The Sacramento Kings shocked the basketball world last February when they decided to pull the trigger on a blockbuster deal sending the highly-touted Tyrese Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for Domantas Sabonis. The general belief was that Haliburton was part of Sacramento's young core and that he would be around for a long time. Well, as we all learned in jaw-dropping fashion, this just was not the case.

Kings rookie Davion Mitchell appears to have some insight with regard to the Haliburton trade. The 23-year-old recently talked about how he fits in with Sacramento amid what has been an eye-opening debut campaign for him. Apparently, Mitchell already had a sense early on that either he, De'Aaron Fox, or Haliburton was eventually going to get traded:

“At first, you look at it when you get to the draft, they drafted you because they think it can happen,” Mitchell said, via Ali Thanwalla of NBC Sports. “Throughout the season, I think all of us are guys who kind of need the ball to impact the game. For me, it's a defensive thing too. But at the offensive end, I'm not a guy who can run off pin-downs and spot up and shoot, it's more off ball-screens, just like De'Aaron Fox, just like Tyrese Haliburton.

“But you got to think there's only one ball out there and none of us are really guys who catch and shoot. Tyrese can and De'Aaron can from time to time but it's not what we're comfortable doing. So I think at some point, you had to realize one of us got to go, just because we've got to get something else, a guy who can score … also make plays but not ball-dominant like us three guards are.”

Mithcell makes a lot of sense here. There are a lot of similarities between the games of these three young guards and apparently, it was Haliburton that turned out to be the odd man out. Now with the benefit of hindsight, this could provide some insight as to why the Kings drafted Mitchell in the first place. They knew what Mitchell brought to the table as well as the similarity of his game with that of Haliburton and Fox. Perhaps Sacramento knew all along that they were going to trade Haliburton?

Now that Tyrese is out of the picture, it's Fox and Mitchell who are expected to be the core of the Kings' backcourt of the future. Interim head coach Alvin Gentry talked about how these two players have gotten along so well. Fox is just 24 but he's already playing the role of a mentor for Mitchell:

“It's been great,” Gentry said. “De'Aaron's been around the whole time. Obviously, he's not playing right now but he's still an integral part of what we're doing because I think those guys understand the type of player he is and he's willing to try to help and try to help these guys grow and I think that's really important.”

Gentry had nothing but high praise for Davion Mitchell who's shown a work ethic that is second to none. As a matter of fact, the 67-year-old shot-caller believes that the young rookie is pushing himself too hard at times:

“Like I said, everybody gets up here and says ‘He's the hardest worker I ever coached,'” Gentry said. “He is the hardest worker that I have ever coached and you almost have to protect him from himself because he'll be there every day before practice, every day after practice and come back at night. He's got to learn to come some of it off because of the minutes that he's playing.”

This can only be a good thing, right? There have been some ups and downs throughout Mitchell's rookie season, but all in all, coach Gentry is more than happy with his development:

“Davion's been put in a situation where he has become our primary ballhandler for 35 to 43 minutes a game, and so I think he has had his growing pains but he's also been in a situation where he has to make decisions and things like that,” Gentry said. “The way you grow in this league is you go through those, you're successful in some and you fail in some areas. But as long as you're learning, which I think Davion has done a great job with that.”

It has been another forgettable year for Sacramento but what you cannot deny is that the future is bright for this franchise.