With Luka Doncic on the draft board, the Kings received several offers for De’Aaron Fox last June, including one from the Knicks that included Kristaps Porzingis, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN. Sources tell Lowe that New York was asking for additional assets along with Fox or would have required Sacramento to take on some unwanted salary.
That trade and others never materialized because the Kings didn’t want to move down and risk losing Marvin Bagley III. They also weren’t interested in taking Doncic because they didn’t want to interfere with Fox’s development as a playmaker.
“I like Luka,” GM Vlade Divac said, “but we didn’t want to overload with players who — maybe they don’t have the exact same characteristics, but if you want to develop the guys you have, you have to make sure they have room to develop.”
Fox has rewarded their confidence, posting a 17.4/3.8/7.2 line in his second NBA season and putting himself in the running for Most Improved Player. He also sparked a turnaround for the Kings that had them in contention for their first playoff berth in more than a decade before tailing off.
Sacramento’s front office will face some important decisions soon about how to build for the future, Lowe notes. Fox, Bagley and Harry Giles are all in their early 20s. Bogdan Bogdanovic, Buddy Hield and Harrison Barnes, who was acquired from the Mavericks last month, are all 26 with free agency looming next summer. Willie Cauley-Stein will be a restricted free agent in July, and Lowe suggests that his defensive shortcomings should make the Kings pass on matching any offer that exceeds the mid-level exception of about $9MM.
Divac isn’t concerned about the gap in the timeline or the danger of losing any key pieces in free agency.
“I would be if Foxy, Harry and Marvin weren’t better than people think,” he said. “They will be ready earlier. And if they are not, they are still the core. We will surround them with players who will help them get to the next level.”
Already knew this. Why would the Kings make that trade. Fox is going to be a super star
So is Doncic. So really, I think this came down to the Kings preferring Bagley over Porzingis.
Poor choice
A second year player should not be in the running for Most Improved Player.
without a doubt
They should have traded Cauley-Stein at the deadline, maybe they can sign and trade in July.
Kings look great for the future. Having three very young high ceiling players, and three young (26) solid veterans is a much better age mix then almost any other NBA franchise. Where is the problem?
Divac is right on the development point, and it’s amazing that so many FO’s (including the Kings at times) seem to ignore it so often in the draft. Positions and roles are flexible for developed players (particularly those that can facilitate for themselves or others), but less so for developing players. I would still have drafted Doncic or traded down, but it was a hard draft for that since they really couldn’t go lower than #4. Still, Kings got to #2 by ping pong balls and got a player they never would have had a chance at if they had stayed at #7 or so. Maybe it was just time to cash in.
Fox/Bagley/”additional asset” OR
Zinger/Doncic. Interesting. (Sacto could handle the NY “unwanted salary” easily with their capspace. Presumably the asset would be Giles or WCS)
Four years or so from now, I think the F&B will be more likely to stay in Sacto than the Z&D would. That’s probably Divac’s thinking.
UPDATE
Lowe altered (or walked back) his item in today’s espn roll, saying the talks took place preceeding the 2019 trade deadline, not for the 2018 draft. Which makes more sense, certainly from NY’s end.