Kings make a TRADE! NBA Draft reaction with Sean Cunningham

Kings make a TRADE! NBA Draft reaction with Sean Cunningham

first things first let’s talk about the Kings making a trade today uh with the Toronto Raptors you confirmed and you had the details of this where the Sacramento Kings are sending Sasha Davon the 45th pick today in the draft along with the second round pick next year that was Portlands to Toronto for Jaylen McDaniels who was on an expiring contract what what’s your breakdown what’s your reaction to this move by the Sacramento Kings because I feel like there’s some layers to this yeah I think there’s several layers um you know I think you I I think when you saw what the what they picked yesterday and Devin Carter and you realize kind of the roster makeup you go okay well you got plenty of offseason left to kind of make this all work and and I think people were thinking hey they’re going to make a trade and you know they’re going to make a move then you hear from Monty McNair yesterday and I think some of the comments that he had were you know pretty I think they were pretty um strong in this sense of you kind of got a glimpse into what they’re doing he he wants people to know that hey that’s the first day of the off season where you can really start to change the makeup of your team and uh it’s not the only day um but also that like he had some pretty uh solid comments around Sasha VZ zenov and wanting to necess you know hopefully see him in Sacramento in a way uh acknowledging it that you know anything can happen during an off season so um kind of a long-winded way to say that like you you know less than 24 hours later here you are and Sasha and Davon are heading out to Toronto so you know when this team is they want to be aggressive um I don’t think that I think they’re certainly targeting a few things obviously creating roster space trying you know the aprons and luxury tax and all those things are are tricky to uh navigate and this is kind of the first year they’re really doing that um especially with the way luxury tax and and some of those things come into play the other part of that is you got two players that are a little I don’t want to say disgruntled one probably disgruntled with I mean he wasted as much and I think Davon um would would just kind of be more chocked up to um victim of circumstance and certainly some of the players around him and in the type of style that they want to play and you know he had a little bit of an up and down season last year so um little bit of odd man out scenarios for Sacramento but also the other layer is Sacramento needs to get longer and they didn’t do that last last night even though they have a player in Devin Carter who tends to play bigger than what he is and for people who don’t know I mean you’re talking about a guy with a 610 Wings span at 6’2 and Sean’s giving him another inch and a half but I kind of you know what by by by Sunday I’m be like this guy’s got a 73 wingspan yeah I think I think it’s like 68 and 3/4 but it doesn’t matter he is definitely long for his position position yeah it’s funny because P3 uh down in SoCal they have him at 610 I know the combine had it at 69 and some change so I think P3 is what kind of rounded up so I’ll round up because interesting it’s in the best interest of the player maybe uh yeah but either way I mean this guy tends to rebound like Josh Hart and I think that’s something that they feel can play and translate into the NBA level from especially from college um but more to the point I mean they’re trying to still identify size athleticism and you can argue that you know Jaylen McD had a terrible season and you’d be right cuz he was awful last year uh you just look at those numbers you watch him play it wasn’t good but on the flip side of that like I think most people are levelheaded enough to know there’s still a lot of offseason left and if you’re waiting for another shoe to drop um you you should be because uh you only make a move like that where you’re sending a lot of capital out to hopefully strike while the while the iron is hot and and and be able to capitalize and now you’re what a little over 15 million below or maybe it’s 14 million below the first apron um in terms of luxury tax you’ve got a roster spot that’s open and you your Calculus changes so uh you can kind of see what they’re doing and you know it was kind of neat to see Jaylen Daniel’s uh reaction I don’t know if you guys saw that we saw that it was I felt like was that real do you think he was truly finding out in that moment or was he doing a bit no he was finding out in that moment that’s amazing he might he might have been doing a bit I will say this like I I wanted to see if the video was was kind of true and maybe you know let’s make sure this video one isn’t AI in these days two isn’t something from like a year ago or even six months ago or even a week ago um and yeah to see where he’s kind of working out and doing a little digging uh I posted the the video of where the from The Source where it actually came from and this if you look at his story I mean he’s working out with Jaylen and has a history with Jaylen and um so yeah venture to say that’s pretty pretty legit so we were