It must be laborious being a fan of the Sacramento Kings. Baffling transfer after baffling transfer appears to sabotage a group with a loyal but tortured fan base, with one current transfer already coming again to hang-out them. In the summertime of 2023, the Kings accomplished a 3-way signal and commerce with the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs, the place they obtained DeMar DeRozan.
In trade, they shipped veteran Harrison Barnes and a 2031 decide swap to the Spurs to make the salaries work. That commerce has became a catastrophe for the Kings. Who would have thought that Barnes would play so effectively for the Spurs?
HARRISON BARNES AND A KINGS 2031 PICK SWAP FOR NOTHING.
Brian Wright 🫡
— Zach (@ZachNBA_) November 19, 2025
He has began greater than 90 video games since being in San Antonio and has been a flawless match subsequent to celebrity Victor Wembanyama. In spite of everything, his measurement at 6’8″ and capturing skill have made him the right stretch 4.
Final season, he drilled a career-high 43.3% from three, and he even gained NBA Participant of the Week for November 18-24, 2024. This season, he has been as impactful, capturing 48.6% from deep and even not too long ago placing the Memphis Grizzlies into an early hibernation.
HARRISON BARNES SCORES 7 STRAIGHT.
DE’AARON FOX WITH THE FILTHY WINDMILL SLAM.
SPURS END THE GAME ON AN 11-0 RUN TO SEAL W. pic.twitter.com/qxo37dDpLd
— NBA (@NBA) November 19, 2025
He scored seven straight factors in crunch time to seal a Spurs win, with them lacking three of their 4 greatest gamers. If Barnes‘ resurgence weren’t sufficient to annoy Kings followers, he not too long ago dropped 20 factors towards Sacramento.
In the meantime, fellow former Kings participant De’Aaron Fox had 28 when the 2 groups confronted off on November sixteenth. Fox enjoying effectively subsequent to Barnes has to remind Kings followers what they’re lacking, and that does not even embody the 2031 decide swap.
The Harrison Barnes commerce is a catastrophe for the Sacramento Kings
The Kings have missed the playoffs all however as soon as prior to now 25 years and seem poised to take action once more this season. This makes the Kings‘ choice to commerce a 2031 decide swap to the Spurs to dump Barnes baffling.
That decide may completely be a lottery decide, a excessive one even with the choice being far sufficient out that there’s a likelihood that not one of the Kings‘ present gamers are even on the group come 2031. That possible means an inevitable rebuild, and the Kings wasted decide after decide throughout their 16-year playoff drought, seldom discovering gems within the draft.
If the Spurs are among the best groups within the NBA in 2031, and the Kings are one of many worst, the Kings would have traded a lottery decide for an getting older DeRozan. Yikes.
That underscores simply how terrible the Barnes commerce was for the Kings, who presently have a disjointed roster and little means to enhance. Hopefully, they’ll study from their errors, or they could possibly be paying for them come 2031.
