Sacramento Kings Lose Even When Trading With Sixers
The Sacramento Kings languish from their inability to draft well. But the situation became even more complicated because they don’t trade very well either. When a team ends a season with just 28 wins, as the Sacramento Kings had done in the 2013-2014, they had best be in a development cycle of playing young talented players to improve the roster with experience on the NBA court, or outright tanking by surrendering promising roster talent and accumulating draft picks.
The Kings did neither.
They followed up that 2013 season with a 29 win season in 2014-2015. Finally, the team is on pace this year to win approximately 29 wins. But the nice thing for the Philadelphia 76ers is that they can swap picks with the seemingly perennial bottom flirting Kings this year.
As stated, when a team is struggling, they either develop young talent or accumulate enough draft picks to select young talent from the draft. But the Sacramento Kings opted to clear salary cap space to pursue free agents, and the Philadelphia 76ers were more than happy to oblige them, for a fee. That fee is an extensive array of draft picks and swaps. But for the 2016 NBA draft, the right to swap first round picks with Sacramento is very much in play.
The Kings clearing the salary cap space to pursue free agents Rajon Rondo and Wes Matthews, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 2, 2015
Right now the Kings are powered by the play of center DeMarcus Cousins and small forward Rudy Gay. In fact, their starting five is capable of at least .500 level play. But their bench is barren. And its that bench that makes a difference to a team in the second half of the season. There’s not much coming off for the Kings, and with that lack of “oomph” could place them at risk of falling below the Sixers before season’s end. The curious event in that case is that it gives the likelihood of a swapped draft pick that much more probability of happening.
The Philadelphia 76ers expected success to happen at some point this season, and have plenty of picks to insulate the team from too much adversity of they somehow climb in the league standings. But if the Lakers, Suns, Nets, Kings and Timberwolves all encounter complete futility through season’s end, the Philadelphia 76ers may be leaning on the picks of other teams much more than originally anticipated.
Tank away Sacramento. But all you other NBA teams? Find a way to win, at least for this year.