NBA Trade Rumors: Kuzma, Collins, Grant On Kings’ Radar

The Kings are reportedly exploring the trade market to turn around an underwhelming season thus far.

Despite a big splash in the off-season to acquire veteran scorer DeMar DeRozan, Sacramento currently sits outside the West playoff picture at 13-17 and a particularly disappoint 6-11 home record.

As a result, the Kings are considering pursuing Washington’s Kyle Kuzma and Jonas Valanciunas, Portland’s Jerami Grant, Utah’s John Collins, and Brooklyn’s Cam Johnson. This is per a report by Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

Where did Kings go wrong?

It was just a couple seasons ago that the Kings were the darlings of the NBA and lighting the beam on repeat. Finishing third in the West with a 48-34 record, Sacramento battled the then defending champion Golden State Warriors in an incredible first-round series that went the full seven games.

De’Aaron Fox and Damontas Sabonis were leading the league’s best offense but, ever since, has struggled to kick it to fifth gear. The Kings finished 14th in offensive rating a season ago and ninth so far this season.

The addition of DeRozan has taken away from some of the free flowing nature of Sacramento’s offense and, most notably, is down to 24th in three-pointers attempted after ranking sixth in the category two years ago.

Keegan Murray came into the league looking a lethal outside shooting threat, but his diminished role seems to have affected his consistency. After shooting a combined 38.4 percent in his first two seasons, Murray is hitting on just 30.2 percent of his three-point attempts this season. Kevin Huerter shot a combined 38.5 percent in his first two seasons with Sacramento and is now down to 31.1 percent this season.

The ball movement just isn’t the same and it may have Fox feeling a bit uncertain about the team’s long-term future.

DeRozan trade on horizon?

It might seem crazy, but having signed his contract in the summer, DeRozan became trade eligible on Dec. 15. Trading either Malik Monk or Huerter would only hurt the team’s three-point shooting ability, so it begs the question of if Sacramento would be willing to give up on the DeRozan experiment already.

Kuzma, Grant, and Johnson would all present better floor spacing options with better defense at the same position as DeRozan, while Collins would allow Murray to slide back into the small forward position. Grant’s contract would be the most difficult to work around as he makes roughly $6M more than DeRozan, while the other three all hover close to the $23M mark.

DeRozan likely wouldn’t be the happiest camper in any of those scenarios, as it would not only take him out of California — his home state — but also place him on teams with no aspirations of winning this season.