2019/2020 Season record: 52-30

 

Season Highlight

The Kings had plenty of highlights this season. Then again having LeBron James on your roster is a highlight in itself. The main highlight this season would be reaching the WCF after pegging back a 1-2 deficit in the semi finals against Phoenix, after looking like Phoenix had there number and was pushing to advance.

 

Season Lowlight

Losing a 4-1 series pretty convincingly to the eventual champion Portland Trail Blazers and the Kawhi and Harden duo. LeBron simply ran out of cheese. Kawhi was the catalyst in slowing LeBron and Harden was unstoppable with the Kings lack of perimeter defense.

 

Best Trade

Sacramento cashed in on LeBrons value and moved on from the aging yet still dominant star to retool the roster with younger talent in a 4 team trade.

Sacramento send: LeBron James, Ishmael Smith, Joe Ingles, Boban Marjanovic, Det 20 1^st, Cha 23 1^st, Chi 24 1^st

Sacramento received: Khris Middleton, Pascal Siakam, Por 23 1^st, Golden State 21 2^nd rounder.

 

Worst Trade

I don�t rate Eric Bledsoe in the slightest. Biggest flaw to the Kings roster heading into playoffs was the roster was just LeBron and role players. CJ is a borderline all star and would have fit a lot better alongside the playmaking of LeBron with his shooting and secondary playmaking ability. A rarity seeing someone else getting the better of Klemm in a trade.

Sacramento send: CJ McCollum, Pat Connaughton, Torrey Craig.

Sacramento receive: Eric Bledsoe, Dion Waiters, JaMychal Green.

 

Other notable trades:

Sacramento Kings send: Steven Adams, Darius Miller.

Sacramento receive: Serge Ibaka, PJ Tucker.

I feel Adams would have been a better fit during the playoffs, current Kings roster would have also been a better fit age wise with Siakam and Middleton.

Sacramento send: Ed Davis, Nemenja Bjelica

Sacramento receive: Bogdan Bogdanovic, Patrick McCaw

If not for adding Pascal and Middleton in a trade this would be the best trade candidate. Though unfortunately Klemm is forced to move Bogdan or release him won�t get proper value for him.

Sacramento send: Jrue Holiday, Sac 23 1^st

Sacramento receive: CJ McCollum

Fair price for CJ, moving the 1^st was fine for a competing team.

 

Free Agency

Sacramento have ALOT of work to do this off-season. Currently they have two players they need to retain which could be popular targets and only have 4 signed and guaranteed players on their list.

Bogdan Bogdanovic RFA, now a S&T- Klemm will want and need to spend a good portion to retain Bogdan being one of the few assets this free agency period that may get a bit of attention by many teams around the league. However if retained should be able to get a decent player or assets for him.

Kentavious Caldwell-pope UFA � Declined his player option and is overpaid. Not many teams will be after KCP services this off-season. I see Klemm being able to retain him if he wants to pay the price tag.

Leads to the rest of the roster holes. A full list to fill in free agency oh boy. Now free agency is a hit and miss game. Klemm has the chance to hit targets and be just fine on the player front this coming season. However if unable to acquire targets he may need to settle for bench guys on low to minimum contracts and fill out his roster with filler players. Stay tuned!

 

Star

Blatantly obvious, the man himself, the 2^nd to MJ, the current King. LeBron James 33ppg, 7.8rpg, 6.9apg, 2.2spg, 0.8bpg on 52/33/71 splits. While LeBron didn�t have a 2^nd star to play alongside he dragged the Kings all the way to the WCF at 36 years of age. Apparently there is no fall off to LeBrons game.

Goat

Unfortunately obvious in my opinion. Eric Bledsoe was shipped in for CJ McCollum. Didn�t produce close to what CJs ability could have produced for the Kings in the postseason. A small defensive guard unfortunately 2k absolutely hates small guards and doesn�t give perimeter defenders any ability to truly lock a player down. He was consistently scored on especially in the WCF when tasked with guarding James Harden.

Draft Grade

C-

I did no research into anyone this deep into the draft. So this gets a pass mark only just as Klemm is not someone to go into the draft. Having traded every pick for the next 5 years besides a 2^nd in 2025. Only having 1 2^nd rounder in the draft this season took Grant Riller with pick 52. Needing a point guard seems Klemm took the best PG available.

 

The future

Bleak or promising? Klemm is currently all in on Pascal Siakam with his trusty sidekick in Khris Middleton. Both have been questionable in their playoff performances and whether or not either of them could be a true number 1 guy. I guess majority of the Kings future comes down to this free agency and making trades throughout the coming season. After trading away every draft pick except their own 2^nd in 2025 they only have a Warriors 21 2^nd, Spurs 22 1^st, Portland 24 1^st. All teams are expected to be good through those years so looking at picks 25-30 in those years. Hard to see where the Kings can salvage the franchise if a horrible injury should happen or if the team needs to go to the next level if Middleton and Pascal have already reached their ceiling and can�t get the Kings to the promise land, lack of quality picks may be hard to bring in a 3^rd quality player to help.