A Royal Pain
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Analyst says the Sacramento Kings can't win with these two players

ByMat Issa|
Feb 10, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Zach LaVine (8) makes a jump shot against the Dallas Mavericks during the first quarter at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Feb 10, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Zach LaVine (8) makes a jump shot against the Dallas Mavericks during the first quarter at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The Sacramento Kings had one of the busiest trade deadlines of any team in the NBA. In the span of five days, the Kings made three trades – saying goodbye to five players (including a franchise icon) while also bringing in three new faces.

Still, even with all these deals, the Kings don't have the core they need to succeed for years to come. Yes, they could sneak into the playoffs if they can really click on the offensive side of the ball, but this roster construction won't get you to your ultimate goal (winning an NBA title).

Analyst says Kings can't win with DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine

In a recent appearance on "D-Lo & KC," a radio show ESPN 1320, Matt George discussed what kind of changes he thinks the Kings need to look to make in the offseason. Here is what he had to say:

"If you want to be a team that is a perennial playoff team and [one that] works themselves into contention, I don't know if you can be that with a DeRozan/LaVine core...I'm not putting it all on those two. Those two aren't the whole problem. It's just that in order to get to where you need to go, one of them needs to be traded," George explained.

What George is getting at with his comments is a problem that we have seen many teams (most notably, the Phoenix Suns) have to deal with over the last few years. DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine are great players, but they aren't good enough together to be worth all the money they are getting paid. And since there is a limit to how much money a team can spend, by paying the DeRozan and LaVine, the Kings' roster is limited in other areas.

So, to remedy this, the Kings need to trade one of the two guys for pieces that make their roster more sense. Given how offensively slanted this team is, those pieces would be defense-first wings/forwards who can make up for the limitations of guys like Malik Monk and Domantas Sabonis while also (preferably) not hurting the team's spacing (and hopefully improving it).

Does a trade like this exist? Given how old DeRozan is and how much LaVine is making, it is hard to say. The Kings front office will likely need to get creative if they hope to make this a re-tool rather than a full-scale rebuild.

At the end of the day, though, George is right – the Kings won't get very far with the two of them taking up a big chunk of the salary cap.

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