all under the impression La especially after last night when Devin Carter was drafted that things were going to change tweaks were going to be made and we’re already we saw something happen today which kind of like you said it seems like maybe there’s going to be something bigger that happens in there needs to be but are we thinking the size is going to be like a tier one player are you thinking the size is going to be like tier three like Bobby ttis Obi Topp and St like where where are you feeling like the king’s pulses right now with with what type of player they are looking for well I would I would if it were me and just things that I’ve you know I think there’s a lot of chatter around you know wanting to add as much length as possible I mean I think Monty give you gave you a little Glimpse last night of the type of players they’re looking for I mean obviously two-way player importance is kind of catamount for this team or Paramount for this team so if you can if you can get that um you want to be able to do do it without sacrificing on the other end and you know Jaylen kind of flies a little bit in the face of that because offensively he’s not the most gifted player but certainly athletic and does have some defensive upside but I would say for what they’re looking going forward and you know people ask me a lot like what what’s their area of need and I say all the time a a two-way Wing that can score and likely be at one of their best three players on the team um in addition to maybe a secondary player that’s that’s Rim protection so um to me those are still the biggest areas of need on this team so I would I would categorize it as a tier one I mean I think you go out there and you try to find that tier one player because um clearly this team isn’t good enough and it’s not like you know I kind of used the Knicks as an example the other day because you see what they’re doing and um you know the the the reason that they use five first round picks which I don’t care where they at that that’s a lot for a guy in like Mel Bridges who’s only who’s 28 and hasn’t been an All-Star um but even despite the fact they still have draft picks that are still available to them and they could probably go out and trade the likes of Julius Randall and probably acquire some more draft picks if you contrast that with some team like Washington or New Orleans and I’m talking about Kyle kosman and and Brandon Ingram in this circumstance you know the asks of those players compared to where those teams are are at like are first round picks really that desirable to New Orleans if they’re trying to be a win now team versus Washington where they would love a slew of first round picks because they’re not an equation they’re not in the equation at all so anything’s on the table for them so I think it’s it’s it’s interesting you have a team like New York and New Orleans who are in this win now mode and might be willing to sacrifice whatever to get there yeah I’m really interested to see how this plays out because on the surface I’m looking at the trade and I’m like look you’re giving Sasha a new opportunity it didn’t work out but this was a Miss by this front office right like they they put a lot of resources into trying to get him to come over he came over they thought he was going to be a big part of the team whatever they decide to move on send him to Toronto allow him to get some run Davon a lottery pick when you had Halbert and fox okay you know you’re giving them an opportunity now to go do something I was surprised that they had to attach two seconds to this this deal to to get it done and you get Jaylen McDaniels back you take a flyer on him and yeah maybe he’s on the team he’s got a 4.7 million deal it’s expiring maybe he’s used in another trade so this has to lead to something big I feel like this wasn’t moved just to like hey we just wanted the cap space and uh I want a shot Jaylen McDaniels this has to be because they view something bigger happening this off season yeah I mean I would expect that and and to to that point to say that it’s a Miss on Sasha certainly you know and maybe it got to the point where you know it’s like all right change the scenery whatever um the reality is you know they’re they’re not in a position to really be able to develop and I’m not making excuse for him I do I do think it’s a Miss on their end um but at the same time like if it does lead to something it leads to something if you don’t want to if there’s a guy that doesn’t want to be here you know then maybe it got to a point where you know it it was unsalvageable you heard Monty last night say no you know I think he could be here but you have to trade you have to you know spend money to make money and I think you know to to look at this trade individually it’s the first it’s one of the first times I’m trying to think of others that come to mind maybe where you know I think this front office has been very um cautious I mean they do they have swung for the fences clearly with with the Tyrese halberton move for deis sabonis and I think that certainly benefited both teams if he had to pick a winner like maybe you’d give it to Tyrese halberton because they’ve gone deeper uh into you know theyve they’ve had