eastern Conference. The Wizards also would get whichever 2026 first-round pick is the worst among the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets (if it falls outside the top-4 protection), and the Los Angeles Clippers, but Houston’s pick would not be included if it ends up being in the top four.
The report does downplay the Suns and Wizards interest in Sabonis though.
“The Suns, as also noted elsewhere in this HoopsHype story, are unlikely to make a big splash such as acquiring Sabonis. In addition, the Wizards view Alex Sarr as their center of the future, league sources told HoopsHype, and despite brief exploratory conversations surrounding Sabonis before acquiring Trae Young, Washington is not inclined to trade for Sabonis at this time. If Washington had been incentivized to take on Sabonis’ contract, the Wizards would’ve considered such an acquisition, HoopsHype has learned.”
The Raptors, according to the report, have discussed RJ Barrett and Ochai Agbaji in the Sabonis talks.
“Sacramento has been resistant to Jakob Poeltl due to ongoing back issues and Immanuel Quickley due to his long-term contract in trade talks for Sabonis, HoopsHype has learned.”
On the Keon Ellis and DeMar DeRozan front, the report said the Kings have packaged “DeRozan and 3-and-D guard Keon Ellis with some teams around the league.”
The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 5, and it could be a pretty pivotal moment for the Kings franchise. (At least it should be.)
Me imagining Perry in trade talks.
Perry: “What do you think of LaVine?”
other GMs: *click*
Perry: “What do you think of DDR?”
other GMs: “Hahahaha”
Perry: “What do you think of Monk?”
other GMs: “How do you say no in Arabic?”
Perry: “What do you think about Dennis?
other GMs: “NEIN!”
Perry: “What do you think about Sabonis?”
other GMS: “Poeltl, you are a King.”
Perry: “What do you think about Keon?”
other GMs: “I hear you like Alex Oriakhi!”
That’s good and accurate. I was going to be sarcastic but no.
DS is a good player, borderline All Star, good rebounder and tough as hell. He has some deficiencies- fair defense, poor lob threat. limited on offense but in the context of team, surrounded by others, he is nails.
Kings traded a very good PG and got zero. Now they may trade a very good 5 and get less than zero. Why? Max and Cardwell are unproven and probably not starting 5 material.
Bane brought in 4 first round picks. and the Kings are begging for a single one?
DDR can score- it seems lie a contender who needs that would want that.
It feels like yard sale time. I bought that jacket for $250.00, you can have it for $1.00.
Tanking is desirable but there is serious competition for that tactic.
I watched the pathetic Pels last night. How can the Kings ever get that bad? and the Pacers, Nets and Wiz- all the same. The road to the bottom is not easy.
I think they are using Keon as bait- you take DR and we will give you Keon. That’s a dangerous game. The rookies are not NBA starters and I doubt that they will be.
Look how bad the Wiz, Pistons and others have been. I doubt the Kings can replicate their journeys. Copy OKC?? Lightening in a bottle.
Seems like the Greek has slowed all trade movement but in a week we will know more.
Kings need a star, a stud – that’s how you win. Fox was close to that. DS a good complement but dismantling all will not guarantee a star. Look at Utah, Pels, Wiz, Hornets etc.
This sucks.
the best strategy is to lose all the games and hope the fools around the Kings win at least a couple but even really bad teams stumble onto a win once in a while.
On the topic of a FRP for Domas and looking at what Bane returned, my mind always returns the ridiculousness of what the Knicks gave up for Bridges. I’ll never get over the cost of this trade. Just insane.
Nets receive:
I’ll just add, they’ve now made the Eastern Conference Finals with him, and there is a good chance they do it again and may even make the Finals. It’s an all in move for a major market club.
The one that still blows my mind is the price Orlando paid for Desmond Bane. They also included 4 unprotected picks and a pick swap.
I don’t think they made the ECF last yr because of him, he wasn’t very good in the playoffs. That type of payment should get you a superstar, not a really good role player.
Oh, you sweet summer child.
The Kings have been bad for years without even trying. Imagine them bending their minds to being purposely bad? Okay, they fail at everything they bend their minds to, but I like the odds of this one.
just look out our roster, trade a few of the vets by the deadline and we likely win only a handful of games the rest of the way.
I can also see us winning more games if we could manage to ditch some of the vets.
