The 10 Best trades in Sacramento Kings history

4. Mike Bibby

Back in the late 90s, the Sacramento Kings were beginning to round into shape. With a team built around Vlade Divac, Chris Webber, Doug Christie, Peja Stojakovic, and flashy guard Jason Williams, the Kings had established themselves as a perennial playoff team. With this squad, the Kings would make the postseason in three consecutive seasons from 1999-2001 but failed to advance past the Western Conference Semifinals.

It was clear, though, that the team had a ceiling as currently constructed though they weren’t far off from breaking through it. There were a number of reasons the team couldn’t reach the WCF, but most easily identified, and also most convenient for the franchise, was their “bad boy” of a point guard.

Williams was frankly a headache for the organization despite being a fan favorite, but the decision to move on came down to more than just that. Williams may have had the flash of a star, but as impressive as his facilitating was, his poor decision-making and lack of defensive ability made him a liability at times.

This led the Kings to trade Williams in the 2001 offseason to the Grizzlies, who had recently relocated to Memphis. In exchange, Sacramento would welcome in their new starting point guard, Mike Bibby, who would help the Kings reach heights not seen in over 20 years.

Bibby would average 13.7 points and 5.0 assists with the Kings while slashing 45.3/37.0/80.3 percentages in his first season in Sacramento and 17.9 points and 5.6 assists in his Kings playoff career.