some more of the success with Indiana it led to Pascal SE yakum I mean they just have some flexibility there and um the Kings fell to ninth in the next year so even though they’re only two wins less but one’s in the East one’s in the west you put Indiana in the west might look a little different but regardless if you want to say that they won they won but typically the kings are the ones getting the better end of this of of Trades that we’ve seen with when in this front office era and I don’t I mean it’s pretty clear right now at least on the surface for this trade they didn’t they’re not getting the best player in the deal that and and I mean you think about two future draft picks as well attached this and I think the thing that I kept pushing back to Duce because Duce is like gosh this seems expensive and I go yeah it seems a little desperate though they’re trying to find a way to shed a guard they have a and shed salary and shed salary and but I lit I think about how they have those how they had eight guards on this roster and like what’s the best way to do that well sometimes maybe you get a little desperate and you have to pay up and do what you need to do even if it means uh giving up a little bit more of your future with with those future draft picks but do you think that’s just kind of the direction the kings are going to have to go when trying to make some of these deals coming up now is just really possibly mortgaging some of their future yeah I mean I think it’s I think it’s every team I don’t think it’s necessarily just Sacramento I think you look at you know if you free up $14 million under the first apron how many teams can say that they’re at that and that’s that’s a that’s kind of a weapon in Your Arsenal that’s something that’s now asset in your bank if you go out and you’re trying to establish your your your roster for next season and I think that really you know it’s important to remind people that it’s like we’re sitting here Midway through the second round of of the NBA draft and we’re still a long long ways off from the from the start of the season so um we’re we’re reactionary we want to you know say who won the trade already and it’s it’s it’s it’s for sure but I I think it’s it’s whether there’s a big splash that’s made uh another you know small Ripple in a pool whatever it is there’s still going to be players that are added to this roster for next season regardless um they have roster spots open there’s plenty of time to to to make moves and you know it doesn’t it doesn’t just have to happen at the draft I always argue that it doesn’t have to happen at the at the trade deadline during the season there’s so many different ways for for teams to get better so I think they I you know what I said last night which is I think you know I think the Kings had a winning night I think they walked away with a winning player um they added to their roster and people are confused like oh what does it all mean and then the next day you’ve got some roster spots that open up and some more confusion that comes out of it it’s like it’s not a finished product yet and I and what this front office will always argue is it never really is it’s always this evolving thing so what I tell people is just don’t fall in love with any player enjoy the moment in the moment you can always try to you know project out what what weeks from now days from now and even years from now look like but the reality is is if you you’ve lived in Sacramento you’ve rooted for this team long enough that you know that change is the only thing that’s constant yeah and and we talked about this right after the trade because you’re right we always view at least initially it’s we always view it in a vacuum they got de Carter but they have eight guards oh what’s this mean well this is the start of it or today this trade this is all they got back what are they doing well you would think Mo is coming I am eager to see what the Moore is you know they’ve been attached to kozma for so long but I don’t know anything I just feel like the Wizards are probably asking for a [ __ ] ton for Kyle kosma and I think the Kings aren’t willing to give up what they want for kozma I I think if the kings are taking a swing it’s going to be at someone that is who they believe more of a star value than Kyle kozma I think they like kozma but is it worth giving up multiple first round picks for Kyle kozma that’s a tough one especially if you’re looking at 28 or 30 when you don’t even know who’s on your roster at that point and you’re mortgaging for K what’s your ceiling there whereas maybe you’re more open-minded if it’s a guy I don’t know I’m just throwing this out there because we’re having fun he’s like hey Paul George decides he wants to sign with you and you can work out a sign a trade and you know what he old but he’s got star qualities we want to take a swing at that yeah yeah and and that’s the other thing it’s like if you look at Washington for example and you’re looking at kozman I mean he has such a friendly contract I mean for for someone of his talent and you know they’ve got it’s no secret the Kings went after him before um during that buddy heeled trade that fell apart the three-way with LA and I I if