The Kings, Bulls And Spurs Pull Off A Massive 3 Team Trade That Pairs De'Aaron Fox With Wemby And Sends Zach LaVine To Sacramento

Rocky Widner. Getty Images.

While we were all waiting for the NBA's trade deadline to get crazy, for the most part heading into the weekend it was mostly quiet. A lot of the normal rumors we'd been hearing for the last few days, but no real action. Then Shams opened the floodgates with this bad boy

and while this mostly was a nothing trade that won't matter in the slightest, what it did do was officially kick us off into the chaos that is the NBA's trade deadline. Now Shams was getting the go ahead to hit send on all his drafts of trades he has ready to unload, and we all know what happened later that day

As they say, things tend to happen in 3s, which meant that even with these two moves we should all be bracing ourselves for something else that was about to drop. Finally a resolution to the Jimmy Butler saga? Fox? LaVine? A mystery trade that nody saw coming? It was only a matter of time before Shams dropped that bomb, and now we have it

OK, there's a lot to digest here so let's look at it from the perspective of everyone involved.

San Antonio Spurs

The second De'Aaron Fox's camp let it slip that he wanted to leave the Kings and join the Spurs, it then became a formality until we got that update. We all knew that's where he was going to end up, it was just a matter of learning how the whole thing was going to operate. As you can see, this deal has multiple teams and a bunch of different moving parts, but Fox landing in SA is not a surprise. In fact, it would have been a surprise if he didn't.

What it does is give you your point guard/center combo of the future. The ages line up, Fox is certainly the best teammate Wemby has ever had, and most agreed that point guard was going to have to be a position the Spurs figured out pretty quickly. Wemby proved to be good enough to where if you can push your chips (or at least some of them) in, you do it. Is Fox the perfect fit? You could do worse. He still doesn't really shoot all that well from deep, but Wemby can handle that. You're still adding an All Star level talent next to your franchise cornerstone in a way that helps balance your roster. You have to imagine Fox is also going to extend in SA, or else why would they make this move?

Based on Shams tweet, it does not appear that Stephon Castle is involved in this trade which is a HUGE win for the Spurs. That still allows them to have a good amount of ammo should another move be available down the line, plus Castle has shown a ton of promise as a rookie so even if you keep him, that's a win. 

The way Fox can get downhill, how good he is in the clutch which is exactly what the Spurs need as a young team who has some issues closing, it's a move that you can understand them making. They saw an opportunity to add an elite level talent and they took it while still keeping valuable assets. That's about as good as you could get.

Sacramento Kings

Look, I feel for Kings fans. They don't deserve any of this. Sabonis got screwed out of All Star, they fired their coach, their franchise player demanded a trade, and now they've recreated the LaVine/DeRozan Bulls. While I know that may sound rough, I'll remind any Kings fan reading this blog that there was a time when that Bulls team was the 1 seed in the East before Lonzo got hurt. You never know.

What they get for a player who wasn't going to stay is actually a fairly decent haul. Zach LaVine is having a great season, is on a movable contract, and is still relatively young. If you need to flip him down the road, you can. In the meantime it gives them a win now player and a shit ton of picks. Seeing all those picks makes it even more insane that Luka Doncic only brought the Mavs 1 pick. Remember, Fox was not staying, he was going to leave for nothing, and the Kings turned that into LaVine and 6 total picks. 

I get their roster might be rough and their season might be cooked, but in terms of maximizing an asset, that's not terrible.

Chicago Bulls

For any Bulls fans out there, this is sadly Step 1. This is what things look like when your organization makes the decision it's time to smash the rebuild button and start over. Whatever you get in return doesn't even really matter in terms of the players. Get out of long term money, get whatever draft capital you can, and prepare to tank. The only thing that matters right now given the direction the Bulls have now chosen is getting as bad as possible as quickly as possible. This is it, you pulled the plug on this group so you know what has to come next. Vucevic out, find somewhere to send Giddey, make a decision on Ayo as to if you think he's part of the future or not, field calls on Coby White. I know it's tough to hear, but its the only way forward. You now have to make your team awful so that it can eventually get good.

If they don't sell any of those pieces, or maybe even just Vucevic, then none of this makes sense. Being stuck in the middle is the worst place you can be, and if you're trading Zach LaVine you cannot remain in the middle. You have to strip everything down to the studs and start over. Maybe you can flip Huerter for something if a contender wants shooting, but the point is their direction is now clear. 

It took them a while to get here as a franchise, but if you're going to commit then you have to COMMIT.

So while it's not a surprise that Fox was traded to SA and I think we all expected LaVine to be dealt, I will say him ending up with the Kings was not what I saw coming. Sabonis/LaVine/DeRozan feels pretty similar to the trio that existed in Chicago, but maybe it was the best offer they had on the table to get the most out of Fox once they started to lose leverage.

All I know is that all this activity has me extremely on edge for the next 4 days. All these trades and we still have no clue about Jimmy Butler. That's the next big domino to fall right? Then again, all of the deals so far have come out of left field so who knows what's coming next.

If you don't have your notifications on, my advice would be now is a good time to start