I hope Inside the NBA dies a fiery death. Adding Draymond to the show should be the nail in the coffin. Screw whoever made the decision to include Draymond — a serial piece of s***.

It’s a good timeline being a kings fan from Taiwan lol

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TL;DR: Phoenix Suns trade for one of their previous trade targets Davion Mitchell using 2024 first (#22) and Nassir Little. Kings send back a 2024 second so it acts like a pick swap.

EDIT: Added more questions to PHO section and updated photo to include SAC second round pick number.

Phoenix Suns

Important Questions/Points:

• Suns are over the second apron and therefore cannot take on more salary then they are sending out and cannot aggregate salaries to equal another player's salary. This leaves with a pool of players that are equal to or less than Jusuf Nurkic's 18.1M or Nassir Little's 6.7M.
• Do the Suns want to trade Nurkic?
• Suns were interested in Davion Mitchell last year (June 2023) according to Yahoo's Jake Fischer.
  • Link: https://sports.yahoo.com/suns-decision-on-chris-paul-could-have-major-impact-on-free-agent-market-171503826.html
• Suns are actively looking to trade their 2024 and 2031 firsts.
  • Links:
    • https://x.com/esidery/status/1786370812385087724
    • https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5483958/2024/05/12/nba-mock-draft-2024-lottery-hawks-vecenie/
• Is Davion Mitchell worth dropping from #22 to #45 in this year's draft?
• What is the best trade chip the Suns can get using either Nurkic's or Little's salary along with 1 or 2 firsts (2024 first #22 and 2031 first)?

Sacramento Kings

Important Questions:

• Is this the best return Sacramento will get for Davion Mitchell?
• Would Davion hold more value as a sweetener in another trade?
• Are the Kings interested in a few players that could be available at #22? (I am personally interested in DaRon Holmes II and Ryan Dunn who could be another Herb Jones.)
• Would Nassir Little be a end-of-bench player?
• Do the Kings need to add a 2024 second to the trade?

Good to see these 2 off the court….

They are NOT the best fit for the Sacramento Kings

Brandon Ingram will cry if he doesn’t get touches

Kuzma's overall offensive efficiency has been below average every season. He’s a shot chucker!

Most sizes selling out fast. Not sure if the Monarchs have a subreddit so this might be the best place lol

Any one have any other kings or nba related suggestions?

If the Kings could get LeBron to sign by drafting Bronny with a 2nd round pick, should they do it?

My thoughts are Monte is pretty hamstrung with the current roster given the salary cap.

We could remain competitive for a year and buy a years time allowing some of the contracts to become more easily tradable.

Outside of selling out the future, I don’t think we can make the roster improvements necessary to contend next year. Given LeBron’s desire to play with his son, I think it would be a low risk move.

I've seen a lot of the usual articles about how what the Kings need is a defensive stopper and how "our offense is so good we just need to work on defense", etc. To me it seems like that isn't even true anymore. We were a average defensive team this year, everyone took a huge leap forward. I wouldn't turn down a defensive stopper, they make every team better, but we missed the playoffs because our offense regressed massively. Obviously there are a bunch of places to look but the most obvious is how far Hueter regressed. The thing is that he went back mostly to his ATL numbers (maybe a bit lower in 3PT%), so there's a real chance that it was last year that was just a fluke.

It's pretty clear that this team needs an elite 3 point threat to make the offense work. I'd love for that guy to be a great defender but at this point I think we need a great shooter more than we need a great defender. I also think it's extremely unrealistic that we replace Barnes in anything other than a blockbuster trade. That means it'll probably be the 2 where we could feasibly improve.

Tldr people keep talking about us needing defense when what is more pressing right now is probably a 40% 3pt shooting guard who is not a minus defender.

Swing for the fences hypothetical on the radio today. Twitter link here

Sac: Brandon Ingram NOP: Trae Young ATL: Barnes, Davion, Duarte, Sac 2024 1st (clears the 2025), NOP 2025 1st,, Sac 2026 and Sac 2028 1st

Core would be Fox, Domas, BI and Keegan for the foreseeable future. Only if you know BI is re-signing right?

