De'Aaron Fox trade request gives Kings one obvious reason to blow it up now, not later

A bombshell from ESPN's Shams Charania arrived on Tuesday, noting that the Sacramento Kings are expected to open up trade talks for De'Aaron Fox ahead of February's trade deadline. After rumors earlier this season suggested Fox might not be the happiest man in Sacramento, this didn't come as a huge surprise, even with the Kings playing better lately.

Given Sacramento's willingness to listen to offers for Fox, chances are, a trade will get done sometime within the next week ahead of the deadline. But assuming the Kings find an offer to their liking for the 27-year-old, the organization should not stop there. The Kings should strongly consider blowing up their roster entirely with Fox out of the picture, and there's one obvious reason why.

Subscribe to The Whiteboard, FanSided’s daily email newsletter on everything basketball. If you like The Whiteboard, share it with a friend! If you don’t like it, share it with an enemy!

De'Aaron Fox trade request gives Kings perfect excuse to enter Cooper Flagg sweepstakes

Chances are, regardless of how good the return for Fox is for Sacramento, a deal won't include a player as good or better than the star guard, making the Kings' chances of competing this season that much slimmer. Sacramento's loss to the Sixers on Wednesday dropped the team to 24-23 on the year; if the regular season ended today, they'd be tied for the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference — the last Play-In spot. Their playoff chances aren't great even with Fox, and they'd be even worse without him, no matter who they get back.

Given the simple fact that the playoffs probably aren't likely without Fox, why not consider blowing it up completely? Trading Domantas Sabonis in the second year of a massive five-year deal would sting a ton, obviously, but he'd bring back a massive return that could help the team in the future. Trading a guy like DeMar DeRozan can potentially get them a pick or an intriguing younger talent as well. If Fox is traded, Sacramento won't be winning on their timelines anyway.

The Kings would not only be flush with assets for the future, but would, at least, have a puncher's chance at acquiring one of the most valuable assets in the league right now: the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. That pick would give them the opportunity to select Cooper Flagg, one of the best NBA Draft prospects we've seen in recent memory.

Sacramento has already won 24 games, making it almost certain that they won't end up with the best odds to get Flagg even if they tear everything down. But they don't need the best odds to get the No. 1 overall pick: Just last year, we saw the Atlanta Hawks jump up from the 13th-best odds out of 14 lottery teams all the way to the top spot. That's extremely rare, obviously, but in a mock draft done earlier this season by FanSided's Christopher Kline, the Kings made the leap from low-ish odds to land the No. 1 pick and Flagg.

It wouldn't be likely for the Kings to land Flagg, but it wouldn't be an impossible outcome, especially if they lose a ton of games in the second half of the year. A future with a top pick in a loaded draft class even outside of Flagg, combined with talented young players like Keegan Murray, Devin Carter and Keon Ellis plus more first-round draft capital than they know what to do with sounds a whole lot more exciting than trying to win right now in a loaded Western Conference with Sabonis and the 35-year-old DeRozan leading the way.

It's extremely unlikely that the Kings would even consider blowing it all up before the deadline, but given the alternative and the likelihood that Fox will be gone at some point, they absolutely should, at least when Cooper Flagg is on the line.