The dust has mostly settled on this year's free agency, with many of the biggest names already latching on to their respective teams for the 2024-25 season. LeBron James, the biggest free agent left on the board entering Wednesday morning, finally signed his much-awaited new contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, further taking away from what has become an increasingly depleted free-agent class. But one name still stands tall among the rest, with there being plenty of uncertainty regarding which team DeMar DeRozan will be playing for come next season.

DeRozan, whose time with the Chicago Bulls is done and dusted, is yet to find a new home; coming off a season in which he averaged 24-4-5, DeRozan definitely deserves a contract worth around the $25-$30 million mark per year. However, with the 34-year old guard looking to join a contending team, his options dwindled quickly. But in the eleventh hour, there could be a suitor who swoops in for him out of left field in the Sacramento Kings.

The Kings, per Marc Spears of ESPN via K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago, have reportedly emerged as a “dark horse” candidate to sign DeMar DeRozan in free agency.

“(The Kings) are a dark horse to get (DeMar) DeRozan … The Kings will be back in the postseason next year, they got a move coming soon,” Spears said as he speculated on which team would make a move next on the ESPN's NBA Today show.

It will be interesting to see how the Kings pull off the signing of DeMar DeRozan, if, indeed, they end up being the team that acquires his services. They are currently above the salary cap as presently constructed, which means that DeRozan will either have to sign for the non-taxpayer mid-level exception (which he reportedly has no intention of doing) or the Bulls will have to facilitate a sign-and-trade.

Building a potential Kings sign-and-trade offer for DeMar DeRozan

The Kings have sort of hit a snag in their roster-building process as they have failed to make the acquisitions to help keep in step with the other strong teams in the Western Conference. Adding DeMar DeRozan could give them some additional scoring punch as well as crunch-time production, and it's not like the Bulls should get much of anything in a sign-and-trade.

As for salary-matching purposes, the Kings should not find it too difficult to send out a player towards the Bulls. They could either build an offer around Harrison Barnes or Kevin Huerter while adding some draft capital; the only question now is, which player do the Kings prefer to give up in a trade?

Barnes may be one of the most uninspiring players in the association, as he doesn't do anything on the court at a particularly elite level. His scoring numbers went down last season after signing a new deal with the Kings, and at 32 years of age, Barnes should be in physical decline, which means that his production is unlikely to get any better.

However, Barnes has the prototypical size for a combo forward that teams with contending aspirations need. At 6'8, he can hang with bigger wings as well as quicker ballhandlers on the perimeter. They may have added Jalen McDaniels to get some additional wing depth, but Barnes is far and away the better player than McDaniels.

Thus, even with Barnes' production not exactly matching his cost, it may be wiser for the Kings to dangle Kevin Huerter instead. While losing Huerter's gravity on the perimeter as well as his underrated playmaking will hurt, bringing DeMar DeRozan in would mean that Huerter won't have as much playing time anyway, what with him being a nominal shooting guard.

Huerter and, perhaps, a heavily protected first-round pick should get a trade done on the Kings' end.

Assessing DeRozan's fit alongside Domantas Sabonis and De'Aaron Fox

DeMar DeRozan has always been a tricky player to fit alongside other stars due to his ball-dominant nature as well as his below-average three-point shooting. A team has to be tailor-made to his strengths for them to succeed.

But De'Aaron Fox has become a much-better three-point shooter, and Domantas Sabonis' ability to get the ball to where it needs to be as the lead conductor of the Kings' motion-based offense should make life that much easier for DeRozan than it was for him on the Bulls.

DeRozan also gives the Kings a pop of secondary playmaking that they don't exactly have on the roster. Adding the 34-year old will come at a cost, but that cost shouldn't be too prohibitive in terms of risk to reward ratio.