The Sacramento Kings might be making moves when the Golden State Warriors are not, but that's not to say they're necessarily the right ones nearly a full 24 hours into free agency.
After being strongly linked to former Warrior guard Dennis Schroder in recent days, the Kings have now officially acquired the 31-year-old to a three-year, $45 million contract according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
The Kings have comically acquired a pair of former Warriors
Sacramento will be Schroder's 10th team in the league, perhaps signifying his value as a helpful but not necessary piece to long-term winning ambitions. Golden State traded for Schroder in December and moved him less than two months later, sending him out as part of the Jimmy Butler deal after an underwhelming period with the franchise.
Few Warrior fans will have watched Schroder's time with the franchise and believed that he was worth $45 million anywhere in the NBA, but such was Sacramento's need for a point guard after trading De'Aaron Fox mid-season.
Arguably the more comical move the Kings have made is a trade to free up space to sign Schroder outright, rather than executing some level of sign-and-trade that could have sent Malik Monk to the Pistons.
Instead, the Kings have acquired former Warriors big man Dario Saric in a trade that lands Jonas Valancuinas with the Denver Nuggets according to Charania. That's a major downgrade for Sacramento who've essentially acquired a player who's been a non-viable NBA rotation player since halfway through his lone year with the Warriors.
Saric surprisingly got a two-year, $10.6 million contract last offseason in a deal that quickly became a nighmare for the Nuggets. The Croatian appeared in just 16 games and 210 total minutes with Denver this past season, averaging 3.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists while shooting 36.2% from the floor and 26.9% from 3-point range.
After opting into his second-year player option, it appeared like the Nuggets were stuck with Saric as an end of the bench player making over $5 million. This is now a massive win for them, bringing in a more valuable veteran center in Valancuinas who can now lessen the workload on 3x MVP Nikola Jokic.
Denver have undoubtedly been one of the biggest winners of free agency less than 24 hours in, having also traded for Cam Johnson while signing Bruce Brown and now Tim Hardaway Jr. to cheap contracts.
As for the Kings, signing Schroder to a $45 million deal is overs and comical enough for Warrior fans, let alone the fact they had to trade for Saric to make it happen.