The Sacramento Kings are releasing center Georgios Papagiannis, according to a report from Yahoo Sports’ Shams Charania. The initial report was confirmed by News 10’s Sean Cunningham. Papa G was the Kings 13th overall pick in the 2016 Draft. He was drafted as a project, but his development has been slow. Still, it’s a surprising move by the Kings.

Sources: The Kings are waiving center Georgios Papagiannis, who was their No. 13 overall selection in the 2016 draft.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 8, 2018

Source confirms @ShamsCharania report that Georgios Papagiannis is being released by the Sacramento Kings. No confirmation from the team yet.

— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) February 8, 2018

Kings had made Georgios Papagiannis very much available in trade discussions. Obvious now that there was little to no interest in trading for the him. Now that he's free, interesting to see if that changes

— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) February 8, 2018

It remains possible the Kings could still attempt to re-sign Papagiannis to a G-League contract with the Reno Bighorns, where Papa G has received most of his playing time.

What’s confusing about this move is that it seems unnecessary now that the trade deadline has passed. If the Kings were going to waive Papagiannis, why was it necessary to trade Malachi Richardson? Does this mean Bruno Caboclo won’t been released as expected? At this point we’re left with more questions than answers.

It will be interesting to watch in the coming days which new players are bought out, and who the Kings will bring in to fill the roster.