{"id":805915,"date":"2026-08-07T12:48:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/805915\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T12:48:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:48:31","slug":"kings-reportedly-discussed-sabonis-trade-with-celtics-pistons-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/805915\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings reportedly discussed Sabonis trade with Celtics, Pistons \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is no secret the Kings are in a rebuilding phase, as they look to build around a new, younger core led by the No. 7 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, Darius Acuff Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n

But as that focus shifts towards the promising rookie, general manager Scott Perry still must figure out what to do with some of Sacramento’s high-paid veterans on long-term deals, namely Domantas Sabonis<\/a> and Zach LaVine.<\/a> <\/p>\n

There have been several reports in recent months regarding the Kings’ attempts to trade Sabonis, including unsuccessful discussions with the Toronto Raptors<\/a> at the NBA trade deadline in February and the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> prior to the NBA Draft in June. <\/p>\n

And now, as ESPN’s Anthony Slater reported in a story<\/a> this week, Perry also engaged in trade talks with the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics involving Sabonis, who underwent season-ending knee surgery<\/a> on Feb. 18.<\/p>\n

“Perry\u00a0visited with\u00a0restricted free agent center\u00a0Jalen Duren\u00a0in early July and explored the idea of a sign-and-trade swap of big men,” Slater wrote, “but the\u00a0Detroit Pistons\u00a0balked at the idea of losing Duren for Sabonis, league sources said.<\/p>\n

“There were predraft conversations about Sabonis with the\u00a0Charlotte Hornets\u00a0(who held pick Nos. 14 and 18) and at least one phone call with the\u00a0Boston Celtics, team and league sources said, but nothing materialized. In Charlotte’s case, the idea would’ve been to pair Sabonis with point guard\u00a0LaMelo Ball, but the franchise instead\u00a0opted to trade Ball\u00a0for draft picks and lean further into a youth movement.”<\/p>\n

The Sacramento Kings are shifting into the Darius Acuff era but still have to manage a leftover layer of veterans next to the younger core<\/p>\n

ESPN story https:\/\/t.co\/1JxmsuUM2B<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) August 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Duren, a 22-year-old NBA All-Star<\/a> last season with the Pistons, perhaps would have been a better fit for the Kings’ new timeline with Acuff. But now, it appears Sabonis is set to return<\/a> to Sacramento for the 2026-27 NBA season.<\/p>\n

The veteran big man, who turned 30 in May, is coming off a disappointing year in which he played just 19 games; his 15.8 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game all were his lowest marks since his third NBA season in 2018-19.<\/p>\n

Slater also reported Sabonis “has expressed a willingness to recommit and buy-in to this season’s team,” citing sources with the Kings. Sabonis still is owed just over $94 million over the final two seasons of his current contract. And though he is eligible for an extension, that isn’t currently on the table, according to Slater.<\/p>\n

With LaVine seemingly remaining with the Kings as well, it’s set to be an interesting campaign for Sacramento as the team looks to transition from one core to another.<\/p>\n

Download and follow The Deuce & Mo Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is no secret the Kings are in a rebuilding phase, as they look to build around a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3792],"tags":[7,4672,4056,92823,6,986,477,4055,4223],"class_list":["post-805915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento-kings","tag-basketball","tag-domantas-sabonis","tag-kings","tag-kings-offseason","tag-nba","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-sacramentokings","tag-scott-perry"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117054308646936143","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}