Latest Wizards trade could be good news for the Kings

Trade season has officially begun, and the Washington Wizards already started making moves. The Wizards traded veterans Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala to the Pistons for Marvin Bagley, Isaiah Livers, and two second-round picks. 

With Bagley and Livers, the Wizards get some size, shooting, and youth, but the deal will not change much else. Neither team will be much better after the shakeup. They will still be at the bottom of the league, most likely by design. 

For the Sacramento Kings, this is good news, however. The Wizards are obviously trying to get younger and collect draft picks. This first move makes it more likely that Kyle Kuzma will be on his way out of the capital now that he is trade-eligible. 

At 28 years old, he is now one of the oldest players on the roster and obviously does not fit the timeline of this rebuild. Plus, Kuzma is the Wizards player promising to bring back the best return. 

He is a talented scorer on a great contract and could be of interest to several teams looking for another star-caliber player or an alternative to Pascal Siakam. The Kings are one of those teams. 

The Kings have been linked to Kuzma for a while now

The Kings are only in their second season of being a good team after 16 seasons of losing. Theoretically, there is no rush to speed up the process and turn the team into a contender. Digging yourself out of a hole that deep takes a while, and most of the Kings’ players are still rather young.

Nevertheless, they apparently want to win now and are widely expected to make a move by the trade deadline. Considering the stars available, it will likely not be a blockbuster deal that will completely change the NBA landscape. 

Fans, especially, have been eying Kuzma, who the Kings already tried to get in free agency over the summer. As a big forward who can score, crash the glass, and defend when he wants to he would be a great fit next to De’Aaron Fox, Keegan Murray, and Domantas Sabonis. 

All the Kings would need from him to make this a successful combination is the right buy-in. On the Kings, he wouldn’t be a top option, especially not if Murray grows into the star the Organization envisions him to be. 

As of now, the Wizards reportedly want two first-round picks (or the equivalent) for Kuzma, and they are in no rush to move him. It is likely that the team will be taking calls about him, however, now that they already moved on from two other veterans. 

This is good news for the Kings in case they feel the need to get him for the rest of the season and desperately want to make a move before the trade deadline.