USA Today via Reuters
Feb 25, 2021; New York, New York, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) shoots against New York Knicks guard Frank Ntilikina (11) in the first half at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: John Minchillo/POOL PHOTOS-USA TODAY Sports
USA Today via Reuters
Feb 25, 2021; New York, New York, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) shoots against New York Knicks guard Frank Ntilikina (11) in the first half at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: John Minchillo/POOL PHOTOS-USA TODAY Sports
With the NBA trade deadline closing in, teams are engaged in all possible ways to get better. And the Sacramento Kings made their move as they acquired an All-Star from the Indiana Pacers. They traded for Domantas Sabonis and gave away a young Tyrese Haliburton as well as Buddy Hield.
With the Kings giving up such potential, NBA Twitter was not happy with them.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
Both the Pacers and the Sacramento Kings have struggled to make anything happen this season. They are both the 13th seed in the respective conferences. With the season moving quickly towards the play in tournament, it seems like the Kings want to go for a final push. And they did so by signing an NBA All Star Sabonis.
Watch This Story: NBA Players Taller than Lakers Giant Shaquille ONeal
Did Kings give away too much for NBA All-Star?
With only a couple of days left for the trade deadline to close out, the Kings made a bargain and engaged with the Pacers to make a blockbuster trade. In a six-player trade, they sent Hield, Haliburton and Tristan Thompson. In exchange, they received Sabonis, Jeremy Lamb and Justin Holiday to go with a future pick. Twitter was enraged to see this as the Kings gave away huge potential with Haliburton.
While the Kings haven’t made the best of their season, Haliburton was emerging as a star player for them. Not only was he putting up a good offense, but his defensive skills were also a big asset. The former Kings man is putting up 14.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 7.4 assists. While they did receive a great player in return, Haliburton is just 21 years old loads of time to develop.
What a stupendously moronic trade from the kings https://t.co/8cFYq9PMWP
— Rusty Buckets (@RustyBUCKETS321) February 8, 2022
basically it would be a team trading for middle aged players who are losing their prime, and trading their rookies and sophomores that still haven’t seen their prime but are very good.
— Braden Walsh (@BradenWalsh4) February 8, 2022
What are the Kings doing??
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) February 8, 2022
Kings Reddit seems to be doing fine pic.twitter.com/7em6oE9ILx
— Sam McQuillan (@sam_mcquill) February 8, 2022
WHY WOULD THE KINGS TRADE HALI WTF
— Mob (@MobHoops) February 8, 2022
Explain why both teams would do this @CupOfJoeBlack. Salary dumb for Indy? But why acquire Sabonis and get rid of prob your 2nd maybe 3rd best player who’s a rookie
— Zo (@AlexLorenzoCT) February 8, 2022
This trade don’t make sense america. pic.twitter.com/n1axtBZpl1
— DA MT PLUG (@mtplug_grinder) February 8, 2022
Moreover, they also gave away their leading bench scorer with Buddy Hield. The real test will come out with the way things pan out. However, giving up such a young upcoming talent may prove too much for the Kings as they are no competitors at this point of time. They have now lost their leading shooter as well as playmaker in one single trade and have potentially given up their future.
How do you think Sabonis will do with the Kings? Let us know in the comments below.