True that. I am naive.
The Pels are trying and the Pels are just disjointed. Right now the Kings have some vets that can actually play well together once every 2 weeks or so and pull out a W. In order to achieve that level of Pel “badness” the Kings probably will have to try: trade DDR, trade Zach, trade DS, trade Westbrick (sometimes he pulls out a win but just as often he guarantees defeat)
A line up of Nique, Max, Cardwell + Precious and Dougie with Monk on the bench assures more losses than the Pels.
See, the Kings do value Keon! They want a FRP for Ellis and they want a FRP for Sabonis. That means they have equal value right?
The Pacers beat the Bulls and are now tied with the Kings at 12 – 36.
Everyone just prepare yourselves now to be seriously underwhelmed by whatever return we get for these guys. Keon attached to DDR is literally the tax we have to pay to move him. What a mess. At this point I don’t even care. Just move these guys and start over. Maybe we’ll have a front office competent enough to use their cap space to acquire picks. Probably not.
I’d recommend riding out the contracts if there is no value offered. DDR, Lavine and Sabonis will be more valuable in the off-season and next deadline when they have less $$$ owed. I could see a team taking Lavine next deadline as a 6th man floor spacer when he’s only got $20 mil or so left on an expiring deal.
kings are going to be bad next year so there should be no desperation trades this deadline.
This perhaps is the most sensible post I’ve read. I’m afraid the Kings will do something stupid again out of desperation. Unfortunately this is going to take awhile. So get cheaper, get younger and acquire as much draft capital as possible and the hope for some lottery luck. Holding on to LaVine for now may be the prudent thing to do. I agree he has value on an expiring deal.
I wonder if the only deal that makes sense right now for Lavine is in a deal for Butler.
That ship may have sailed with Giannis being available, but if somehow the Dubs would be interested in Zach it could be a win-win.
From the Kings standpoint, it just frees up playing time for Keon and possibly Carter.
Other than that, I don’t see any way the Kings get off Lavine’s contract this year.
If Giannis doesn’t get moved by the deadline I too thought LaVine for Butler would make sense. Dubs get a good outside shooter to park on the perimeter and be used like Klay was. Warriors would need to include a pick for eating Butler’s deal, but the Kings could use his DPE next season and just let him expire like they would have with LaVine anyway.
I’d honestly just do the deal with no picks. Worth it to get off Lavine’s salary.
You’d still have to eat Butler’s $50+M next season. The pick is the compensation for swapping a live bodied LaVine for a shelved Butler. This is assuming Butler is out all of next season.
Put me in the camp that feels the Dubs absolutely have to move Butler and his deal if they are to maximize Curry’s closing window.
except keeping the vets might get some wins. You want zero wins. DDR, DS and Russ might get a few.
You know what? You’re right. I actually do agree that’s what they probably should do. Lavine will have value next year as a massive expiring deal. DDR only has a 10 million dollar guarantee if we just cut him which I would do rather than attach assets to move him. Sabonis is a different case though I think he’d look infinitely better with Lavine and DDR off the roster. His value would probably increase next year.
It might be the right move to just ride it out until the summer. But man… it’s shocking how much incompetence is required to put a team in this position.
I think you are very likely correct.
I am prepared.
That’s the right frame of mind, FKAC. There is no whelm left in me.
I know it’s what’s sad. Someone wake me when they doing ANYTHING that’s competent.
Still waiting for that “Breaking News” banner across the top.
Any day now…
If you had to give your best guess on a Feb 5 (or sooner) trade for the Kings- what would it be?
Something “shruggable”
Malik Monk + Keon Ellis <> Kyle Kuzma
Have to trade Ellis. Should trade Monk (or DeRozan or Lavine or Schröder)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I honestly think it’s going to be just Keon Ellis for a pair of 2nd round picks.
Cardwell given a regular contract (media will cheer, and try to make us forget about wasting Ellis).
Westbrook will be bought out.
We’ll pay Demar $10M to not play for us next year.
Zach and Domas seem nearly untradable to me right now.
And we’ll probably get the 6th pick.
Pretty bleak, but I’ll raise your bleakness by saying they’ll trade DDR this summer for Kuzma and a future 2nd rounder. It will be the Bucks who waive DDR and save $14M while the Kings will eat Kuzma’s deal all of next season.
