NBA games of the week: The Not All-Stars

Tuesday, Feb. 13: Sacramento at Dallas, 8:30 p.m. ET

The race to be worst NBA defense has added a third team. No longer are the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Sacramento Kings the worst team per defensive rating. That title belongs to the Phoenix Suns!

The Kings were one of the stranger teams in the league. While they are stacked with young players, they were in a gray area with a roster of older veterans who were important to their team’s success. But the two can’t coexist when your goals don’t match. George Hill, their veteran point guard, went games without leaving an impact — at times you could forget he was even on the floor. Now that the Kings shipped him to Cleveland, Hill will have a postseason to play for and a role that will allow him to feed off LeBron James. His injury history may affect his ability to defend as well as he used to, but when you’re replacing Isaiah Thomas, any change is improvement.

In exchange for Hill, the Kings got Iman Shumpert. The Kings’ newest addition won’t change the fortune of the franchise, of course, but he does bring veteran leadership and athleticism to the wing, something every team can’t have enough of.

The Mavericks are embracing the tank. They sat Harrison Barnes and Wesley Matthews in the fourth quarter against the Lakers for the sake of losing games, though they wound up winning the game. The Mavs won’t say they’re tanking, but their youth movement is a step in the lottery direction for a season long lost.