you’re Washington I can’t I can’t help but agree with them if they’re asking a lot for him and you’ve seen what other players have gotten uh he’s a if you’re if you’re if you’re Washington and you’re stepping into next year with Kyle kusma good like you’re you’re fine um you there’s other ways for them to to make it especially with his contract and how it declines each year um that’s very very Team friendly um but to your point about like to me it’s always the ones that you’re not hearing the most chatter about um and that’s why I always kind of caution fans it’s like yeah you’re hearing reports you’re hearing rumors a lot of those don’t tend to come true right and you weren’t hearing about deis sabonis a little bit but certainly not with Sacramento you know um and Tyrese halberton and I joke it’s like literally I sat down with him the day before he got traded that’s right organization Tyrese and Davon sat down to do like an interview about like oh the young guards here and the promise the next day he was traded yeah three days before the trade deadline we do the interview two days before the or a day before the deadline I foret may was two days before the deadline yeah literally say don’t don’t trade him now just don’t trade him don’t ruin my story which they did and was fine I love the interview but yeah both those guys are now gone so um it was funny I was going back through some photos it’s like you you forget like nus kada was also in that draft with with um with Davon Mitchell and both of those guys are gone now so a lot of these excuse me a lot of these people within uh that that they’ve that they’ve traded they’ve used his assets and to their credit you know you think about how Davon got to Sacramento it was kind of a tumble in the draft I think some people thought he’d go a little higher same thing with Tyrese halberton for sure yep um and then here you are with Deon Carter I thought for sure would been a top 10 pick I didn’t think there was any chance he’d be there at 13 and so I was I was also shocked but I also didn’t think you know not to say that I’m an expert or anything but I think the biggest shock to me out of the last night was Dalton connect falling down to the Lakers and and seeing that he could have been available for Sacramento and I think that’s where it gets fans going wow they look at area of need and it’s like this guy looks like he would be a perfect Wing be able scoring option all stuff he he fits that mold of being kind of a 22 23 year old player a little older than some of the other um I think he’s on the older side of the those players because he’s 23 but like then they go with a guy who’s who’s smaller well it simply just comes down to best player available and I think Monty mcna talked about you don’t draft for the for the now you draft for the future and that’s what they did they that’s what I’m saying if they’ always have like three star point guards a lot of teams will still grab a a point guard if they still think that it’s the best player available in draft but you look at free agency man you look at these trade scenarios and things like that like going with a player like Carter I think is like a cross it’s like it’s a crossroad moment you know you might think you’re on One path but the minute you do something else you’re everything changes it can change the way you look at your team uh the whole the whole calculus that you project for the future could change and that that obviously I think happened today I also think that you know if you’re looking at somebody like azman and Ingram and and somebody in that kind type of role or type of fit you know what they do going forward will kind of shift them for maybe what they projected one way two years from now month from now whatever um every every move tends to have a ripple effect throughout your roster and your your Calculus certainly certainly changes I really like the Devin Carter pick and I I know on the servers when people saw guard it was it made some f like what I don’t know but man is like you said he is long what he can do defensively such an explosive athlete he’s almost like exactly the type of player you want obviously it’d be a little different if he was like 68 with a 73 Wings spin you like oh my God this be the perfect it’s not from a positional standpoint the the most perfect fit for Sacramento but once they clear some things up I feel like he’s playing like he’s going to be out there he’s exactly the type of player Mike Brown would want someone who’s going to contest shots play hard steals blocks attacks the rim he’s efficient at the rims almost 66% at The Rim last year at Providence the rebounding was nine rebounds a game the more you watch him it’s like oh this is a guy that any NBA team would love to have on their roster and I think he’s going to be able to play right away yeah I’m not saying he plays like this player but this is what it reminded me of because um look if you were watching watching college basketball last year or or you’re a fan of college basketball at all really for the past two years I mean Devin Carter was kind of a household name you knew who he was and that really says something coming from Providence because you don’t really I mean with