Sacramento Kings: Best trade in team history with every NBA franchise

Best trades in Sacramento Kings history: Reggie Theus dominates the 80’s

Admittedly, this 2011 trade is a little hard to swallow knowing the Milwaukee Bucks—the third team involved in this trade—walked away with a whopping package of Tobias Harris, Stephen Jackson, Shaun Livingston, and Beno Udrih. That’s a massive home run swing of a trade for the Bucks. All things considered, however, I believe this worked out for Sacramento.

The Kings traded away Udrih who had just finished the last double-digit scoring season of his career, and Bismack Biyombo for a return of John Salmons and Jimmer Fredette. Biyombo has been in the league for a decade now, but he’s not the type of player you lose sleep over. To be completely honest, neither were Jimmer Fredette or 32-year-old John Salmons, but at least they were fun to watch.

I mean that seriously, the Kings were going to be bad anyway, Biyombo and Udrih weren’t going to be able to change that. At least the team was fun to watch. Watching the Jimmer-range experience unfold while Salmons got to return to the team where he originally blossomed somehow made the Kings watchable over a two-year span where the team would only win 50 games combined.

• Sacramento received: 4.4 future win shares
• Charlotte received: 16.6 future win shares

Let’s get the bad taste of the early 2010’s Kings out of our mouths with a trade that can unequivocally be considered a steal for Sacramento… Or actually, Kansas City, in this case. Back when the team was still located in KC, the Kings traded for the two-time All-Star Reggie Theus. He would play with the team for 1.5 years before the franchise relocated, allowing Theus to become the face of the franchise in Sacramento over a three-year period that saw him average 20 points and 8.3 assists per game.

Although Theus led the Kings to the playoffs twice, they were defeated in the first round on both occasions. Ultimately, he lacked enough longevity and regular season success to be considered a true Kings legend, but his time spent with the time shouldn’t be forgotten. Especially when he was acquired for a good-but-not-great center in Johnson, and three disappointing second-round picks that would amass a combined total of 102 games played in the NBA.

Riverboat Reggie would go on to hopefully recant his previous success in Sacramento as their head coach for two seasons from 2007-08. Unfortunately for Theus, this was the same time the Kings’ front office were no longer contenders, and he was promptly let go after a 6-18 start in 2008.

• Sacramento received: 22.1 future win shares
• Chicago received: 4.1 future win shares