The Sacramento Kings have gone through perhaps one of their roughest stretches as a franchise before finally breaking the playoff curse this past season. After a 16-year drought, the Kings lit up the beam on their way to the third seed in the Western Conference. Sacramento gave the then-defending champion Golden State Warriors all they can handle, taking Stephen Curry and co. to a Game 7. Though they lost Game 7 at home thanks to a Steph Curry masterclass, De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and the Kings still had a magnificent 2022-23 campaign.
Sacramento will look to build on that special season and take it up a notch in the 2023-24 season. Nonetheless, it's hard to believe that this turnaround began with a trade. With that said, here are the eight best trades in Sacramento Kings history.
8. Wayman Tisdale
The Kings acquired Wayman Tisdale at the trade deadline of the 1989 season after spending the first three-plus years of his career with the Indiana Pacers. Tisdale had been overshadowed by the emergence of Rik Smits and the Pacers opted to trade their 1985 No. 2 overall pick.
Tisdale did not waste any time making an impact for Sacramento. Through the second half of the 1988-89 campaign, Tisdale averaged 19.8 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. He emerged as 20-point scorer through the next couple of years and went on to play with the Kings until 1994. As a King, he averaged 18.4 points and 7.2 rebounds in 370 games with the franchise.
7. Doug Christie
The Kings acquired Doug Christie from the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Corliss Williamson in the summer of 2000. Kings fans instantly fell in love with the shooting guard due to the tenacity he brought on the defensive side of the floor. Christie also became a vital source of veteran leadership and his guidance helped in giving Sacramento a calming presence on the floor.
Christie became one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA during his time in Sacramento and he certainly anchored the Kings defense. He was often tasked to guard the opposing team's best perimeter players and he had several intense battles against Kobe Bryant during the Kings' playoff matchups against the Los Angeles Lakers. While they never won a title, Christie was still one of the most well-known players in Kings history.
To this day, it's clear just how much being in SacTown meant to the former NBA vet. Christie returned to the Kings organization in 2018 and served as the team's color commentator for NBC Sports. He later joined Sacramento's coaching staff as an assistant in 2021.
6. Brad Miller
With starting center Vlade Divac starting to slow down, the Kings looked to acquire a long-term solution at center. In came Brad Miller. Technically, this was a trade as Miller arrived in Sacramento via sign-and-trade with the Indiana Pacers. They sent Scot Pollard to Indiana and Hedo Turkoglu to the San Antonio Spurs as part of the three-team pact.
Miller had just come off an All-Star campaign in Indy, and he originally wanted to stay. But the seven-year, $68 million contract he received was just too much to pass up. A natural center, Miller played power forward in his first season in Sacramento with Divac still starting. But he still thrived in that role and actually earned his second straight All-Star selection. He turned in averages of 14.1 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 4.3 assists while helping the Kings finish with a 55-27 record, good for fourth in the Western Conference.
Miller quickly established himself as a fan favorite in Sacramento due to his fun playing style that was ahead of his time. Kings fans surely consider Brad Miller as one of the most beloved players in franchise history.
5. Ron Artest
The Kings traded beloved star Peja Stojakovic and brought in an absolute wildcard in Ron Artest (now known as Metta Sandiford-Artest) from the Indiana Pacers. There were definitely a ton of risks for the Kings in this deal, given that Artest was just involved in the infamous Malice in the Palace in Detroit just a year ago.
While many had negative perceptions about Artest due to the incident, the Kings saw the trade as an opportunity to bring in a defensive stud who they believed could improve their overall team dynamic. He may have entered with a bad reputation, but he instantly established rapport with his new teammates and then-head coach Rick Adelman. The 6-foot-7 forward brought immediate results, steering the team to 14-5 stretch upon his arrival. Artest breathed new life into the team as Sacramento went above .500 and made the playoffs as an 8th seed.
Though his stint was short, the trade for Ron Artest deserves to be on this list of best Kings trades in franchise history.
