In a three-team trade, the Sacramento Kings have acquired a massive upgrade that fans have been looking for after bringing in DeMar DeRozan via a sign-and-trade with the Chicago Bulls and the San Antonio Spurs. The deal also sends Harrison Barnes to the Spurs, while the Bulls receive two second-round picks and cash compensation to balance out the deal.

At the age of 34, DeRozan moves on from his era with the Chicago Bulls after spending the last three years with empty playoff runs. Still, the six-time All-Star has been quite on the roll in his games as he has established himself as one of the biggest scorers in the game, and it cannot be denied that the 2009 9th overall pick has become a fantastic player in his own right so far.

Sacramento brings in a promising star in DeRozan to shore up their hopes of finishing better than they did in the 2023-24 season, where they fell short of the playoffs after losing to the New Orleans Pelicans in the Play-In Tournament.

A Promising Look with Sacramento

The Sacramento Kings have made its return to the NBA Playoffs stage in the 2022-23 season as a promising team to begin with. It was a massive campaign that saw them back in the postseason for the first time since 2003. With DeRozan, the Kings arm themselves in the massive race in the Western Conference that has been getting really tougher with more and more stars in the mix between teams, which says a lot about how DeRozan will make an impact for Sacramento.

In the 2023-24 season, DeRozan played a total of 79 games, averaging 24 points, 5.3 assists, and 4.3 rebounds to go along with 1.1 steals. The forward has been shooting well from the field with 48% and 33% from three. It is also worth noting that DeRozan is one of the hailed top scorers in the fourth quarter, earning him the nickname “King in the Fourth” in the previous seasons.

DeRozan teams up with De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, who arguably were one of the best duos in the game last season, at least until the team suffered some tough injuries that led to their fall in the later parts of the campaign and the eventual loss to the Pelicans in the Play-In Tournament.

Sacramento’s Hopes of a Title

Sacramento has made the Playoffs in 2023, only to lose to a Game 7 battle with the Golden State Warriors. They would then go on to be established as contenders in the game after that. It is worth noting that they just finished two games behind the previous record they had, finishing with a 48-34 record in the 2022-23 season, and then a 46-36 record in the previous campaign, but the difference was that they were in the 9th seed by the end of the run.

Now with DeRozan, the expectations are coming off with a bigger stride for the Kings, with the pressure building up on the team’s hopes of a championship, this seems to be the tipping point. As the oldest team in the NBA, it cannot be denied that the Kings really deserve to win since moving to Sacramento in the 1984-85 season. Now is the chance for the Kings to prove their worth on the big stage and finally secure their place at the top of the league now more than ever.