Indiana Pacers: Re-grading the Haliburton-Sabonis trade two months later

How did the trade turn out for the Sacramento Kings?

On the other hand, the Sacramento Kings have gone 9-14 since the trade which landed them Domantas Sabonis, Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb, and a second-round pick, but extracting why the move was met with jeers from their side is not rocket science at all.

Unlike the Pacers, which pushed the green light on the move to make a swift rebuild and shed away an era of middling competitiveness, the Kings pulled the trigger to bolster their positioning in the playoff field out West. Fast forward to the present, and Sacramento is currently touting a 29-50 record, good for 12th in the conference. Oh, and playoffs? The Kings have now missed the postseason for 16 straight years, an NBA record, and a drought unlike no other.

The puzzling thing about the Kings is that while they had good reason to trade for Sabonis, an extraordinary talent, Haliburton was far from the right sacrifice. Sure, De’Aaron Fox is an All-Star caliber player, but the sophomore arguably has the higher ceiling as a winning contributor with his more well-rounded game. Sorry, but nobody from Indiana will aim for a time machine to catapult Hali back to Sac-Town.

With the Western Conference still loaded with both veteran contenders and up-and-comers, there isn’t really a convincing way for the Kings to suddenly storm into playoff contention, especially when their averred win-now core cannot even get past injury-riddled teams like the Clippers and Pelicans, the rebuilding Spurs, the dysfunctional Lakers, and before they craved the tank, the deflated Trail Blazers.

Still, I hope that Sacramento finally breaks that depressing streak of ineptitude. It has to be over at some point, right?

Grade: C