Well, I’m sitting here watching the Western Conference Finals and it can’t get any more painfully obvious to all us Kings fans that the off-season is officially in full swing in Sacramento, and, well, the Kings front office is going to need all the inspiration they can get to move this teams back onto the winner’s track. I’m stuck comparing these two teams have in Minny and OKC to what we’ve currently got cooking Sacramento and welp, this thread wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t trying to cope by reading the genius, ingenious and psychotic trade ideas we all seem to come up with every year. Star level guard play? Yep, Kings need it. A plethora of lengthy defenders and three point shooters? Get them in a Kings jersey. Athletic, youthful prospects who have yet to reach their seemingly endless ceilings? Sign me the hell up.
So for the uninitiated here at the Kings Herald, Asinine Trade Ideas was a fanpost that we had pinned for forever, where any and all of us could come in, dump in most inane or insane trade ideas and sit back and watch the discussion erupt. I’d like to make this a more regular feature, especially during the off-season when hope starts to wiggle its way back into our hearts, and deep down we all know our one idea, the right idea, could be the difference between the Kings going big or going home yet again next season. There’s a million different ways to attack the Asinine Trade thread, but we’ve always recommended using the trade machine at Fanspo – it makes your crazy seem a little more sane when it actually fits into the CBA, but that’s a suggestion, not a requirement!
“Fear is the mind-killer, the little death that brings total obliteration”
So to kick off this thread, I’m doing what I do best and I’m immediately running towards youth. During the NBA Combine last week, Will Guillory of The Athletic reported that Oklahoma guard and presumed Top-10 pick Jeremiah Fears said that he’d met with the Sacramento Kings, an odd tidbit of info considering Sacramento doesn’t currently have a pick until the second round. I’m assuming here that if Sacramento has had discussions with Fears, they really, really like the kid – I doubt his agent even allows a conversation to happen between them if they Kings aren’t showing some real signs of moving up to get him. So who wants out of the Top 10 in this draft and what do the Kings have to give up? I think the easiest path to Fears is something through Brooklyn, who are a year into building the team and culture they want under our boy Jordi – and who better to serve up on a platter than the young, but not that young, leader of men, position of need filler, Devin Carter. My full deal goes something along the lines of: Devin Carter, ’27 Spurs pick (Top 10 protected) for the Nets #8 pick in this years draft. Nets get a starting point guard and a bulldog to set the tone in Brooklyn who still needs enough polish that he won’t will them to too many wins (or a back-up in D’Angelo Russell picks up his $18 million player option), as well as another first rounder that’s just protected enough to be worth it for both sides. Carter works well playing next to Russell, or next to Cam Thomas, or coming off the bench for either of them, and he’s old enough that Brooklyn won’t have to wait half a decade for him to mature into who he’s going to be as an NBA player. On the other hand, theKings get their point guard for the future, and like they did when the grabbed George Hill for Fox’s rookie campaign, opt to go out and grab a veteran free agent point guard like Tyus Jones or, gulp, Russell Westbrook to hold it down while Fears adjusts to life in the NBA. Sidenote before wrapping up: if Jeremiah Fears nickname isn’t “The Mind Killer” or “The Little Death” (shout out to Frank Herbert’s Dune), then we have to cancel all nicknames forever.
Is it the best trade you’ve ever seen? No. Is it asinine? A bit.
Now it’s your turn. Go nuts!