The Sacramento Kings are unique among the teams traditionally looking for commercial superstars. In general, the right course after your best player requests to leave is to start a reconstruction. It is a kind of common sense tactic. If it weren’t good enough to win at a pace that could convince that player to stay, what are the chances of doing better after they have gone? This is part of why commercial packages for players such as De’aaron Fox are generally based on draft selections. The idea is that the team that lands the star improves now, and then the team that gives that player harves the benefits later.
If the Kings operated optimally from the perspective of the championship’s equity, that is probably the approach they would take. Get a tour for Fox. Domanta Sabonis near the peak of its value. See what there is Demarzan and Malik Monk. Clean the covers, make some lottery selections and then try to return to the playoff mixture for a few years. But Sacramento is not a normal team. The Kings have reached the playoffs once since 2006. This is not a team or a fan base that will support a total tank after trying success for the first time in almost two decades. Even if they could, do you really trust the kings to get one good?
As expected, this means that Sacramento wants to win again for Fox, according to Shams Charania de ESPN. This raises a problem for Fox’s favorite destination, the San Antonio Spurs. San Antonio is perfectly equipped to make a standard stars trade. They have more draft selections than they know what to do and an impressive collection of young perspectives headed by the general selection of number 4 Stephon Castle. They are in good shape to help someone rebuild. But to help them win now? That is a more difficult sale. Even with Victor Wembanyama instead, San Antonio is a Sub-500 team.
Therefore, if Fox will reach the Spurs, since he waits, we will need a third team to close this gap. Fortunately, there is a sensible one who looks at us. Ladies and gentlemen, I can introduce the Atlanta Hawks.
Why the hawks make sense
If there is a single team in all the basketball that should want access to the assets of San Antonio, it is Atlanta. The Spurs control the next three selections of the first round of the Hawks thanks to the unfortunate acquisition of Iunte Murray of Atlanta some summers. As the Nets showed us last summer, the teams do not value the first round selections more than their own because those are the only selections whose value a team has some degree of control. For Atlanta, these San Antonio teams currently have the key to a reconstruction. They simply have nothing attractive enough to convince the Spurs to deliver. But now, the Kings could … if the Hawks have something that Sacramento wants bad enough in return.
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It is at this point that I would like to remind you, reader, who brings Young, as De’aaron Fox, is scheduled for the free agency of 2026. You could be forgiven for not knowing that. Unlike Fox, speculation about Young’s future has been minimal this season. There have been very few reports in this direction. We do not know, for now, how excited Young is about a possible future in Atlanta, nor do we know how anxious are the Hawks to pay young people the maximum contract that will surely seek.
If the two parties here want to stay together in the long term? This conversation ends before it begins. However, we should point out that Hawks explored young trades during the low season.
“The simple fact is that if there were a real market for Draw Young, it would be somewhere else at this time,” said ESPN Macmahon about The ring collective Podcast during the summer.
Atlanta finally chose to treat Dejunte Murray and received a significant tour for him: two first round teams and defense candidate Dyson Daniels. Daniels is eligible for extension after the season. Jalen Johnson has already received his long -term agreement. The Hawks will be expensive even with a general selection No. 1 controlled in Zaccharie Risacher.
Maybe Atlanta is willing to pay to stay young. He is the only shooting creator consisting of the list. But despite some very high maximums, Hawks are only 22-25 years in the season. They are overcoming during Young’s minutes and have never been able to defend themselves at a high level with him on the court. This group has a lot of space for internal improvement. He is very young and greatly athletic. But if the hawks see a roof here, Sacramento presents a rare opportunity to pivot. Atlanta could not find a commercial partner for Young the last season low in part because the demand for high -use guards who has never defended has never been less. Sacramento needs that player badly if he is renouncing Fox and plans to try to continue winning.
