Around the NBA in 15 trades: Day 8, Kings and Pacers
In the lead up to the Feb. 8 trade deadline, we’re taking all 30 teams and finding mutually beneficial partners. Every day will offer up a new deal with two new consorts. It’s kinda like the 12 days of Christmas, but instead of hens-a-laying and pear trees and other useless nonsense from your true love, you’re getting fake trades from me for a much higher holy day: the NBA trade deadline. Strap in tight, it’s trading season!
Sacramento’s been a rudderless ship for over a decade. This roiling hotbed of inconsistency hasn’t gotten into the playoffs since the 2005-06 season. They’ve made questionable trades, had suspect talent evaluation, spotty drafting, and near-constant coaching turnover.
The rumors of George Hill going to Cleveland are hot and heavy, but what if he was rerouted to a different, more familiar place?
Indiana’s playing very well right now and exceeding expectations, but are ultimately postseason fodder for one of the top seeds in the East. Making small moves to accumulate young guys with potentially high upside would be shrewd for a team with modest draft capital.
Why the Kings do it:
[In an executive office, somewhere within Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center]
Vivek Ranadivé: I have a plan so brilliant, so diabolically clever, it’ll catapult us into the upper echelon of the league.
Generic Kings staffer: That’s great! What is it?
VR: Okay, so you know how we have Bogdan Bogdanovic?
GKS: Yes, he just got named to the Rising Stars team.
VR: Well I just found out there’s another player in the league with almost the exact same name and a similar physical makeup: Bojan Bogdanovic. He plays for Indiana. I’m going to pull out all the stops and trade for him. I want us to deploy lineups with both Bogdanovi playing all 48 minutes every game.
I call it Operation Double Vision! Opponents will get so confused, we’ll score upwards of 200 points a night! This is even more genius than my idea of playing 4-on-5 defense!
GKS: …
VR: The league has never seen anything like this before!
GKS: Actually, sir, it would be like when the Morris twins played for the Su-
VR: Get Larry Bird on the phone at once!
GKS: But sir, Kevin Pritchard is the GM for Indiana now
VR: At once!
[end scene]
Look, I don’t know if this conversation or a similar one took place, but I don’t not know if did too. You know what I mean? But I feel like the Kings would be so enamored with this idea, they might not even realize this deal doesn’t make basketball sense.
Why the Pacers do it:
Because time is a flat circle, George Hill and Darren Collison need to keep swapping spots with each other in perpetuity.
Hill’s contract is hefty considering the stats he brings to the table, so Skal Labissiere and Malachi Richardson come over as the price of doing business. Both are young and neither has gotten the proper opportunities to develop with the Kings.
Next: Around the NBA in 15 trades: Day 7, Nets and Nuggets
You also can’t discount that trading with Sacramento usually works out for the other team. Bring back Indiana’s golden son and bring back the blonde.