With the 2025 NBA Trade Deadline now past us, the transactional focus of the league has shifted to the buyout market.
For the Sacramento Kings, they did a lot of re-shuffling of the deck during the last week. 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, this roster has some glaring issues on the defensive side of the ball that could be addressed with the right buyout market signing.
In a recent post, we suggested that the Kings should go after Bruce Brown – a player many people anticipated would enter the buyout player pool after being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans. However, the Pelicans seem like they are keeping Brown, as evidenced by him playing a little over 26 minutes against the Kings on Wednesday night (Brown's first game with the Pelicans).
So, the Kings decided to go in a different direction to address their defensive needs.
Sacramento Kings sign Markelle Fultz
While not technically a buyout player, Markelle Fultz was available in the free agency market. After spending the last five years with the Orlando Magic, Fultz did not sign a new contract during the 2024 offseason. As a result, he has been unemployed for the first half of the 2024-25 season. That is, until Wednesday evening when it was announced that he agreed to a deal with the Kings.
Free agent guard Markelle Fultz has agreed to a deal with the Sacramento Kings, his agent Raymond Brothers of I AM Sports & Entertainment told ESPN. Kings have searched to find a point guard – and land a deal with the former No. 1 overall pick. pic.twitter.com/oqnBqnpyCy
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 13, 2025
After going first overall in the 2017 NBA Draft (ahead of guys like Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell), Fultz never really reached the star levels analysts predicted he would get to during his prime.
Still, Fultz has been able to make a solid career for himself with his contributions on the defensive side of the ball. Last season, he was in the 81st percentile in steal rate and the 77th percentile in block rate among combo guards. As a team, the Magic were in the 91st percentile in defensive rating when he was on the floor.
As the team that is ranked 20th in defensive rating, the Kings need as much defense as they can get. On top of that, since Fultz plays point guard, he will be able to provide ball handling to a team that needs some more of it with De'Aaron Fox no longer in the fold.