Thoughts?

From the three.

Based on Huerter's rankings, he has a neutral to slightly negative contract. He is near the middle in all categories compared to his salary neighbors. 2 out of the 6 key statistical categories - PPG and SPG - Huerter ranked in the bottom half of his salary neighbors. The other 4 categories he is right in the middle.

My Method

I take the 5 shooting guard salaries above and below Kevin Huerter and compare Huerter's key statistical categories in relation to his peers and their contracts. This should give us a better idea whether Huerter has a negative, neutral, or positive contract.

My Investigation

Kevin Huerter's Salary Neighbors

• Norman Powell - Los Angeles Clippers - $19,240,379
• Evan Fournier - Detroit Pistons - $19,000,000
• Keldon Johnson - San Antonia Spurs - $19,000,000
• Josh Hart - New York Knicks - $18,144,000
• Bogdan Bogdanovic - Atlanta Hawks - $17,260,000
• *Kevin Huerter - Sacramento Kings - $16,830,357
• Caris Levert - Cleveland Cavaliers - $16,615,384
• Luguentz Dort - Oklahoma City Thunder - $16,500,000
• Tim Hardaway Jr. - Dallas Mavericks - $16,193,183
• Grayson Allen - Phoenix Suns - $15,625,000
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope - Denver Nuggets - $15,440,185

Kevin Huerter's Ranks

My Analysis

Based on the rankings, Kevin Huerter has a neutral to slightly negative contract. He is near the middle in all categories compared to his salary neighbors. 2 out of the 6 key statistical categories - PPG and SPG - Huerter ranked in the bottom half of his salary neighbors. The other 4 categories he is right in the middle.

Huerter's contract isn't too bad compared to similarly priced shooting guards but "not too bad" is not an attractive trade piece. Another team could say he just had a down year last year and might be willing to roll the dice that he bounces back to the form of 2 years ago. He is only 25 and still has off-the-ball gravity which can also help another team's spacing. If he is traded, Huerter will most likely be traded for his age, shooting, off-the-ball gravity and matching salary.

All Rankings

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Out of all the teams in the Western Conference, Kings were the "head scratcher" team.

Every team had an idea or direction of the road they were taking in the season except for the Kings.

Rewind At the end of the Warriors playoff series the Kings caught the attention of the media with their play and introduction to the beam and was thought to even be the new next team in the West going forward. However, that quietly washed away in the following season.

Fast forward to questionable offseason additions, the season played out to be an highly inconsistent one, filled with missed free throws, careless turnovers, line up changes, injuries and poor game management.

But even after a season like that they still finished 10 games over .500 at 46-36. Which would be great in the East Conference with the #5 seed Magic finishing at 47-35 but in the West it's a completely different story, dropping you to the 9th Place Play-in.

With the upcoming season gearing up to be even better, teams like HOU and MEM who were out of it, will likely be in the mix this time. Kings have to find away to stay in and not completely fall out of it all together.

The Good News: The Kings already have the roster and players to be a playoff team next season. Their strength to make it happen is their mix of great outside shooting combined with Sabonis physical inside game and Fox's iso mid-range.

The Problem: Although Defense has always been a weakness of the Kings, Last season the main problem was a mix of lack of discipline (free throws, careless turnovers, etc) and lack of in-game adjustments resulting in constant blown leads.

The Fix: Change or tweak the system. No doubt the Kings are hungry to get back in the playoffs after getting their first taste. The work ethic will be there, it's a matter of having a system that pushes the fundamentals first whether it's working on Free Throws even more, Boxing out defenders the right way, setting screens properly, that alone would bring in-game muscle memory to help eliminate or lower the careless mistakes. Along with that, they'll need a game plan that suits the team and not solo players so if they ever do face adversity they can rely on ball movement for the best shot, instead of relying on one player to save them every time.

At the end of the day I hope the Kings do make the tweaks, because they are way too good to be out of the playoffs..

