As trade rumors about Domantas Sabonis keep popping up, fans are getting more insight into why nothing seems to be moving forward. The Sacramento Kings asking price for the All-Star, All-NBA big man remains high, which is an issue for any team seriously considering him and that's a problem.
If you haven't been paying attention to the Kings over the last few years, and many of you haven't been, the whole Sabonis situation is rather confusing. He is a certified double-double machine who is considered to be a top 20 big man in the league. Why wouldn't Sacramento want him?
There are two issues the Kings are trying to deal with. First is Sabonis's contract which will cost Sacramento nearly $100 million over the next two seasons For a team trying to rebuild, losing that kind of money to one player is a major problem. They need salary flexibility to make this work.
Second is Sabonis's defense. As a facilitator on offence, the man is an absolute marvel. The problem is that he's a pylon on defense, which is not what you want from your starting center. And the Kings are laser focused on improving their defense these days, something Sabonis just doesn't fit.
The Kings are the reason trades aren't happening
Efforts to trade Sabonis have fallen flat for the last year, mainly because Sacramento is asking too much for him. They are looking for young players, players with expiring contracts, and/or first-round draft picks. In return, their prospective trade partners get an expensive center who can't defend.
For this to work out, the Kings need a very specific trade partner, like the Raptors. They have a strong defense led by Scottie Barnes that could absorb Sabonis's deficiencies while putting him to work on offense. But the Kings didn't want to take on Jakob Poeltl's insane contract, which makes sense.
The Hornets, another rumored trade partner, reputedly balked at the multiple first-rounds draft picks the Kings were requesting. Instead, Charlotte made better deals with the Suns, Timberwolves, and Rockets, shutting Sacramento out. All the players the Kings were looking at are now on other teams.
Sacramento needs to decide if they're serious about trading Sabonis or not. They could just commit to hanging onto him until the time runs out on his contract, rebuilding what they can in the meantime. That's not a bad thing. But if they do want to trade him, the Kings need to adjust their asking price.
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