5 Players the Sacramento Kings gave up on too soon

While the Sacramento Kings have certainly had some success throughout their incredibly long history in the NBA, they have made copious amounts of mistakes from a front-office point of view. Whether it be porous trades or horrific draft mistakes, the Kings are not exempt from the occasional awful decision.

Sacramento has had plenty of young talent over the years. However, they have made the error of letting some pretty incredible players go. While some of these players may not have made a huge difference to the team’s success due to their lack of success aside from the early 2000s, it still sucked to see them go.

These five players spent their first couple of seasons with Sacramento before being let go one way or another. Some became solid role players for other teams, while others became MVP candidates. Regardless, these guys were all given up on way too early by the Kings.

5. Hassan Whiteside

This spot was originally going to go to Tyrese Haliburton. However, considering how well the trade that sent him to Indiana worked for the Kings, it’s quite understandable to see why they “gave up on him.” Regardless, this spot now goes to Hassan Whiteside, a player that many people honestly may not know even played for the Kings.

Whiteside was selected 33rd overall in the 2010 NBA Draft, where he would play just 19 games in two seasons with the Kings before eventually being waived in 2012, where he would spend the next two seasons playing overseas.

Following his time overseas, Whiteside would eventually land back in the NBA, playing for the Miami Heat, where he would have five very productive seasons, making an All-Defensive team and being the 2015 block champion.

While a lot of Whiteside’s defensive effectiveness was often over-exaggerated, he was still a very good player on that side of the ball for a couple of seasons and someone who could have helped the Kings out a lot during the Demarcus Cousins era whether he came off the bench, or they traded him for a player who fit next to Cousins better.

This was just an unfortunate example of a player suffering multiple injuries and an organization losing patience because of it. While it would have been nice to see Whiteside ball out in Sactown, the odds of him ever working out here were slim.