According to multiple reports, the Sacramento Kings are emerging as realistic suitors to trade for Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam.
The first batch of rumors emerged Friday morning with a report from Yahoo! Sports Jake Fischer, one of the most trustworthy insiders across the league. In his report, Fischer mentioned the Kings, the Indiana Pacers, and the Detroit Pistons, (yes, those Detroit Pistons) as the primary suitors for Siakam in the market.
“Atlanta was once considered the most aggressive suitor for Siakam’s services, holding serious conversations with Toronto last offseason, sources said. But the chatter among NBA executives surrounding Siakam’s potential landing spots has now centered on Indiana, Sacramento and Detroit.”
Later in the piece, Fischer described Kings as perhaps the best chance at making a real offer for Siakam, although he reassured fans that Keegan Murray is not currently on the table in discussions. However, Harrison Barnes, Kevin Huerter, and Davion Mitchell are all on the block, three players whose contracts happen to match the needed outgoing salary for Siakam and who are also wildly under performing in Sacramento.
In addition to Fischer’s bit of insider news, the Kings were also mentioned as a Siakam destination by The Athletic’s Shams Charania. In his video, he shared that the Raptors are ramping up trade talks for Siakam, and “the Sacramento Kings are emerging as a serious suitor in Siakam. They’re among the offers and options that Toronto has, and this is gaining interest for Sacramento…”.
With both of these reports emerging just hours apart, and with both coming from two of the most trusted names in the business, it seems as if the Kings truly do have some traction in a trade for the All-NBA forward, although these deals are always questionable until the final trade call has been made to the league. From a purely transactional point of view, if Keegan Murray is off of the table, which seems almost certain, the Kings will likely try to leverage future draft picks as the main asset in a potential trade.
Currently, Sacramento owes its lottery-protected 2024 first rounder to the Atlanta Hawks, with protections that continue through 2026 if the pick doesn’t convey. That would normally prohibit the Kings from trading a first rounder until at least 2028, due to the Stepien rule, which prohibits teams from trading consecutive first rounders; however there are a couple of workarounds for both the Kings and Raptors. First, the teams could write in specific language in an “if, then” format to cover the Raptors for a sooner-to-be-traded first rounder. For example, because the Kings are likely to convey their first rounder to Atlanta in 2024, the language could be included that if the 2024 pick is conveyed to Atlanta, the Raptors receive the next available first rounder, which would be 2026.
Another pathway, and one that’s much simpler, would be for the Kings to contact the Hawks and to request all protections to be removed from the owed 2024 first rounder. There would be little risk in such a move, as Sacramento is more than likely going to make the playoffs, thus transferring a non-lottery first rounder to Atlanta anyway, and it would completely free up the 2026 first rounder for the Kings to not only trade, but also to apply protections to, such as lottery protection that decreases over a number of seasons. This is likely the path all teams would pursue if a deal was consummated, although Kings fans should not expect any sort of real asset back from the Hawks, as they’re the ones technically doing Sacramento a favor.
Assuming that draft compensation is agreed upon, whether they be picks, swaps, or both, there is also the matter of salary-matching, as both teams are above the salary cap. Siakam currently makes just under $38 million, which is a whole lot more than anyone not named De’Aaron Fox or Domantas Sabonis makes for the Kings. To start, in a realistic deal, one of Kevin Huerter or Harrison Barnes would certainly need to be included, and it can be reasonably assumed that Davion Mitchell would also be sent off in a trade, Huerter or Barnes and Mitchell come between $10 and $12 million short to make the transaction work. The Kings could either throw in two lower-salary players, such as Sasha Vezenkov/Trey Lyles and Chris Duarte, or they could simplify matters and include both Huerter and Barnes, which feels much easier from a player ratio transaction. A three-for-one deal is much easier than a four-for-one trade. The final swap would likely be Huerter, Barnes, Mitchell, and whatever draft compensation was agreed to between the organizations.
The final piece of the puzzle, and one that’s much harder to asses than CBA-dictated trade rules, is Pascal Siakam’s current contract situation. He’s an expiring salary of almost $38 million, but teams don’t trade for players of Siakam’s value for future cap space. The goal would be to re-sign Siakam to a maximum or near-max deal this summer, solidifying Sacramento’s big three-and-a-half for the near and far future. With Pascal turning 30 this year, Sacramento’s window as a contender would be both accelerated and perhaps a little shortened, depending on how Siakam holds up over the next five years, and that’s assuming he would re-sign in the first place, although those conversations would likely take place before a deal was actually completed.
There is little doubt that Monte McNair and the front office are in conversations around Pascal Siakam, and this group has shown their willingness to take risks and make flashy deals in the past, but the Kings are also strict evaluators in player valuation, and they’ve shown time and again that they will not overpay or be bullied into giving up more than makes them comfortable. The coming days will be fascinating to see whether or not the Kings spend quite a few assets to make a push to climb up the Western Conference ladder.
