Grade the draft day trade pitch: Kings finally upgrade power forward position

Draft day (or should we say "draft days") is finally upon us. This year, the Sacramento Kings own the 13th and 45th overall picks in the draft (the 13th overall pick will take place on Wednesday, and the 45th pick will be selected on Thursday).

For the Kings, it seems likely that they will be trading their 13th overall pick in an effort to upgrade their roster. They are going to need to if they plan on improving from last season, especially after the New York Knicks' big blockbuster deal.

If the Kings are going to swing a deal, it should be in the effort to land an upgrade at power forward. One name that has been consistently floated around is Jerami Grant – a 30-year-old forward who offers shooting (40.2% from three last season) and secondary rim protection (51st percentile block rate, per Dunks & Threes).

On Tuesday, Bleacher Report came out with a mock trade between the Kings and Portland Trail Blazers that would make Grant a member of our team. Here is what it looks like:

How good of a deal is this for our Kings? What about for the Blazers? Are they getting the best value for a player of Grant's contract and caliber?

Over the next two slides, we will grade this trade for both teams.

Sacramento Kings

Grade: D-

The best way to properly assess the value of players is by looking at past trades of players of similar caliber/contract. After all, front office executives (the people who participate in these trades) are the ones who create the market for these players.

For the sake of simplicity, we will call Grant a high level starter (aka a great role player). Those types of players generally warrant the equivalent of two first round picks (assume we are talking about two average first round picks, since all picks are not created equal).

However, we still need to factor in Grant's contract, which, in this case, diminishes his value. Grant is in the second year of a five-year, 160-million-dollar deal (per Spotrac). Even with the salary cap projected to increase over the next couple of years, that's still an average annual value of 32 million dollars for another four years for a player who is good (but not great) and on the wrong side of 30.

With that in mind, his value should be more like one or one-and-a-half first round assets plus whatever it takes to match the salary.

That brings us to the proposed trade. Here the Kings are parting ways with Kevin Huerter (a starter on a solid contract), their first round pick in this draft, and a future protected first round pick (which you assume will convey if they still have Grant under contract with the rest of their core).

That's the equivalent of three first round picks. And that's without even mentioning Trey Lyles (a solid bench player on a good contract), who could command one or two second round picks by himself on the open market.

Needless to say, the Kings are giving up way too much in that hypothetical trade. Here is what a better trade would look like for them.

(Sidebar: I did run this through a trade machine to verify that the salaries would work.)

Here, the Kings would be giving up Harrison Barnes (a starting caliber forward that could be flipped for more assets), Davion Mitchell (a reclamation project who has flashed some promise), and a late lottery pick in this draft.

All together, that is more like two first round assets, which is still a bit much, but way better than what was originally prescribed.

Portland Trail Blazers

Grade: A

For all the reasons I thought this was a bad trade for the Kings, I think it was a great trade for the Blazers.

Huerter and Lyles give you additional opportunities to flip pieces for even more assets. Huerter should be able to get you a solid first, while Lyles could net you a couple of second round picks. If you want to keep them, both are dynamic offensive players who could provide spacing for Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, and the rest of their young core to work with.

Then, you get the 13th overall pick in a draft that is wide open. That means that you may accidentally stumble into the best player of the draft in the late lottery. And lastly, that protected first in 2027 will likely convey as the Kings' core should be good enough to stay out of the top 10 (or at least that's what we are hoping for by making this trade).

Oh, and on top of all that, you avoid having Grant's massive contract (which could end up aging really poorly) handicap your ability to build a contender over of the next couple of years if your current core shows that they are ready to win sooner than expected.