Do Sacramento Kings Need To Make A Backcourt Trade?

The backcourt situation for the Sacramento Kings is a pretty muddy unknown. Outside of Tyreke Evans (who has his own set of concerns), the Kings’ gluten of guards has resulted in players receiving DNP’s one night and starting the next, thoroughly confusing not only fans but the players themselves.

Nov 30, 2012; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings head coach Keith Smart instructs Sacramento Kings point guard Aaron Brooks (3) during the first quarter at Sleep Train Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

The addition of free agent guard Aaron Brooks has only worsened the already iffy situation along with the return of Evans, who has moved into his more traditional ball handling role than the small forward experiment they attempted last year. The “emergence” of Jimmer Fredette has also muffled the guard rotation, which has lead to fan favorite Isaiah Thomas becoming the odd-man out in the overabundance of guards – at least for now.

Kings GM Geoff Petrie, who has had a years long love affair with Aaron Brooks clearly had reason (I guess…) behind his decision to sign the former Houston Rocket, but the addition was certainly met with some skepticism among the faithful given the already high number of average guards the Kings employed.

Now sixteen games into the season, the rotation looks as questionable as ever with Keith Smart attempting to juggle the playing time nightly and it’s clear that the odd men out aren’t exactly thrilled with their demotions. Unfortunately for the Kings, none of the aforementioned talents have set themselves apart from their competition, a good part of the reason being none of the talents (outside of Evans) are really that much better than the other – at least not right now.

So where does that leave the Kings?

None of the players in the backcourt have much trade value – you could certainly get some type of return for either Jimmer Fredette or Isaiah Thomas, but it would be minimal. Tyreke Evans and Marcus Thornton would hold the most value of any backcourt talent, but Evans will be entering restricted free agency at season end (reducing his trade value) leaving Marcus Thornton as essentially the lone candidate who could provide a solid return – assuming it was Thornton who was indeed moved, which is probably the least desirable move out of all the possibilities to most.

So in short – the Kings could certainly use a trade to clear up the backcourt log jam, but there’s really little value to be had with the talent they currently have. Moving an Aaron Brooks or Jimmer Fredette or Isaiah Thomas doesn’t really net the Kings much of anything of value so unless they were paired with another talent, the Kings will find some difficulty in trying to re-tool their backcourt situation. Lucky us.