Kings roasted for De'Andre Hunter trade: 'Hard to sell'

The Sacramento Kings have had a nightmare 2025-26 season. 

As we approach the trade deadline, the team is at the bottom of the entire NBA with a dismal 12-38 record. It's not all that surprising that the team is struggling, considering Damontis Sabonis and Keegan Murray have both played in less than half of the team's games. 

However, the Kings aren't just bad because of injuries. This is a team that has Russell Westbrook as one of it's best three players in the year 2026. DeMar DeRozan and Zach Lavine are still good players, but neither one should be relied upon to lead a team at this point. 

As a result of these struggles, many expected the Kings to begin a sell off. DeRozan, Lavine and Westbrook were the obvious candidates, and while the team would likely be fine with moving Sabonis, finding a taker for that contract could be difficult. 

On Saturday, the team actually did ship some pieces out. Guards Dennis Schroder and Keon Ellis were sent to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for veteran wing De'Andre Hunter. The Kings also dumped Dario Saric and the $4+ million still owed to him on the Chicago Bulls. 

Bleacher Report's Andy Bailey gave each of the three involved teams a grade for this deal, and of course, the Kings had the worst one. Bailey gave the Kings a "D" and offered the following analysis: 

It's a lot harder to sell this one for the Kings.

Every move they make should be geared toward getting younger and collecting assets. This feels more like a win-now move to add a theoretical three-and-D wing to a veteran rotation long on volume scoring and short on defense.

As Bailey mentioned, it seems like the Kings are just hoping to get slightly better on defense for this season rather than any long-term thinking. 

There are a couple of positives, though. The team was going to lose Keon Ellis in free agency any way, and it's not like he was seeing the court much. Additionally, the team can now convert standout undrafted free agent Dylan Cardwell to a standard contract. 

Finally, the team also got out of Schroder's guaranteed money for next season. That's about where the positives end, though. The hope was that the Kings would get at least one first-round pick for Schroder and/or Ellis, but instead they got no picks and added another expensive veteran. 

If anything, this trade could make the Kings win a couple extra games this season but is that really the goal? The BEST-CASE scenario is that Hunter plays the best ball of his career and the team can ship him out for a young asset or pick at next year's deadline.