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.
4. Hedo Turkoglu
Hedo Turkoglu may have had some rather productive seasons during his time in Sacramento, but we don’t think there are any doubts that his best seasons came right after he left the Kings in favor of the Dwight Howard-led Magic.
After being selected 16th overall in the laughably bad 2000 NBA Draft, Turkoglu would put together three decent seasons with the Kings, averaging 7.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in just 19.9 minutes a game. Despite the upside Turkoglu showcased during his tenure, Sacramento would still opt to trade him in the summer of 2003.
While the trade that sent Turkoglu away to the Spurs did net the Kings Brad Miller, who would go on to make an All-Star game in his first season with the team, it still sucked to see Turkoglu go and be a very productive player on a contending team following his signing with the Magic.
It didn’t take Turkoglu very long to showcase the full capabilities of his talent in Orlando, averaging 13+ points per game each of his five seasons with the time while also showing off some playmaking talent that was not fully realized in Sacramento.
With Turkoglu, at least we can say the Kings got a pretty darn good player in return for him. However, it would have been nice to see what he would do on a rebuilding Kings team with his all-around offensive prowess.
3. Gerald Wallace
Unlike Turkoglu, Wallace didn’t really show off much during his time on the Kings, at least not enough to suggest he’d be as good of a player as he was following his departure from Sacramento. Honestly, the leap he made to stardom after being selected by the Bobcats in the NBA expansion draft was something very few people likely saw coming at the time.
Wallace would be drafted 25th overall by the Kings in 2001. He would have three relatively unproductive seasons, averaging 3.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 0.5 assists while playing an average of 9.7 minutes per game.
Almost as soon as Wallace left the Kings, he exploded into a very good two-way player, upping his points per game from 2.0 to 11.1 in just one season. In Wallace’s next seven seasons with Charlotte, he would make both an All-Star game and an All-Defensive team in 2009.
There were few players more entertaining to watch in the league than Wallace. His high-flying athleticism on both sides of the ball made some pretty bad Bobcats teams very fun to watch for a while.
Obviously, Wallace was drafted in the expansion draft, making it hard to say that the Kings necessarily gave up on him. However, they very easily could have made him one of the protected players and kept him. Despite this, the lack of production makes it understandable as to why they didn’t.
2. Isaiah Thomas
This one may not hurt as much as others considering the state of Kings basketball at the time, but watching Isaiah Thomas blossom into the MVP candidate he became with the Celtics had to leave Kings fans feeling some type of way.
Thomas was very solid during his time in Sacramento, averaging 15.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists while shooting 44.7% from the field and 36.0% from deep on 4.2 attempts. While his defense was poor and efficiency could have been better, there were certainly flashes of greatness from Thomas.
Despite this, the Kings opted to trade Thomas to the Suns in the summer of 2014 for Alex Oriakhi and a trade exception. Oriakhi would never play a game in the NBA, so it’s clear the Kings did this to clear cap space.
While Thomas wouldn’t accomplish much in Phoenix due to their poor management at the time, the second he was traded to the Celtics, he became a two-time All-Star and even had an MVP-level season in 2016 when he averaged nearly 29 points per game.
Injuries would plague Thomas for the rest of his career, causing him to fall out of the NBA sooner than he should have, but the few prime seasons Thomas had would have been incredibly fun to watch play alongside Cousins and co. in Sacramento.
1. Bob Love
The odds of the average NBA fan knowing that Bob Love played with the Kings are likely very slim. However, this is understandable for a few reasons. For starters, Love was drafted in 1965 and only spent two seasons with the Kings.
Love was selected in the fourth round of the 1965 NBA Draft and would go on to average just 6.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 0.8 assists per game. After two unproductive seasons, the Kings would opt not to protect Love in the 1968 NBA expansion draft, and he would be selected by the Bucks and would eventually get traded to the Bulls.
Once joining the Bulls, Love would start a stretch of play in which he looked like a Hall of Famer, averaging 21.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game while shooting 43.0% from the field. In addition, Love would make three consecutive All-Defensive selections and make the All-Star game three times in a row.
While the Kings weren’t anything special during Love’s prime, adding a player like this to a roster that made the playoffs once during said prime would have been incredibly fun to watch. Regardless, like everyone else on this list, the Kings let Love go and were punished.
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