Knicks, Spurs, Pacers have made Sacramento Kings the biggest losers of last 2 NBA seasons

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The New York Knicks are headed to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999 led by Jalen Brunson. The San Antonio Spurs are headed to the NBA Finals led by Victor Wembanyama. The Indiana Pacers just reached the NBA Finals last season.

What do all three of these teams have in common, aside from the fact that they all reached the final round of the NBA playoffs? Well, they all have the Sacramento Kings to thank for helping get them there.

Let’s start at the top.

The Sacramento Kings appeared to have brightened their future when they selected point guard Tyrese Haliburton with the 12th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. He finished third in Rookie of the Year voting, averaging 13 points, 3.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per game in 30.1 minutes a night.

With De’Aaron Fox being much more of a scoring guard and Haliburton being a distributor, the thought was that the two of them could co-exist and become one of the best backcourts in the NBA.

Well, the Kings traded Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers in his second season at the 2022 NBA Trade deadline, sending him to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for Domantas Sabonis. At the time, the trade was shocking given how well and efficiently Haliburton was playing.

Haliburton flourished at the point guard position for the Pacers while the Kings made the playoffs once and lost in a Game 7 against the Golden State Warriors as well as a play-in tournament game.

Thirty-one games into the Sacramento Kings’ 2024-25 regular season, the franchise inexplicably fired head coach Mike Brown. After a 13-18 start, Sacramento changed coaches, confusing the entire NBA with their decision.

Weeks later, prior to the NBA’s 2025 trade deadline, the Kings then traded away De’Aaron Fox, which reports that he was disgruntled with the organization’s inability to put together a competitive team or any kind of direction towards contender status.

As part of that three team trade between the Chicago Bulls, Sacramento Kings, and San Antonio Spurs…

– The Kings acquired Zach LaVine, Sidy Cissoko, a 2025 first round pick, 2027 first round pick, 2031 first round pick, a 2025 second round pick, and a pair of 2028 second round picks
– The Spurs acquired De’Aaron Fox, Jordan McLaughlin
– The Bulls acquired Kevin Huerter, Zach Collins, Tre Jones, and a 2025 second round pick

The San Antonio Spurs just finished with 62 wins and are in the NBA Finals in their first full season with De’Aaron Fox in the fold.

So to recap…

The Indiana Pacers had the point guard of their future and are arguably a torn Achilles in Game 7 away from winning an NBA Championship.

The New York Knicks, in their first year under head coach Mike Brown, have returned to the NBA Finals for the first time in 27 years.

And the San Antonio Spurs, in their first full season with De’Aaron Fox, are the favorites to win the 2026 NBA Finals.

Each of these teams essentially has the future of their franchise secured thanks to the three former Kings let go. And those people have also quickly prospered.

It remains to be seen what the Kings will finish up with out of all this. They didn’t jump in the NBA Draft Lottery, picking seventh after playing a lot of their key guys and winning 10 of their final 24 games for whatever reason.

In any case, it has to be tough for Kings fans to watch their team fail to improve towards contention, but also continuously fumble stars who go on to be key contributors to title contenders team almost immediately.

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