This. If the Bucks trade Giannis, they’re going to be in salary cutting mode, and the Kings are a great mark for dumping counting stats players. That deal is just lighting $14 million on fire for the Kings, but Kuzma seems like the prototypical Vivek player.
You can count Kuzma’s stats on one hand, this year.
That’d be pretty Kangzy.. but I think one thing about Vivek is that he is cheap.
It may be the one thing that overrides his incompetence.
So any deal costing them money likely won’t happen.
Now if the Bucks throw in the matching *cash considerations*… any dumb deal is on the table for this guy.
This feels incredibly realistic…
Devin Carter and Drew Eubanks to the Rockets for Josh Okogie.
“Okogie fits all the 6 pillars that we hold for this organization” – Scott Perry, probably
Spurs continue to be pure pleasure to watch… Harrison Barnes is great.
Zach + Monk to Bucks for Giannis
Kings end up getting Thanasis.
The three bros are always a package deal.
Obviously a tear down is long overdue. Last year I proposed several trades in an effort to acquire Peyton Watson. I thought Val and a second round pick might do it. Val to Denver happened but unfortunately no Watson.
Here now are a couple of guys I’d like to see the Kings pursue and they shouldn’t cost too much. Minnesota is looking for backcourt help so perhaps a trade including Westbrook or Schroder for Terrence Shannon may get it done with a salary filler if necessary.
Jarace Walker has been player well so perhaps he’s no longer under the radar but he’s worth a look.
All things considered, I’ll be happy as long as they don’t do something stupid (see Fox for Lavine) and don’t do something that will result in more wins this season.
What say you. Sabonis and Schroder for Suggs Carter Jr Blach and De Silva?
We started at 52 days (December 15 2025 – February 5 2026) from start to finish of the Trade Deadline. We Kings fans have been waiting since that that opening opportunity to see something to bring hope and interest back to this laughingstock franchise.
We are now down to one week – 7 days of wondering and waiting.
Which means that the Kangz are not doing anything. Why wait for your trade assets to lose value, or worse, get injured i.e. Rudy Gay.
The Kangz are just being used as leverage and at worst, a threat to dump a player to basketball hell.
Bucks GM: “Giannis, if you dont agree to a Knicks trade, we will send you to the Kings”
Greek Freak: I heart NY!
Question. If the Kings were to trade Sabonis to the Heat and getting Wiggins as part of the trade could they turn around an offer him and say Ellis to the Warriors for Kuminga and say one other player. Don’t know if you can do this? Appreciate any answers.
If you did a 3-team trade, these salaries work (not considering draft compensation):
Heat:
SabonisHieldWarriors:
WigginsEllisKings:
KumingaJackson-DavisRozier
I have a feeling Perry Will break and deal for Barrett, Quickly, Mogbo, Boyles(2 good young prospects) and the 2026 first.
Come April, I have heard in circles, Perry Will hire Thibs. They are very close and that’s my prediction.
Not my fav. But a culture changer and a good place setter.
Another reason Perry may be ok with Quickly in the deal. Quickly is a 17-7-4 split in 32Min. Thibs gets hired they goes up to 38-40 a night. All of sudden, Quickly is 20-10-8. His shooting splits are not great. But not terrible.
IMO, the only things separating Quickley, Dennis, and Monk are age and price. Quickly is younger but nearly twice the price. It’s pointless to have Quickly, Monk, and Dennis on the same team.
Knicks/Raptors West? The Kings would really need to move off of Lavine, DDR, and Dennis too. The glut there would be even worse.
I don’t like it either. Other than the 2 young prospects and a first rounder in the 20s.
Dennis just makes so much sense for either Minny or Houston. Both really need a PG who can hold his own as a POA defender and hit an open shot. Both teams are apparently trying for Coby White, who IMO is quite a bit similar to Dennis, but he is expiring. Who ever potentially lands White may leave the other to target Dennis. I’d simply settle for expiring deals.
I agree, but I’m not sure you could move Schroeder for expiring deals when he’s being paid roughly double what he’s worth.
It doesn’t need to be all expirings. As an example, Dennis to Minny for Conley and Dillingham. Kings then kick the tires on the disappointing prospect and let Conley walk, or just cut him so he can go elsewhere for the rest of the season.
