The 2024-25 NBA regular season has not gone the way the Sacramento Kings had hoped for heading into the season. After re-signing Malik Monk and adding DeMar DeRozan, the Kings are currently sitting at 13-14 and 12th in the Western Conference.
The Kings' issues are deep-rooted and complex. However, to put it simply, they are a team that has too much on-ball creation and not enough size, defense, and spacing. Many people have said the team needs to acquire a player with a similar set of skills to their current starting power forward, Keegan Murray.
The Kings tried to find this player in free agency by signing Jae Crowder. Unfortunately, Crowder is too old and slow to really wear this hat in any meaningful way. So, it looks like the team will need to turn to the trade market to find this player.
The Sacramento Kings put Kevin Huerter and Trey Lyles on the trade block
As many of you are well aware, to trade for a player, you need to give something in return. And while the Kings will likely need to part ways with some draft capital in order to do this, they will also need to trade some matching salary. On Thursday, we find out who those players will likely be.
"Trey Lyles has had some success as a small ball five in Sacramento and is considered available for trade along with Kings swingman Kevin Huerter, sources said," Jake Fischer wrote in a recent edition of The People's Insider Substack.
If the Kings are going to trade for someone, it will likely be from a team that is in a rebuilding phase. At this point in time, neither Huerter nor Lyles would offer much to a rebuilding team. But their salaries (Huerter's cap hit is 16.8 million, Lyles' is 8 million) will be valuable in a trade.
We've already discussed the prospect of the team trading for Bruce Brown. But some other names to keep an eye on are Cam Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, Kyle Kuzma, Jerami Grant, John Collins, and Lonzo Ball.
My personal favorite of all of these is Cam Johnson. He's young (28 years old), a great shooter (43.3% from three), and provides some sneaky value as a rim protector (49th percentile block rate among forwards). Of all these players, Johnson gives the Kings the best blend of what they are looking for. Now, let's see if the Kings are serious about a trade or if this is all smoke and mirrors.