The Sacramento Kings made their big offseason addition on Saturday coming to terms with DeMar DeRozan in NBA free agency as per Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report. In order to have the requisite cap space to add DeRozan, the Kings will execute a sign-and-trade deal. DeRozan will give the Kings another scoring threat alongside De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis.
Following the initial news of the agreement, it was revealed that the Kings, Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs will all be involved in the sign-and-trade deal sending DeRozan to the Kings as per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The general framework of the deal will include DeRozan going to the Kings, Harrison Barnes going to the Spurs and Chris Duarte along with two second round picks going to the Bulls. The Bulls will also receive cash while the Spurs receive a 2032 second round pick swap from the Kings.
Adding DeRozan certainly gives the Kings additional offensive firepower and an upgrade in the starting lineup from Barnes. A six-time All-Star, DeMar DeRozan hit unrestricted free agency this offseason with the Kings emerging the past couple of days as the favorite to land him.
This past season, DeRozan appeared in 79 games for the Bulls at a little over 37 minutes per game. He averaged 24.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.1 steals with splits of 48 percent shooting from the field, 33.3 percent shooting from the three-point line and 85.3 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
DeRozan has spent the past three seasons playing for the Bulls. He was originally drafted by the Toronto Raptors with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. He played nine season for the Raptors with four of his six All-Star seasons coming in a Raptors jersey. DeRozan is a California native but from Southern California. He attended Compton High School and played one season of college basketball at USC before declaring for the NBA Draft.
Kings looking for a bounce back season
The Kings appeared to be on track to become one of the Western Conference elite teams following their 2022-23 season. They finished with a top three record in the West playoff picture and pushed the Golden State Warriors to seven games in the first round before being eliminated.
But last season the Kings took a step back. They were out of the playoff picture finishing with the ninth seed in the West. They were in the play-in tournament, knocked out the Golden State Warriors, but lost to the New Orleans Pelicans to miss the postseason.
The Kings hadn't made any major offseason moves to this point, but adding DeMar DeRozan was major acquisition. The Kings didn't even have to give up someone like Keegan Murray in a sign-and-trade. The Kings needed to make a move in order to keep up with the rest of the Western Conference.
As the Kings continued to recruit DeRozan, De'Aaron Fox played a key role in his decision to join the Kings as per Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report. Also per Haynes, DeRozan's contract with the Kings will be for three years and worth $76 million. The first two years are fully guaranteed while the final year has a partial guarantee.
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