DeMar DeRozan trade grades: Spurs win big as Kings swing and miss on All-Star addition

The Sacramento Kings aren’t exactly known for drawing big-name veteran stars, but late Saturday night, they pulled the trigger on one of the most accomplished players the team has ever acquired. In a three-team sign-and-trade, the Kings landed six-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan from the Chicago Bulls. They sent Harrison Barnes and an unprotected 2031 first-round pick swap to the Spurs. The Bulls receive Chris Duarte and two second-round picks for cooperating in the deal.

The Kings obviously acquired the most famous player in the trade, but does that mean they won it? Well, not exactly. Let’s grade all three sides of these trades and figure out who truly walks away from this deal as the victor.

Sacramento Kings: D-

Let’s start with the positives here before we get into the low grade. DeMar DeRozan is remarkably durable, and by virtue of rarely shooting 3’s, remarkably consistent on a night-to-night basis. He has not missed more than 11 games in a season since 2012. Last season, he was held below 15 points only six times. He’s always on the court. He never really has “bad” games. That means quite a bit for the Kings, specifically, whose offense just cratered after late-season injuries to Malik Monk and Kevin Huerter. De’Aaron Fox tends to miss between 10 and 20 games per year. DeRozan raises your floor offensively in those games. He still gets to the line at an elite level. He was just the Clutch Player of the Year runner-up; Fox won the award in 2023. The Kings are going to be able to find better shots late in games than most teams. They still control most of their own future draft capital, so it’s not as though they’re locked out of making big moves down the line. DeRozan is still a valuable player in the right context.

It’s just that the 2024-25 Sacramento Kings aren’t remotely that context. The Kings already had plenty of ball-handling. Fox and Monk are both high-usage players. The Kings run a lot of offense through Domantas Sabonis. They’ve developed a system that emphasizes movement, both out of the ball and their players. DeRozan is a bit…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/demar-derozan-trade-grades-spurs-win-big-as-kings-swing-and-miss-on-all-star-addition/

Author : Sam Quinn

Publish date : 2024-07-07 05:18:18

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