NBA Power Rankings: Everything revolves around LeBron James

The Kings were active at the trade deadline this year, sending George Hill to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Iman Shumpert and Joe Johnson. The Kings reached an agreement with Johnson, buying out the remainder of his contract, and waived the No. 13 pick of the 2016 draft, Georgios Papagiannis. They also traded the No. 22 pick from the 2016 draft, Malachi Richardson, to the Toronto Raptors for Bruno Caboclo. While it was nice to get off of Hill’s contract, and provide more minutes for De’Aaron Fox, it is curious as to why the Kings ever offered Hill a contract in free agency in the first place. If anything, he actively hurt their ability to secure a top-5 pick.

The Kings did manage to defeat the Bulls in their first game this week, rallying after scoring just nine points in the first quarter. They continued a season-long trend of allowing teams to score from the perimeter however, with Damian Lillard scoring 50 points in three quarters in a 118-100 loss. They played better than usual in their final game of the week, with their reserves chipping in 41 points, but they couldn’t hold off the Timberwolves late, losing 111-106.