Opinion: Were the Sacramento Kings Right To Let Isaiah Thomas Go?
Were the Sacramento Kings right to trade Isaiah Thomas back in the summer of 2014? This article gives my intake on the subject.
In the 2014 offseason, the Sacramento Kings agreed to a sign and trade with the Phoenix Suns which contained point guard Isaiah Thomas. In this trade, the Kings gave the Suns Thomas while they received back a $7 million trade exception and the rights to Alex Oriakhi, a player who was drafted in the second round of the 2013 NBA Draft (per ESPN).
This transaction, like seemingly all of the Kings’ roster moves, has backfired in a major and unforeseen way. Now playing in the postseason with the Boston Celtics, Thomas has emerged as an MVP candidate as he has led his team to the top overall seed in the Eastern Conference. All this while the Kings are still in search for their franchise point guard.
Was this a bad move at the time though?
As in everything, sports especially, the phrase ‘hindsight is 20/20’ holds true. Isaiah Thomas is absolutely balling for the Celtics even amidst his personal tragedy and the Celtics currently hold a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals thanks in no small part to IT. Thomas is also currently averaging a touch under 25 points and 6 assists per game in the playoffs and is making both the Kings and Suns’ front offices look foolish.
The Kings seemingly felt Thomas couldn’t be a franchise point guard and lead a team to the playoffs. (I know, right?) Thomas was a fan favorite and everyone’s favorite Pizza Guy, which also caused fans to be very upset when the Kings showed little to no interest in retaining him.
Thomas had seemed to have emerged the season prior (his third in the league) after averaging over 20 points in 72 games (per ESPN). His ability to produce on offense has long been documented and nobody in their right mind would deny that he is a more than a capable scorer. His ability to perform adequately on the defensive side, however, is another story.
A Defensive Blackhole
Thomas’ struggles on defense have been well documented, and much of this can be attributed to his height or lack thereof.
In his final season in Sacramento, he posted a defensive rating of 104.8, which is less than ideal. Ironically enough though, that number would be right at home with the 2016-2017 Kings where nobody posted a defensive rating better than 104.9 (per Fox Sports).
On the other hand, the Celtics have posted a team defensive rating of 99.7 this season with Thomas on the bench, a whole nine points better than with him on the floor (per Sports Nation).
The Kings were likely hoping to land a franchise point guard who could become an above average defender and focus on building around DeMarcus Cousins more so than IT. While at the time this actually would not have been a terrible idea, it has backfired immensely.
Closing Thoughts
The Kings put themselves into this mess by not having a solid backup plan at point guard when they let Isaiah go. The Kings haven’t been a strong defensive team in a long time, and in today’s NBA, that might not have even mattered.
The game today is more about scoring rather than defense, more so than it has ever been. It’s entirely possible that a team built around Thomas and Cousins could have led to one or multiple playoff berths. At the very least, they would be in the conversation for contention year in and year out.
Sadly, we’ll never get to see how this team could have performed. Cousins is in New Orleans, Thomas is in Boston, and the Kings having an entirely different roster now. So it is impossible to tell what it could have been.
The decision to let Thomas go will continue to be scrutinized by fans and the media alike as long as the former Pizza Guy is playing at such a high level.
Simply put, the Kings made a huge mistake by letting Thomas go for essentially nothing. We all know this, and it’s nothing new, but for the Kings, it would’ve been extremely difficult to predict Thomas’ rise to stardom.
The Kings’ decision making at the time was justifiable. Only recently have we begun to look back on letting him go as a massive blunder on Sacramento’s part. All Kings fans can do is sit back, watch IT ball on national television, and reminisce on a time when Isaiah was in the purple and white.