The Post-Young’s direction would be a bit muddy. They would never write down any point with the rest of this current list, simply and plain. Hawks have averaged 101 pathetic points per 100 possessions when Young is out of the floor this season. Young’s game is what makes alignments with very little offensively viable shots. But if Hawks can obtain control of their San Antonio teams, there would be a benefit for short -term loss. Atlanta’s defense would probably also be great. It is allowing 107.8 points per 100 possessions in the minutes not fucked this season, which would be just a tone under the clippers No. 2 in the season.
There would be huge growth pain if the Hawks put the ball in the hands of Johnson and Daniels and Risacher next season, but doing so could give a significant fruit in the future, just look at what has done a season of unusually high use by Jaren Jackson Jr . Next year or two could, in summary, dedicate themselves to the development of young people who are already in their place and add it with their own Draft teams, in addition to anything else they could extract from San Antonio.
What is for the kings?
Sacramento’s adjustment is complicated at some levels. Would young people want to sign there again? Fox no, but Fox’s stock in the league is much higher. Case in question: practically all information Around the availability of Young last year he declared that San Antonio was not interested. Fox can afford to be borning. He knows that he has a maximum contract in 2026 and is apparently trying to position himself to obtain one while he continues to compete for championships. Would Young reject a maximum contract if one is offered? Do you have better options in the open market?
The fate of the free agent with an obvious attraction for him would be Miami, which according to the reports is accumulating the space of the 2026 cover, since he looks for a Jimmy Butler trade. But Young and Tyler Herro are not viable together defensively. Would you really maximize young people with a herro thriving in a similar role? Would they change to Herro? Los Angeles teams could also have a capitalization space 2026, but both come with warnings. The clippers have reoriented around the defense and simply refused to maximize Paul George. Excavating Young would be a complete 180 in the direction that now works for them. The Lakers do not have a guide philosophy beyond “obtaining famous players”, but without knowing where they will be as a team by then, making any prediction about their plans feel premature. Lakers, like spurs, have reportedly He showed little interest in Young in the past. There is probably a maximum contract somewhere for Young, either with the Hawks or other team. But if you can obtain certainty of the kings in this type of treatment, well, there is value in that.
Young’s basketball in Sacramento is also doubtful. He has spent his entire Atlanta career throwing lobs to the tire centers. I would have to develop a new type of pick-And-vol game to combine with Sabonis. Droan is still in place. Neither You nor Young are a great 3 -point shooter, although for young people, part of their low percentage is the degree of difficulty for the shots it takes. There is not as much overlap between the two as between Fox and Derozan, but we only saw the Hawks try to play more from the ball when they landed in Murray. It did not work. Could the Kings, with a star pin in Sabonis, turn Young into the weapon outside the ball that is capable of being? They would have to do it because a defense with both of them would fight a lot.
This is a scheme, not a complete box office success. At least as regards the perception of the entire league, the falling value of Fox to Young is significant. Sacramento would like more, probably at least one of the best young people in San Antonio. Stephon’s castle is probably out of the table. Could Jeremy Sochan from the Spurs away? It would reduce a lot to solve the defensive problems that would create a pairing of young Sabonís. Atlanta probably also needs a player value here. At least, they need some creation of shots of the guard points. Tre Jones could be a decent owner for them. They would probably prefer Malik Monk’s shooting, but the Kings are already renouncing the best player in the deal. They will not be eager to sacrifice more of their list when their goal is to continue winning. The Spurs will pay a lot to get Fox, but they will have limits. After all, they can sign Fox in the free agency of 2026. They will not pay a premium to make sure all the parties are happy.
The finest points of the agreement would have to be resolved next week, but the wide blows make sense. If the Kings want talent to win now for Fox, Hawks have one of the few points of available points that could match their production. Spurs have the specific assets that Atlanta probably wants more than any other. And Fox could obtain the association of his dreams with Wembanyama, preparing San Antonio for the containment of the championship in the near future. There are questions for the three parties, and the Kings would need guarantees that Young would extend, but these are three parts with the ability to give us what they want. That is a starting point as good as any other for an agreement of this magnitude.
