A two-time All-Star Siakam trade negotiations took only one day from start to finish, which is completely out of line with the usual pace of star trade negotiations. How can Sika be a two-time All-Star forward, so he wouldn't have completely collapsed the trade so quickly, right? But that's what the Sacramento Kings did!
According to well-known journalist Shams, the Sacramento Kings and the Toronto Raptors have talked about a "blitzkrieg", and it took less than a day for them to start and end trade talks with the Raptors about Siakam.
It is an open secret of the league that the Kings want to bring in an instant player at the trade deadline to form a big triumvirate with Fox and Sabonis Jr.! After returning to the playoffs after 17 years last season, the Kings are no longer satisfied with the first round of the playoffs, but are eager to compete in a higher-level series, and they have even begun to look forward to a championship. Before the start of the new season, Kings coach Mike Brown publicly stated that their Kings are a team full of infinite possibilities, and will no longer be satisfied with just entering the playoffs, he is trying to lead this young team out of the Wild West to hit the championship!
Honestly, the current Kings are already quite strong! The style of play centered on Fox and Sabonis Jr. is gradually maturing, and reaching the playoffs is an easy goal for them, but they do need to bring in a third star to go further. Kings management knows they need to share the pressure for the two cores, but they also know that they can't rush this or it will backfire!
According to Michael Grange, the root cause of the collapse of the talks is the Kings' reluctance to send Keegan Murray away and his reluctance to offer Siakam a max contract this summer. It can be seen that the sharpshooter Keegan Murray is now a non-sale of the king, even if you are a two-time All-Star, Siakam can't be replaced. In addition, Siakam's expiring contract this summer has also become an obstacle, as there is a real possibility that Sika will only play for half a year at his new club and then walk away.
In this way, the Kings' refusal to trade Keegan Murray for Siakam is understandable, and their management's trading practices can be said to be very sensible and calm. To put it more bluntly, the king wants to prostitute Siakam for nothing, and they want to get Siakam for free for six months without giving away Keegan Murray, which is a brilliant calculation! Of course, we also have to praise the sanity of the king's management. They didn't fall in the face of a two-time All-Star forward, but were particularly calm and clever in weighing the pros and cons, which is a high-end operation!
So far this season, the 23-year-old Keegan Murray has averaged 15.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game while shooting 45.2 percent from the field, while the 29-year-old Siakam has averaged 22.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game on 52.1 percent shooting. There's no denying that Siakam is better these days, but the younger Keegan Murray is the King's outside core and the team is not for sale. Therefore, the king can only say goodbye to Siakam, it's not that you are not good enough, but they can't part with Keegan Murray!