respect to to to that college you’re not really thinking of them as these perennial winners every single year but to have a player who makes that type of impact on the national stage in a in a college in in two years of college especially the jump he took leaving South Carolina which you know You could argue he was probably a better program but he goes to be a better fit with Providence and really leap out on the national stage and it reminds me in a way of you know I know it was only one year but John Morant goes to Murray State when are you talking about Murray State you’re never talking about Murray State the only reason you’re talking about Murray State is because of johnar so it’s I’m not saying that they’re similar in in skill or anything like that but from him being in like The Ether and knowing about who this guy is like if you were watching college basketball especially last year you knew who the hell he was especially when being the big big East player of the year so um yeah I mean it’s it’s it’s a it’s a type of of style to me that certainly translates and the thing that like floored me watching him take shots so far not like he’s not like the greatest three-point shooter I don’t want to like paint him that way but he also doesn’t take shots from the college line no like he’s he’s beyond the col he’s doing it from like he’s doing it from like the logo the advertisement logo sometimes when he’s pulling up from three and he has such a high release you guys I mean that’s the other thing to me that sometimes when a player might be on the shorter side of things if you want to call that at 62 but like the way where his release is whether it’s all the way from the outside or next to the basket it’s very high the other thing I want to add to that too Morgan is he was the primary guy at Providence all the attention was on him he’s taking contested stuff the looks are going to be different of course it’s going to be different he’s not going to have the ball in his hands all the time either in Sacramento but he’ll get some open looks from three so I I think he’ll get some cleaner looks and he improved his three-point percentage to 37.7% last year the free throw percentage up to just under 75% at the free throw line for him last year so I I’m not too concerned about the three-point shot because I think he’ll get some clean looks yeah I I agree and it was interesting hearing him talk about like his his Morgan you mentioned his his shot and yeah it looks a little looks a little different but I love the way heal I mean he’s not looking to change it at all he’s like hey it goes in it goes in and there’s a little comparison there to like someone like Tyrese halberton who had this like awkward looking shot still does but is able to still get it off rather quickly and I think hearing him talk about not being this shot taker but more of a shot maker and and really putting an emphasis on efficiency es from especially from an offensive standpoint was was was like refreshing like he this guy gets it like the the I wish you could say that every player you get on a team that you that you hunt for I is a competitor because that should just be part of their DNA but it’s certainly not and you can see that within you know you can see that in the NBA there’s guys that just get comfortable certainly competitive may be within the moment but they don’t eat leave die basketball um and this guy kind of falls under that category of somebody who just is a absolute competitor and and I think there’s probably having an NBA father you know and Anthony Carter is probably something you can attribute that to but you know it also argue like his dad hasn’t really been around a lot uh only because he he’s working he’s assistant coach in in Memphis with with the Grizzlies so um they don’t they’ve been away from each other more than they’ve been they’ve been with each other and so you know the nomadic lifestyle of the NBA uh you know you have him maybe under your wing when you’re a young guy when you’re a young kid when he was just leaving the NBA or maybe still as a player but um certainly like he’s been positioned and he went to like three high schools I mean three High School situations coming out of Florida I think his last year was in I’m trying to remember I saw this last night but it was in New Hampshire I believe so uh an academy up in New Hampshire so it’s some just interesting things like to see him be put I mean it’s like he was seriously uh kind of Built For This in a way don’t worry we’re no Sean Sean and I I’m sorry I distract you too we had some weird camera thing going on and we just froze again and now I had to like restart the camera but we could hear you our our screen just freezes and Deuce is going to murder the new pc that we got I know but he’s he’s good and quick at like trying to get this back going so um I’m going to continue as he as he crops this out and everything um because there’s a point that I had oh that’s what I was going to ask so okay so all of us I I I I like that we’re all kind of on the same boat about Devin Carter his game what he can add in so many different aspects of his game Monty McNair talking about how many Devin Carters there were out there in the postseason