The Sacramento Kings have had a terrible start to the regular season and have improved only to a 4-13 record after their most recent win against the Denver Nuggets. Following this win, a report from NBA Insider Jake L. Fischer claimed that the Kings are willing to take trade calls for almost everyone on the roster.
This includes former All-Stars DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Domantas Sabonis, as well as the potential future Hall of Famer, Russell Westbrook. According to Fischer, the veteran players are reportedly the ones who will be mainly shopped, while the Kings will look to retain only Keegan Murray and Nique Clifford.
“Maybe this was inevitable after a 41-point loss to the Morant-less Grizzlies, but league sources say that the Kings are willing to listen to offers for players up and down their roster … particularly for Sacramento’s veterans,” wrote Fischer in the report.
This news comes just days after Keegan Murray, the 25-year-old forward, made his return to the roster after missing the start of the season due to a thumb injury. He has played in two games since his return and averages 15.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists in that short duration, while shooting 44.4% from the field.
Meanwhile, Nique Clifford, the 23-year-old guard, is only a first-round pick from this season’s draft and is currently averaging 4.4 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.0 assists, while shooting 35.7% from the field.
But it is rather surprising that the Kings have seemed to pick Murray as the player they build around without retaining Keon Ellis, their elite defender. According to rumors, the Kings have already started gaining trade interest for Ellis and won’t hesitate to trade him for the right value.
Russell Westbrook (37 years old), DeMar DeRozan (36 years old), and Dennis Schroder (32 years old) could be the first three players they’ll look to trade away if the Kings are looking to go younger. These three, combined with Doug McDermott (33 years old), are the oldest four players on the Kings roster.
Although they are much more likely to get some value in the market for Zach LaVine (30 years old) and Domantas Sabonis (29 years old), if they do decide to trade their current core and build around Murray and Clifford. Considering both of them are still 30 years old or below, and therefore might still have some prime years left in them.
Earlier this season, it was rumored that they were only looking to trade their star players in DeRozan, LaVine, and Sabonis. Rumors also suggested that the Kings and the Warriors could potentially reopen talks on a trade that sends Keon Ellis and Domantas Sabonis to Golden State for a trade package centered around Jonathan Kuminga.
And we even explored an interesting idea to offload DeRozan from the Kings. But this new update seems to indicate that the entire franchise is open for business, except for only two young players.
Murray’s five-year, $140 million contract extension kicks in from next season, and thus now seems like the right time to hand over to keys of the franchise to the promising young forward. But I highly doubt that the Kings will be able to start with promising young pieces in exchange for these veteran players in a trade deal.
We could very soon see the Kings tank for the next two seasons to draft high-caliber players and trade multiple draft assets for a star player, as they have their own first-round draft picks for the next five seasons.
They could either use those draft assets to help offload their current veterans or initiate a full rebuild where they wait a couple of seasons to yield the fruit of their own draft assets.
Therefore, if it is true that the Kings are
