SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Players are usually the ones who have trouble sleeping during NBA trade deadline week.
But if you're a front-office executive and your team is already showing signs of trouble, and you see that team look like the worst version of itself about 15 hours before the deadline. You'll definitely be tossing and turning all night.
Watch Wednesday night's Sacramento Kings game. This is just speculation, but there's no doubt that Kings general manager Monte McNair and assistant general manager Wes Wilcox had a hard time waking up after Wednesday's game fiasco.
Not only did the Kings lose at home to the lowly Detroit Pistons, 133-120, but they also won for the seventh time in 50 tries. The match wasn't particularly close. The Kings were trailing by as many as 15 points when Bouvard came out from inside Golden 1 center midway through the third quarter and failed to make a comeback in the second half. By the time it was all said and done, the Pistons were over 20 points above their season average (112.6 points per game), and the Kings (currently 19th in defensive rating) showed once again that they needed serious help heading into the game. Indicated. That edge of the floor.
And just like that, they're back in the play-in tournament (7th place in the West with 29 wins and 21 losses). In other words, the pressure mounts.
So will we be forced to take (more) action in the next few hours before the 3pm ET deadline? Only if the price is right. And don't expect any attention-grabbing moves.
The Kings are known to have interest in a number of players who are still available, from Brooklyn's Dorian Finney-Smith and Royce O'Neal to the Wizards' Delon Wright and Miami's Caleb Martin. But they think a player who isn't one of those players would likely give up too much draft stock to make a big move in the future. However, team officials talk about that type of player. The Athletic, still in play. As McNair made clear in an interview last summer, a big part of their plans is whether the Kings can make a significant upgrade if the current group can't get the job done.
On a related note, the Kings don't seem to view Washington's Kyle Kuzma as that kind of player.
According to team officials, there have been no meetings with Kuzma for months, and the Kings need to move him to a rotation player commensurate with his annual salary ($25 million this season, $25 million starting next season). He says he has no interest in losing. 3 years). Beyond Kuzma, all signs point to the Kings looking to keep their current core (and then some) intact while adding to it without losing any of their key rotation players.
Even considering the history between the Kings and Kuzma, going back to their late July 2021 deal, the Kings signed a deal with the Lakers (before pivoting to Russell Westbrook's experience) and in exchange, We thought we were going to bring Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell to town. Buddy Hield, it's clear that Sacramento's calculus has changed. The Kings are eager to shoot more than anything, and they continue to plan to surround De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis with as many shooters as possible. A quick look at Kuzma's numbers from deep (33.1 percent on 6.1 attempts per game) is enough to understand why he is considered a non-fit.
Especially considering the cost. Washington's offer for Kuzma is known to be the highest of two first-round picks, and the Wizards appear to have no desire to acquire Kuzma. And considering what Mavericks beat writer Tim Cato reported about Dallas playing Kuzma after acquiring Daniel Gafford from Washington, it seems likely that Kuzma won't be moved. .