you know that just like that’s the kind of that’s the style of player that you need now my question do you is though there’s still a lot of guards on this roster what does this mean for someone like Colby Jones or even or even Keon Ellis like is it just like a wait and see thing for us what is it uh yeah I think that’s something that they’ll they’ll answer pretty soon because you have a lot of offseason left I think you know Kobe Jones is certainly going to play in Summer League see what kind of steps he’s he’s made um that with respect and I don’t mean this as a slam on either one of those guys um but just to paint a picture for you you drafted Devin Carter with a 13th pick right Kobe Jones is a second round pick who’s probably you know he has a nice skill set didn’t really get a lot of team but you could say he’s yeah he’s fortunate they they they saw something in him in a second rounder and gave him an NBA contract not a two-way deal and then with Keon Ellis who has had quite a a path I mean it’s a tremendous tremendous story he gets to play last year after being a second round pick then a two-way player someone who’s very young and let’s be honest like I always hear I you know I do a podcast with a buddy of ours who talks about well Keon Monty McNair this front office they only want players that are like 22 years old it’s like well Keon Ellis legitimately flies in the face of that and they developed him and he’s now on a stage where some people are looking at him as if he could possibly be a starter in this league yep and get it get it so what do they do they reward him with a deal that’s very te Team friendly obviously but given his pathway it’s not like you could sign him to a 105 million a year deal you don’t have to you’ve got control over him um but those especially with Keon Ellis Like You could argue he’s never goingon to have more value than he does right now yeah you know or their team salivating over him you look you have to look at him as a commodity but I’d also say I would Factor him into this team’s future as well currently he’ll be a little bit on the outskirts there I don’t I don’t know I mean if if it wouldn’t surprise me if neither one of those guys were on this team next year to be honest and I’m not saying that to be mean not saying that because they haven’t earned roster spots or anything like that but everybody’s F there’s no Untouchable player you guys hear me talk about that all the time oh yeah so you know there there’s what does it mean for them I think it’s just they continue to do what they do and if they find themselves on another team then so be it but this team is going to be this continuing evolution of things and that’s why you can’t get to you know it’s like oh it’s great player and you know Malik Monk Is back what is that how’s that trickle down to affecting someone like Keon Ellis Kevin herder even though Kevin herder’s been in trade rumors for since the moment he got here coming off his Worst season with the Kings and arguably in the NBA um makes him attached to rumors all the time because certainly fans look at it and go well they got to get rid of him play play Keon Ellis because he’s on this upswing right yeah so how how different do you think things look like at this point I don’t know what’s today June 27th let’s just say like two weeks from now oh do you think this team looks a lot different a a lot different yeah I mean because if you’re moving let’s say four if let’s say four players are gone or you have four new players to me that’s a lot different I agree um you know does it look dramatically different no because I still think the core and when I say about the core I mean you know obviously the the fox domas Malik uh Murray I don’t know um I would say probably but yeah I’d say the core is still intact so I don’t think it’s going to look dramatically different but certainly I think this team will look quite different and and um what’ll be interesting to see is will this team look dramatically different going into next season um because obviously you’ve got some free agency around you’ve going to have some decisions made on some players that you know whether they’re going to be here or not but I don’t know that this team is going to be all that aggressive in free agency to me I think where this team and it’s always been this way I think where this team makes its biggest impacts are through trades and that’s where they’re going to have to go out and I think continue to their biggest impact is through the trade market can’t wait to see how it plays out I know Sean uh thanks for hanging out with us for a bit thanks for dealing with the technical stuff all that stuff um appreciate you making some time I know you’re busy and um yeah we always appreciate talking seriously they tell you what they know juice and mo do Mo do Mo the Pod that you know

The draft is OVER and the Kings made a trade. Deuce and Mo catch up with FOX40’s Sean Cunningham who has covered the Sacramento Kings for years. They talk about the Kings trading Davion Mitchell and Sasha Vezenkov, what they did in the draft and what the trade could mean for the Kings offseason as free agency approaches.
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