Isaiah Thomas is a Sacramento King no more.
Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to break the news that Thomas had agreed to a 4 year, $27 million offer sheet with the Phoenix Suns. Wojnarowski also reported that the Kings had no interest in matching and that Thomas did not want to come back either, which is unsurprising given recent reports and the Kings' signing of Darren Collison.
The Kings and Suns worked out a sign-and-trade in which the Kings got back a $7 million trade exception and the draft rights to Alex Oriakhi per Ken Berger of CBS. Oriakhi was the 57th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. The trade exception allows the Kings to take back $7 million in salary without sending anything back, but it expires in a year and cannot be combined with another player. Boston recently used a trade exception to take on Marcus Thornton's salary from New Jersey.
According to Berger, the Suns frontloaded Thomas' contract to start at $7.2 million a year, only about $1.9 million more than what the Kings have paid Darren Collison. It seems clear the Kings front office preferred Collison at that price than Thomas at this one.
Thomas joins a loaded backcourt in Phoenix with Goran Dragic and presumably a re-signed Eric Bledsoe. He wasn't going to leave Sacramento without saying goodbye first and posted the following on Twitter:
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