Mock Trade Sends Kings’ DeMar DeRozan to Surprise East Team For Star Point Guard originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The Sacramento Kings enter the offseason with some key decisions to make regarding their roster heading into next season.
Sacramento is coming off another disappointing season that saw them miss the playoffs after being eliminated in the Play-In Tournament by the Dallas Mavericks.
Now the Kings enter the summer with a major decision to make on whether they want to begin a rebuild or just retool their current roster.
Either way, it appears likely that Sacramento will move on from one of their star players in either Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan or Zach LaVine.
With this in mind, Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey recently released a mock trade that would send DeRozan to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for a much-needed star point guard.
In the trade, Bailey has Sacramento sending DeRozan, Malik Monk and two first-round picks to Charlotte for LaMelo Ball.
“After trading away two All-Star point guards and inexplicably reassembling some version of the DeMar DeRozan-Zach LaVine Bulls in recent years, the Sacramento Kings are another interesting potential landing spot for LaMelo,” Bailey wrote. “His playmaking and volume shooting would take a lot of pressure off Domantas Sabonis, while also clearing up the paint a bit for his post work.”
Bailey makes a great point about Ball’s fit with the Kings, though the Hornets may not be interested in moving on from him this offseason, especially for an aging star in DeRozan.
Despite this, the Hornets could end up moving both DeRozan and Monk later down the road to add more young talent and draft capital to help with their rebuild.
For the Kings, adding Ball would be a massive upgrade to their pint guard position after trading De’Aaron Fox at the trade deadline, but it would also be a major risk.
Ball has dealt with a ton of injuries during his short NBA career thus far but when he is on the court, he would help the Kings become a much better team.
While that may be the case, the Hornets would likely not be interested in swapping Ball for DeRozan unless they were able to find a third team to get involved.
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 20, 2025, where it first appeared.