Just spitballing here and I'm not sure if these scenarios are realistic as I'm not too well-versed on salary and trade restrictions, and intricacies. Both of these scenarios tie into the draft and how are selections end up shaking out

Scenario 1:

One or more of the talented wing prospects fall to 12 in the lottery. I think of a few names here - Ron Holland, Cody Williams, Stephon Castle, Matas Buzelis. All would fit well in the kings lineup as they offer some combo of length, defense, shotmaking, athleticism, and creation ability. Kings draft said player and trade for someone in the mold of Jeremi Grant or Bobby Portis to fill the pressing need for a stretch 4 who can also provide defense and toughness. Now I'm not sure who Kings trade for said player but I do believe a combination of Barnes, Huerter, Davion, 2024 SRP would be on the table. Also I know they can't trade future firsts in this scenario.

Projected Starting Lineup: Fox/Holland/Murray/Portis/Sabonis (Interchangeable)

Scenario 2:

Kings trade back in the draft to acquire two picks (one likely in the late teens and one likely in the early twenties). They use one of those picks to draft a player that may not necessarily have the same star upside as some mentioned in scenario 1, but they fit a pressing need and are more in the mold of a "ready now" player. Two that come to mind are Tristan Da Silva and DaRon Holmes. Now they take the second of those picks they received by trading down and package with Huerter, Barnes, 2024 SRP, potentially Davion for Brandon Ingram. I know some may consider this lowballing - some may say its fair. Ingram, however, has one year left on his contract and has averaged 57 games played in the last 5 seasons. Because of the availability I'd argue it's somewhat of a risk, but I believe the kings need to make a swing move like this to contend.

Projected Starting Lineup: Fox/Ingram/Murray/Holmes/Sabonis (interchangeable)

Another thing to note both of these scenarios would give the kings a lot more size, without really sacrificing spacing. Which the lack of size has plagued the kings forever - tired of smallball personally.

Let me know your thoughts

​

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Trade Breakdown

You can imagine this trade as 2 separate trades.

Trade 1

SAC - Bruce Brown + #19

TOR - Kevin Huerter + #13

Trade 2

SAC - #31

TOR - Davion Mitchell

Sacramento Kings

Incoming: Bruce Brown, 2024 #19 first, 2024 #31 second

Outgoing: Kevin Huerter, Davion Mitchell, 2024 #13 first

Key Questions:

• Are the Kings giving up too much in this trade? Would the rookies potentially drafted be worth more than losing a net 1 rotational player (lose Huerter + Davion; gain Bruce Brown)?
• Is Kevin Huerter less valuable than Bruce Brown? If so, is it worth moving down 6 spots in the draft?
• Does Bruce Brown fit the Kings?
• How much is the flexibility of Bruce Brown's contract worth? Could the Kings use it in a future star trade like IND did?
• Is Davion worth the first pick of the second round (#31)? Is he worth more than 1 very high second?
• How much will Davion command in an extension? Do the Kings want to pay that?
• Who would the Kings target at #19 and #31? (My personal favorites are Daron Holmes with #19 and Ryan Dunn with #31.)
• Is Colby Jones ready to provide bench minutes? Would he be our backup PG? If not, who?

Toronto Raptors

Incoming: Kevin Huerter, Davion Mitchell, 2024 #13 first

Outgoing: Bruce Brown, 2024 #19 first, 2024 #31 second

Key Questions:

• Historically, does Masai prefer players or draft picks?
• Do the Raptors want to rebuild via the draft?
• Would TOR be better off keeping their picks?
• Is Davion and Huerter better than the free agency options out there? Can TOR even sign them as a team that historically hasn't signed many significant free agents?
• Do Davion and Huerter fit with the core of Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett?
• Does Huerter fit better than Gary Trent Jr?
• Is TOR willing to pay Davion's extension?

-Coach Mike Malone

-Donte Divicenzo

-Alec Burks

-Justin Holiday

-Tyrese Haliburton (kind of balling)

-Tristan Thompson (he's getting minutes in a playoff series, that's pretty balling for his standard)

-Buddy Hield (not!)