NBA Rumors: Pistons end Josh Smith trade talks with Kings
By Josh Hill
The NBA Draft is just around the corner and there is some posturing starting to happen with teams trying to get into positions where they can acquire picks or acquire assets they feel will make them a better team in 2014-15.
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One of those teams is the Sacramento Kings who are trying to trade the No. 8 pick int he draft to either trade back and/or acquire assets in the process. There was talks earlier on Tuesday that the Kings could be interested in making a deal with the Detroit Pistons that would send Josh Smith out west, but it appears those talks never left the rumor stage before being declared dead on arrival.
Rumored Sacramento-Detroit trade is "dead" according to a team source. Talks were ongoing for a few days, but Detroit nixed it this morning.
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) June 24, 2014
The trade talks were apparently one stage of the Kings trying to acquire Rajon Rondo from the Boston Celtics but that appears to be dead as well now that the Pistons have pulled out of talks.
There’s a chance that the trade talks could be revisited as we near the draft but if talks are going nowhere right now then something major needs to happen before the Kings can think about continuing their pursuit of Smith.
Detroit likely wants that NO. 8 overall pick but the Kings would need to pocket that if they had any hopes of trading for Rajon Rondo. They might still attempt to do that even without Smith, but either way it appears that the Kings will be active as we approach the Draft Day trade deadline.