The Los Angeles Lakers’ trade scenario:
- The Sacramento Kings receive: PF/SF Kyle Kuzma, PG Quinn Cook, SG Talen Horton-Tucker, SG/SF Danny Green and the Lakers 2020 1st round pick
- The Los Angeles Lakers receive: SG Buddy Hield and the Sacramento Kings 2020 1st round draft pick (late lottery pick)
A lot of moving parts here.
Long story short, the Sacramento Kings extended shooting guard Buddy Hield to a long term deal and immediately regretted their decision, not due to Hield’s production, but because signing him to a long term deal makes it incredibly hard to hold onto De’Aaron Fox, Marvin Bagley III and Bogdan Bogdanović going forward. They can thank Harrison Barnes and his poisonous and immovable contract for this situation.
Can the Los Angeles Lakers come to the rescue and help the Kings hold onto Fox, Bagley, and Bogdan?
The Los Angeles Lakers offer helps the Kings clear cap space by giving them complete flexibility to extend whoever they want in the Summer of 2021.
They get Danny Green an elite shooter like Hield but a significantly better defender.
They get Kyle Kuzma who can play minutes at power forward and small forward. This allows the Kings to not run Bagley into the ground and allows for his minutes to be spread out and allow for his body to get stronger to avoid all the injuries he has been getting.
Talen Horton-Tucker is an exciting prospect with solid upside and Quinn Cook is a great back up point guard whose contract isn’t fully guaranteed next season. The Kings also get the Lakers late 1st rounder.
If you are a Kings fan, you will proclaim this is not enough. If you are a Lakers fan, this is potentially too much.
The Kings get some excellent depth pieces who provide salary relief in the near future. They receive a draft pick that they can either use or package together to find a way to get out from underneath Harrison Barnes’s contract.
They get Kyle Kuzma who is and will continue to be better than anything that they will receive in the late lottery.
Kuzma is a 20PPG scorer waiting to happen. Kuzma opens the floor for the Kings and allows them to shoot from all over the court.
The Lakers get a 3rd “borderline” star to put next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis. A player and contract that is easily movable if they need to cash out and go after players like Giannis. They also trade up and 17 or 18 spots and get to pick in the lottery.
This trade allows for the Kings to pay Bogdan Bogdanović this season and DeAaron Fox next season when he most certainly looks for a max contract.
If the Lakers had more draft picks, they would probably include them to get this deal done but the deal as currently constructed is potentially just enough to get a deal done.