As Levin wrote yesterday, calling this a “trade” may be inaccurate. Carl Landry, Jason Thompson and Nik Stauskas leaving the Kings to the Sixers, so Sacramento can go after Rajon Rondo, Monta Ellis and Wesley Matthews, or any combination of the three. This deal cleared up about $20 million for Sacramento.
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And that really is what the whole thing boils down to – what the Kings do now.
Just when some Philadelphia 76ers fans were bracing for another year of tanking, they found an unlikely hero in GM Sam Hinkie.
Compounding matters, the Kings have struck out on their first two free agent targets.
The Philadelphia 76ers have added more bodies by agreeing to this deal, helping to increase the salary total past the $24.1 million they already had on the books. Hinkie found a way to come out on top once again.
The lovely thing about this situation is that the Kings are destined to be a disaster regardless of who they overpay for in free agency, so the Sixers will likely have a chance to switch picks with the Kings in the lottery next year, if Sacramento does finish with a higher pick than the 76ers. This is the first big move the Sixers have made since the draft, and hopefully the start of some more solid pick ups. If the Bulls’ pick has not conveyed after 2017, it will become two seconds, which would allow the Sixers’ pick to convey in 2018.
The best case for the Kings right now would be something like Matthews and Williams.
The trade can’t be announced officially until the July 9 moratorium is lifted but Stauskas confirmed the trade via Twitter.
That means the Sixers gained a 2014 first-round pick, two forwards and a truckload of draft considerations for two players who might never play in the National Basteball Association. As we know, however, he was playing for a disorganized Kings franchised, and had to transition between three coaches in his rookie year.
According to Basketball Insiders, Thompson and Landry have fully guaranteed contracts for $6.4 and $6.5 million, respectively, next season.
The team will have the option of voiding the final year of the deal. After having a career year in his second year in the league, the longest tenured Sacramento King has had an up and down career of being yanked back and forth between starting and coming off the bench but has gone out there and done his job and even impressed at times.
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Neither Gudaitis nor Mitrovic are big losses for the Sixers.
