4 Untouchable Sacramento Kings players in offseason trade talks
By Mat Issa
#3: Domantas Sabonis
The Kings' highest-paid player (40.5 million, per Spotrac) is also one of their most untouchable. To put it kindly, the Kings were an awful team before Domantas Sabonis was traded to their team. They went sixteen years without making the playoffs. But with Sabonis, their team has not only ended the drought, but averaged 47 wins per year over the last two seasons.
Along with being an integral part of the franchise, he's solidified himself as one of the best players in the league. Last year, he put together a streak of 61 consecutive double-doubles – the most by any player since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. He also finished eighth in MVP voting (behind Anthony Edwards and ahead of Kevin Durant).
All told, Sabonis is a damn good player. And in this league, unless you are rebuilding (which the Kings better not be thinking about doing any time soon), you normally don't trade players of Sabonis' caliber.
The only reason we don't have him higher up in our rankings is that he is a bit overpaid (at least based on my formula for calculating production value). Because of this, I think there is a world where a team makes a strong offer to Kings, and the team decides to pounce on the opportunity to get off a contract that may not age well.