4. Mitch Richmond
The Kings acquired Mitch Richmond from the Golden State Warriors in exchange for the draft rights to Billy Owens. Richmond was already an established star and gave the Kings arguably their best franchise cornerstone at the time since they moved to California.
The Kings were looking to bolster their roster with a star player and Richmond fit the bill. He came off three straight seasons in Golden State where he averaged at least 22 points per game and he only continued to blossom wearing a Kings uniform. With Sacramento, Richmond became a perennial All-Star, earning the nod for six straight seasons (1993 to 1996). He even won All-Star Game MVP in 1995.
Though he was only able to lead the team to just one postseason appearance, Richmond remains one of the more memorable players in Kings franchise history. His No. 2 jersey hangs in the rafters of the Golden 1 Center.
3. Domantas Sabonis
When the Kings traded a rising gem in Tyrese Haliburton in exchange for Domantas Sabonis from the Indiana Pacers, NBA fans on Twitter almost lost their collective minds. It did not make sense at the time because everybody knew how good Haliburton would turn out to be. And he's proven that when he finally got the chance to be the main man on his own team in Indiana.
Needless to say, this trade aged like fine wine for the Kings. When the trade went down, many people turned a blind eye to the fact that Sabonis was already an All-Star caliber player at the time. He was already a nightly double-double threat in Indiana and was rounding out as one of the most well-rounded big men in the NBA.
That's why when he arrived to Sacramento, Sabonis did not waste time to make an impact. In his first full season in SacTown, Sabonis led the league in rebounds during the regular season, made the All-Star team once again, and earned Third Team All-NBA honors. The 6-foot-11 center, along with his running mate De'Aaron Fox, led the Kings to the third seed in the Western Conference. They broke their 16-year playoff drought and gave the Warriors a ton of problems in the first round.
Once seen as a horrendous deal, this trade is quickly rounding into one of the best trades in Kings history.
2. Mike Bibby
While the player the Kings traded for at the No. 1 spot on this list is the foundational piece that made the Kings a perennial playoff team, trading for Mike Bibby pushed them to becoming legitimate title contenders.
With Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Doug Christie, and a flashy point guard in Jason Williams facilitating, the Kings made the playoffs three straight year. However, each time, they failed to make it past the second round. Williams became a fan favorite in SacTown due to his circus-like handle and passing skills. But these “circus-like” skills weren't the winning brand of basketball that they needed as he often made poor decisions and these became costly.
With that, the organization had to make the difficult decision of parting ways with White Chocolate, even if it meant disappointing the fanbase for a while. In came Mike Bibby from the (then) Vancouver Grizzlies. Bibby wasn't as flashy as Williams. But he was as steady as they came. And his steady hand was what Sacramento needed to push the current construction of their roster to title contender status. Therefore, this deserves a spot in this list of best Kings trades in franchise history.
1. Chris Webber
Yeah, this is a no-brainer. Chris Webber was the cornerstone that anchored the best era in franchise history so far. And they had to trade a long-time franchise star in Mitch Richmond to do so.
It was a risky move at first, because Webber's time with the Golden State Warriors and the Washington Wizards didn't particularly pan out that well. Being a franchise that had only made the postseason twice since moving from Kansas City, there plenty of reason to believe things wouldn't work out as well. Webber wasn't particularly fond of the move to Sacramento either. But little did he know he would have the best stretch of his career in SacTown. In the same way, he would lead them to the franchise's best stretch in its history.
Webber led the Kinigs to within one win away from going to the 2002 NBA Finals. If not for some dubious officiating during their Western Conference Finals clash against the Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento would have already become a city of champions.
Unfortunately, Sacramento was never able to recover from that devastating loss in 2002. Webber suffered a career-threatening injury in the following year's playoffs, killing the Kings' chances of competing for a title. Then, they lost a deciding Game 7 in the second round of the 2004 to the Minnesota Timberwolves after Webber's game-tying attempt circled around the rim.
Nonetheless, despite the playoff heartbreaks, this remains the best era in franchise history. None of that would have happened if the Kings did not trade for Chris Webber.
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