I don’t get the love for Barrett.
In his 7th season… not a good shooter; doesn’t play good defense.
Seems like Rudy Gay lite.
I don’t hate the idea of Thibs though.
He’s actually an NBA coach and gets his players to play defense. Sign me up!
Yeah, I wouldn’t mind that either.
I love the idea of Thibs. Two problems:
I think a Blazers trade would be great.
Blazers get Sabonis and Keon
Kings get Ayton’s Expiring 25mil
Scoot, Cissoko, Love and a Pick.
Kings get instantly younger. All 3 are 21. Scoot still has a chance to be a solid starting PG. A rising wing in Cissoko and a very solid Caleb Love at the off guard
Ayton is not on the Blazers. They just have his contract on the books because they bought him out, I believe. He currently plays for the Fakers.
Yeah, it would have to be Grant’s not expiring or Williams and Thyble’s expirings.
I don’t know why PDX would even want Sabonis. They have Clingan and don’t want long term money.
Even if they did, they’d definitely want to send out the contract of Grant. Between Grant and Sabonis on their deals over the next 3 years, give me Sabonis.
If I’m trading Domas I want a bonifide all star in return. If not, then no trade.
I’d settle for rookie scale prospects, picks, and/or expirings. Domas will not net an all-star in return.
You’re probably right. My only question would be why would the kings even consider trading an all nba player and one of their best players who is in the prime of his career for pennies on the dollar.
Because they are wasting his prime and will be in no position to compete for the next few years. He’s not carrying this team into the playoffs, but he could definitely help a contender in the here and now.
It’s the same logic Ainge had in Utah. He came to the conclusion that Mitchell and Gobert would not be a core to build around if you want to compete for a championship, so you might as well sell off the assets while you can for future assets. So far Mitchell and Gobert have won nothing and cost a ton all the while Utah has prospects, a cupboard full of picks, and a clean cap sheet.
Ainge got 7 first round picks and 3 pick swaps for those two, and that doesn’t include Lauri who is probably worth a few more first rounds picks as well. He also got a first round pick for flipping Conley to Minny.
Now watch Ainge flip Lauri and filler to the Dubs for Butler and even more picks.
Domas is a hell of a player. I would hate to see him go.
100% agree. He’s been one of my favorites of the past 20+ years. It just comes down to asset management.
I have a fear that only Keon will be moved,
I have this awful feeling that Perry is a blowhard who talks and talks but does not deliver on anything. Listening to the radio word is out that well the market is down and maybe the King won’t be making moves
This is a GM who resigned Doug McBuckets and Drew Eubanks, DS and Westbrook as someone smarter than me made the point, this sounds like a team that thought the could compete with the roster they had.
The weird thing with DeRozan’s deal is that the value of the deal is for the full 25 mill the buyout kicks in next year. Either there the apron provisions are tough or the front office is incompntent. I don’t see any real imagination in how they do things, which I think is crucial in small market teams
I know the Cavs are in the 2nd apron and can only make moves for salaries that exactly match. having no knowledge of the Cavs roster if they had contract of the same values as DDRs, if they waive him next year wouldn’t they save $10 plus the penalty payments, maybe we can get a player of draft picks from them?
DDR and Dennis for Garland works. Garland seems to be the odd man out on their cap sheet as his salary really puts them into the 2nd apron. They could use Dennis as their starting PG and use DDR for his offense then only pay DDR’s partial guarantee this summer to get below the apron.
Domas DDR and Keon to the Celtics for Jaylen Brown and Derrick White.
LaVine to the Warriors for Draymond and GP2.
Monk to the Magic for Anthony Black.
Starting lineup.
Green
Brown
White
Black
Spock
the All-Crayola team, with Gary(almost Gray) Payton off the bench.
How about Ellis and Carter and a first for Anthony Black( the Kings future point guard)?
I also would do just Monk for Black( no first) as mentioned above but don’t know how the money works. Any ideas?
Black is having a breakout season. The time to pick him up in trade has passed. Orlando isn’t moving him.
The sad thing is that we suck out loud at the draft, so even if we get picks back for any of the vets that still means very little.
Good times, man. Gooooooood times.
Meanwhile, Luka averages 33 PPG as the NBA’s leading scorer and won’t turn 27 until February 28.
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