NBA Free Agency Grades: Sacramento Kings
Signings: Malik Monk (2 years, $19.42 million); KZ Okpala (2 years)
Trades: Justin Holiday, Maurice Harkless, first-round pick to Atlanta Hawks for Kevin Huerter
The Sacramento Kings are pushing chips into the middle of the table to make a push into the playoffs. Stop me if you’ve heard that before. This year’s version of the Kings is building on the Domantas Sabonis trade at last season’ deadline to try and make it out of the lottery for the first time in nearly two decades.
The contract for Malik Monk is absolutely fair value for the former Charlotte Hornets guard who revived his career with the Los Angeles Lakers last season; he and the Kings’ starting point guard De’Aaron Fox played together at Kentucky before both going in the lottery of the 2017 NBA Draft. The problem is that the Kings already had a surplus of guards.
What makes it even more confusing is that the Kings then traded a future first-round pick and two solid 3-and-D wings for another defensively-challenged shooting guard in Kevin Huerter. Again the value for Huerter in a vacuum was fine; in the team-building context of the Kings, it seems nearly inexplicable. After Harrison Barnes and Keegan Murray who do the Kings have at forward? KZ Okpala and Trey Lyles? The theory for the Kings is, yet again, severely lacking.
Grade: C-