Should the Sacramento Kings trade for DeMar DeRozan?

Reason #2 Against Trading For DeRozan: Limited Upside

DeRozan is a phenomenal player who has done a great job remaining effective well into his 30s. However, there is a reason that the Toronto Raptors won the NBA title in the season after he was traded to the Spurs. DeRozan is more of a floor raiser than a ceiling raiser.

(Sidebar: In sports, a floor raiser is someone who excels at making poor/average teams average/good. Meanwhile, a ceiling raiser elevates a good team and makes them great.)

All of the pros we've discussed with DeRozan have to do with keeping the floor intact under us. DeRozan gives you a guy who will always be there in case other players get injured. He gives you extra creation in case Monk or Fox is injured. You get the point. DeRozan gives you a nice safety net, but he doesn't amplify the current core the way a ceiling raiser would.

The ideal player for the Kings would be a power forward with size, rim protection chops, and the ability to space the floor (Markkanen). That isn't who DeRozan is. He's only 6'7. He's never surpassed the 50th percentile in block rate at any point in his career. And as we discussed two slides ago, he doesn't space the floor.

DeRozan makes this team better because he ensures that the dam doesn't break because of injuries. But he doesn't raise this team's ceiling enough to make them surefire title contenders.

The Bottom Line

Just because the DeRozan move doesn't vault the Kings into the inner circle title contender conversation does not mean they shouldn't make it. We have seen before that if your team is pretty good but not elite (the 2022-23 Miami Heat), they can make a deep run if luck (with 3-point shooting) is on their side.

Are the Kings with DeRozan good enough that if they have luck on their side, they can make a deep run? That remains to be seen. But the possibility of that being true makes acquiring DeRozan worth it. Plus, as we said, they still could make one more move after getting DeRozan to address some of the weaknesses created by his arrival.

Overall, I like the idea of acquiring him more than I do Kyle Kuzma, Jerami Grant, or Brandon Ingram. But I still would prefer they trade for Markkanen if that's possible.