Grade the trade pitch: Sacramento Kings move fan favorite to add more balance

If you poll most Sacramento Kings fans on who the next major player on the roster to get traded will be, most people would likely say that it is Kevin Huerter. After all, Huerter is coming off a down year, he has a contract that is fairly easy to match (set to make 16.8 million next year, per Spotrac), and the team has a promising replacement for him in Keon Ellis.

But what if I told you that the right answer may just be the player the Kings made their number one priority heading into the offseason, Malik Monk?

Why, you ask? First, Monk's stock is much higher right now. While Huerter is coming off one of his worst seasons as a professional, Monk (one of the best combo guards in basketball) is coming off arguably his best – finishing second in Sixth Man of the Year (6MOY) voting.

Second, Monk also has a contract that is pretty matchable (19.5 million per year), especially with the rising salary cap.

And third, now that the Kings have DeMar DeRozan, they have more of a surplus in the area that Monk excels at than they do for Huerter. Monk's specialty is on-ball creation, but with De'Aaron Fox and DeRozan on the roster, the Kings don't need that as much as they need shooting/spacing (which is what Huerter's best skill is).

With these dynamics in mind, I decided to create a hypothetical trade (that can't happen until at least October 4 because of when Monk and the other main player involved in this signed their contracts) involving Monk, and give both parties involved a grade.

Here is the proposed deal:

Again, this deal can't be executed until at least October 4. Because of that, we can't say for certain that this deal will work financially for both teams. But it should, as the incoming/outgoing salaries involved are nearly identical.