NBA Trade Grades: DeMar DeRozan to Kings in three-team deal

NBA: Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls

A handful of trades each year have clear winners and losers, but most are more murky, with maybe a clear winner but also a lot of mid.

Which pretty much describes the DeMar DeRozan three-team trade announced on Saturday. Let’s grade this trade out to see who did well and who is mired in mud. First, let’s break out how this three-team trade shook out.

Kings receive: DeMar DeRozan
Bulls receive: Chris Duarte, two second-round picks, cash
Spurs receive: Harrison Barnes, 2031 unprotected pick swap with the Kings

DeMar DeRozan: A

DeRozan is the big winner in this trade — he gets a three-year, $74 million new contract to play in Sacramento. While the third year of that is only partially guaranteed, at a minimum DeRozan will make close to $50 million over the next two seasons at age 34 and 35.

The Lakers were among other teams pitching DeRozan, but even with LeBron James offering to take a significant pay cut all Los Angeles could offer is the $12.8 million mid-level exception, about half of what DeRozan makes per year in this deal. DeRozan may have liked the idea of going home to L.A., but he’s still showing up in Kendrick LaMar videos no matter where he plays, so it’s all good.

Sacramento Kings: C

Usually, the team that gets the best player in a trade is a big winner, and DeRozan is not only the best player in this draft but also a talent upgrade for Sacramento. The fans in SacTown are already embracing him.

DeMar DeRozan was just introduced to the crowd in Sacramento to the tune of Kendrick Lamar’s “They Not Like Us.” pic.twitter.com/yhFu6hy1m7

— Jason Anderson (@JandersonSacBee) July 7, 2024

That’s all great, but DeRozan’s fit with the Kings is questionable. First, bringing in DeRozan adds a weak defender to a team that already struggles on that end of the court.

Second, DeRozan is a brilliant isolation scorer in the midrange, but playing to his strengths takes the ball out of the hands of other quality shot creators in De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk (who the Kings re-signed this summer). DeRozan doesn’t space the floor when Sabonis and Fox are running dribble…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-trade-grades-demar-derozan-170926366.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-07-07 17:09:26

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