Every Kings Trade Deadline Deal of the Past Five Seasons

The 2026 trade deadline has now come and gone, completing just one trade before the clock struck noon PST. Sacramento is no stranger to deals at the deadline. Let’s take a look back at their last five deadlines:

2021: Moves on the Margins

Sacramento acquired Delon Wright for Cory Joseph, Mo Harkless for Nemanja Bjelica, and Terance Davis for a second-round pick. Wright, Harkless, and Davis were all decent enough contributors during their brief stints in Sacramento.

2022: Franchise Altering

Apr 29, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) during game five of the first round for the 2024 NBA Playoffs against the Milwaukee Bucks at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. | Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

The 2021-22 deadline changed the Sacramento Kings as we know them. The team clearly had a glut of point guards, having Davion Mitchell, Tyrese Haliburton, and De’Aaron Fox. Sacramento was understandably shopping these players around - mainly looking to get off of Fox’s large extension and build with Halliburton and Mitchell, who were on rookie-scale contracts.

In a shocking twist, though, Sacramento ended up trading Haliburton, Buddy Hield, and Tristan Thompson to the Indiana Pacers for Domantas Sabonis, Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb, and a second-round pick.

This trade changed both Sacramento and Indiana’s futures. Haliburton has blossomed as the engine for a prolific Pacers offense under Rick Carlisle. Sabonis has similarly enjoyed a successful tenure with the Kings (which may be coming to an end soon). The “who won the trade” debate was a hotly contested topic for the first couple of years after this was done, but Indiana has clearly come out on top.

After this trade, Sacramento cut its losses on Marvin Bagley III, trading him to the Detroit Pistons in a four-team deal that saw Donte DiVincenzo and Trey Lyles head to the Kings. This deal ended up being solid for Sacramento. While Divincenzo did not pan out with the Kings, Lyles was a key reserve on the Beam Team and remained an important presence until this season.

2023: Quiet - Beam Team in Progress

Sacramento was quiet as they jostled for playoff seeding in what will go down as one of the best seasons in franchise history. This made some sense - the Beam Team vibes were immaculate. Though they undoubtedly had shortcomings, general manager Monte McNair (who would go on to win Executive of the Year) can certainly justify sitting back and not tinkering with what was working.

Sacramento’s only transaction at this deadline was acquiring Kessler Edwards for David Michineau. The Kings also received our favorite player, cash considerations.

2024: Quiet

GM Monte McNair decided to run last year’s team back. So, Sacramento was quiet as they fought to return to the playoffs in 2023-24. Their “big move” was converting Keon Ellis to a standard contract.

They also once again acquired our favorite player, cash considerations, along with Robin Lopez, who was immediately waived.

Unfortunately, 46 wins were not enough to avoid the Play-In, where Sacramento ended up bowing out. Their lack of size proved fatal - particularly against the New Orleans Pelicans, who they lost to six times that season, including the Play-In loss that ended their season.

2025: Back to Chaos

Jan 22, 2026; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox (4) signals during the first half against the Utah Jazz at Delta Center. | Peter Creveling-Imagn Images

After two years of being relatively normal, 2024-25 saw Sacrament descend back into madness. Mike Brown was fired over the holidays, and De’Aaron Fox had made it clear that Brown was the one he wanted to coach him there. So, Fox trade murmurs started picking up.

Then-GM Monte McNair (with some influence from the powers that be) traded the franchise cornerstone (along with Kevin Huerter and Jordan McLaughlin) for Zach LaVine and three first-round picks (essentially two, after the 2025 pick did not convey) in a trade with the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs.

LaVine, long the apple of ownership's eye, has maintained the low-impact, high-counting stats style that made him so hard for Chicago to move. Sacramento is now having a similarly hard time moving him, and will be paying him nearly $50M next season.

After the Fox trade, Sacramento acquired Jonas Valanciunas and Jake LaRavia to bolster their wing depth and add a premier backup center, parting with just two second-round picks, Colby Jones, and Alex Len to do so. These were both solid acquisitions for a team in the hunt.

However, the season ended with a record under .500, including a Play-In beatdown at the hands of a Dallas Mavericks team still reeling from their own notable deadline trade. McNair and the Kings mutually parted ways the same day.

2026: Retooling? Rebuilding?

And, here we are. Scott Perry (Sacramento’s Assistant GM in 2017) was the franchise’s handpicked replacement, hired just four days after McNair left.

Perry was busy - Sacramento was mentioned in the majority of rumors leading up to today’s deadline. Though Perry has balked at calling this a rebuild, most fans expected the start of a rebuild. At worst, they expected to have some sense of direction.

Instead, Sacramento ended up trading for De’Andre Hunter, a 28-year-old wing. Hunter debuted with the Kings yesterday, scoring 9 points on 3/11 shooting in 26 minutes. Yes, the shooting numbers might not be what you want, but he fits the pillars well.

Doug Christie says De'Andre Hunter fits the Kings' "pillars" beautifully & GM "Scott Perry continues to knock the ball out of the park" on that front.
— Matt George (@MattGeorgeSAC) February 5, 2026

In return for Hunter, Perry sent prized offseason signing Dennis Schroder and pending UFA Keon Ellis to Cleveland, and Dario Saric and a second-round pick to Chicago in the process. Not exactly the return you expect for someone who was your “number one guy” last summer, and someone you were asking/expecting to net you a first-round pick.

Kings GM Scott Perry on Dennis Schröder after signing him back in July. Now he's on the Cavs after playing just 40 games with Sacramento pic.twitter.com/ubsfXpxl3S
— Brandon Benitez (@BranitezSports) February 1, 2026

After well-chronicled efforts to move other larger contracts, the reality of the trade market set in. Sacramento leaves this deadline looking largely the same, and added some money for next season.

As you can see from this overview, some deadlines are much more active than others. Perry’s first one (in terms of completed trades) was relatively quiet. Here’s hoping that his next deadline is more active, as Sacramento’s veterans have one less year on their contracts and the young core continues to develop.