It’s been just over one month since the 2018-19 NBA Trade Deadline has passed, giving us plenty of time to properly evaluate the moves made by the Sacramento Kings, has anything changed since they first went down?
The Sacramento Kings went into the trade deadline with one glaring need: a small forward. They got that and then some, as they were (surprisingly) one of the busiest teams at the Trade Deadline, making three trades and one free agent signing (Corey Brewer).
In the immediate aftermath of all these moves, Kings fans seemed divided on social media as to whether or not the Kings had a successful trade deadline or not.
On one hand, fans loved the addition of Harrison Barnes, if for no other reason than he’s an actual small forward on a team devoid of them. Some fans were (and still are) concerned about his fit with the team, but after a solid stretch of games where Barnes seems to have found his groove, those concerns have been eased ever so slightly.
On the other hand, however, the move to trade Iman Shumpert for Alec Burks was almost universally panned among Kings fans, even though most analysts and media viewed it as nothing more than a minor move without many risks.
Has anything changed since the deadline? We know Barnes appears to be fitting in much more nicely than when he first got here, but is there any difference in how we should view the Burks-Shumpert swap as compared to when it happened? Or the even more minor move to swap Skal Labissiere for Portalnd’s Caleb Swanigan? Let’s find out.