NBA Trade Grades: Atlanta Hawks reacquire Dewayne Dedmon, send out Jabari Parker

NBA Trade Grades: Sacramento Kings

The Sacramento Kings move on from the Dewayne Dedmon experience and will attempt to move on with well-traveled Jabari Parker and rotational big Alex Len in tow.

Well, eventually they will move on with Parker and Len. Both players are nicked up. Parker hasn’t played since a 15-minute stint on Jan. 3 and missed 19 of Atlanta’s last 20 games because of a right shoulder impingement. Sarah Spencer of the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Tuesday Parker was going to miss at least another week.

Len, meanwhile, has only played in two games since Jan. 12 and is expected to be out for a bit longer with a strained hip flexor. Spencer reported on Jan. 31 that Len was expected to be out at least another seven to 10 days, which would put his window for a return between Friday and Monday.

Parker had been what he’s been for most of his career and what he proved to be last season with both the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards — an effective scorer as either a starter or reserve who won’t provide much of anything at the defensive end or on the glass.

In 32 games, 23 of them starts, this season, Parker was averaging 15.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 26.2 minutes per game, shooting 50.4 percent overall even as he shot just 27.0 percent on 3.6 3-point tries a night.

For his career, Parker averages 15.1 points and 5.8 boards a game so. Parker turns 25 on March 15, but after tearing his left ACL twice in his first three seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks, it’s possible the former No. 2 overall pick is what he’s going to be at this point.

As for Len, he was unleashed by Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce last season, launching 204 3-point attempts in 77 games after taking only 25 in his first five NBA seasons with the Phoenix Suns. Len, the fifth overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, had a career year in 2018-19, averaging 11.1 points and 5.5 rebounds in 20.1 minutes per game.

Len shot 49.4 percent overall and 36.3 percent from 3-point land.

This season, he’s been more of an inside presence, getting 69.3 percent of his looks — a career-high — from the restricted area. His minutes have dropped to just 18.6 per game and he’s putting up 8.7 points and 5.8 rebounds on 54.6 percent shooting, but has made 25.0 percent on 1.4 deep balls per night.

Len is not a player who is likely to move the dial at this point, but he’s also not likely to create a lot of turbulence in the locker room or in the media.

Parker, meanwhile, may find his value directly linked to the health status of Marvin Bagley III, the second-year big who has played in just 13 games this season due to thumb and foot problems.

The longer Bagley is sidelined, the more valuable Parker could be. Bagley has played in just four games since Dec. 26 because of a sprained left foot and according to James Ham of NBC Sports California will be out at least another two weeks after a visit last week to a foot specialist.

On the season, Bagley has played in just 13 games in another season that appears to be picking up speed as it circles down the drain for Sacramento. The Kings are 19-31, 13th in the Western Conference and have fallen 6½ games behind the red-hot Memphis Grizzlies, currently occupying the eighth spot, in the playoff hunt.

Without another trade, the Kings will also have to trim someone from their roster, which will be at 16 players once this deal is finalized. The most likely candidate is undrafted rookie Eric Mika, who signed a 10-day contract on Saturday

Mika, who played the last two seasons in Europe, signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Kings last summer and wound up with their Stockton affiliate in the G League. Mika left the Stockton Kings in November to sign with Xinjiang Guanghui in China before returning to the G League club on Jan. 4.

So this deal has just a bit of that rearranging of deck chairs on the Titanic feel to it.

Grade: C