Kings trade grade for 3-team De'Aaron Fox-Zach LaVine blockbuster
Yesterday at 09:48 PM
Another former Chicago Bulls star is headed to the Sacramento Kings, with Zach LaVine joining his former Windy City teammate DeMar DeRozan.
This comes after a blockbuster three-team trade in the NBA, with Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis switching places following a Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Lakers swap (that also involved the Utah Jazz) that has since been sending shockwaves across the basketball realm.
The Kings are acquiring LaVine, Sidy Cissoko, three first-round picks (2025 Charlotte Hornets, 2027 San Antonio Spurs, 2031 Minnesota Timberwolves), and three second-round picks (2025 Chicago, 2028 Denver Nuggets, 2028 own back), according to Shams Charania of ESPN. Meanwhile, the Spurs are getting guards De’Aaron Fox and Jordan McLaughlin from the Kings. As for the Bulls, they are receiving Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter, and their own 2025 pick via the Spurs.
Kings trade grade after acquiring Zach LaVine, others
Unlike the Doncic-Davis trade, the main figures of this deal between the Kings, Bulls and Spurs had long been expected by many to get sent out of their respective teams long before the actual transactions went down. Fox declined a three-year extension with the Kings in 2023 and his chances of him signing an extension in the summer with Sacramento were already being doubted seriously. On the Fox front, it was really just a matter of time and how much in return the Kings would get in such a trade.
The former Kentucky Wildcats star still only has a year left on his current deal after this season. LaVine, on the other hand, also has one more guaranteed year on his contract after the 2024-25 campaign, as he has a player option worth $48.96 million in 2026-27.
Getting LaVine doesn’t make the Kings an instant powerhouse in the NBA — or in the Western Conference. While he can provide the same — if not more — scoring for Sacramento as Fox used to, he’s also less of a table-setter than Fox.
On the season, LaVine is averaging 24.0 points and 4.5 assists per game while Fox is putting up 25.0 points and dishing out 6.1 dimes per contest. However, LaVine comes across as a more efficient scorer with his 60.7 effective field goal percentage and 63.7 true shooting percentage. Fox, meanwhile, has a subpar 52.1 effective field percentage to go with a 56.7 true shooting percentage. With all that said, it’s not hard to see the Kings taking a noticeable bump in their offense with LaVine helping out the likes of DeRozan, Domantas Sabonis and Keegan Murray.
The three first-round picks can generate some hope (and excitement) for the Kings’ future, as they now move on from Fox. However, the first-round pick from Charlotte is top-14 protected, and as noted by Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, that is unlikely to convey given the kind of season the Hornets are having. As of this writing, the Hornets only have 12 wins through their first 46 games in the 2024-25 NBA campaign.
“A few team folks are pointing this out to me: Charlotte’s 2025 first-round pick that Sacramento is landing from San Antonio is top-14 protected — essentially guaranteed won’t convey, and will instead become 2026 and 2027 CHA seconds. Kings *really* got back two firsts,” Fischer shared on X (formerly Twitter) following the trade on Sunday.
But Sacramento is likely aware of that and still decided to push through with the trade. Concluding their saga with Fox and having a top-notch scorer in LaVine plus landing a bunch of draft picks seem enough for the Kings.
Final trade grade: B-
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