3 Reasons Why The Kings Shouldn’t Trade Dewayne Dedmon

Dewayne Dedmon might be traded before the Thursday deadline, but the Sacramento Kings might benefit should they hold on to him.

It seems like it has been forever since Dewayne Dedmon went to the Sacramento Kings’ front office and requested a trade. In reality, it has been nearly six weeks and there have been plenty of changes to the situation since then.

Dedmon’s name is still the one most often mentioned in any trade rumors that surround the Kings, and he will be the most likely candidate to be moved should Sacramento choose to be active before the Thursday deadline.

But given the Kings’ current situation and roster makeup, there just might be more benefits to keeping Dedmon than there are to dealing him. He has played his way back in to the regular rotation (by necessity) and has been a solid contributor in a handful of games since Richaun Holmes went out with an injury in early January.

Here are three ways that the Kings would benefit from holding on to Dedmon:

#1. The Kings Might Need Him

There might not be a team in the NBA that has been bitten harder by the injury bug than the Sacramento Kings, and that fact will likely influence the way the front office operates over the next 30+ hours. There have been points when the backcourt was depleted, and now they are missing bodies up front and have resorted to calling up G-League players to fill roster spots.

It looks as though there is help on the horizon with Richaun Holmes expected to make his return sometime this week, but Marvin Bagley continues to be the massive question mark hanging over the Kings. He is injured far too often to provide any consistency, and the team has remained unclear regarding the status of his health throughout most of the season.

When Dedmon requested his trade in late December, he was essentially benched while Sacramento figured out what to do with him. But like his current frontcourt running mate Harry Giles, play time came when the team was desperate for bodies. Both Dedmon and Giles had fallen out of the rotation, one for more mysterious reasons than the other, but have been thrust back in given how thin the roster is currently.

Dedmon has proved his worth with the opportunity he has been given, albeit it isn’t the worth that we had hoped for when the Kings signed him this summer. Nevertheless, he has provided consistency and has cut down on his turnovers (for the most part), and has given the Kings a much-needed defensive boost in the paint.

In the Kings’ last game on Monday against the Timberwolves, Dedmon scored just 4 points but grabbed 12 rebounds and filled the stat sheet on the defensive end. His five blocks were easily a season-high and he has recorded six steals over his last two games after not recording one in his previous 13 appearances.

If Bagley’s injury issues persist, the Kings might end up looking pretty smart if they keep Dedmon and he is able to contribute like he is now.