July 13 ------- DeMar DeRozan is indeed headed to his native California, but not his hometown of Los Angeles. The Sacramento Kings have agreed with DeRozan on a three-year, $73.7 million sign-and-trade deal that will see Harrison Barnes sent to the San Antonio Spurs and Chris Duarte, two second-round picks and cash sent to the Chicago Bulls, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Per Wojnarowski, the third year of the deal is partially guaranteed for $10 million.
DeRozan himself provided some measure of confirmation soon after, appearing in person at Sacramento's Golden 1 Center with Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" playing in the background. DeRozan is mentioned by name in the song and appeared in its recent music video. DeRozan, who will turn 35 years old in August, averaged 24 points (on 48/33/85 shooting splits), 5.3 assists and 4.4 rebounds in a league-leading 37.8 minutes per game for the Bulls this past season.
That combination of scoring and playmaking figures to be an interesting fit in the Kings' lineup alongside De'Aaron Fox, who reportedly played an important role in luring DeRozan, and Domantas Sabonis. The Kings have not lacked for offense since becoming a playoff team two seasons ago, but they seem to be hoping another All-Star like DeRozan can raise their ceiling in a competitive Western Conference.
DeRozan is a professional scorer, finishing top-three in Clutch Player of the Year voting each of the past two seasons. His mid-range game is lethal. His playmaking has developed into an asset over the course of his career, and his 1.7 turnovers per game this past season were his fewest since his rookie year. He is a sub-30% shooter from 3 for his career, though he has shot them more willingly (and successfully) in recent seasons. DeRozan signed a three-year, $81.9 million contract with the Bulls in 2021. In three seasons in Chicago, he played a single playoff series, losing a five-game set to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2022. The Bulls qualified for the play-in tournament in each of the past two seasons and failed to make the playoffs both times.
Since making five straight playoff appearances with the Toronto Raptors in the 2010s, including a trip to the 2016 Eastern Conference finals, DeRozan has played a total of 12 playoff games across two playoff series in the past six seasons. Three seasons on the San Antonio Spurs also yielded a single appearance. The Raptors traded DeRozan, Jakob Pöltl and a 2019 first-round draft pick (Keldon Johnson) to the Spurs for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green in 2018. Leonard led Toronto to its first-ever championship in 2019, and DeRozan has been searching for relevancy on a contender ever since. Here is hoping he finds it.
As for Barnes, the move will send away one of the Kings' longest-tenured players. The former seventh overall pick and champion with the Golden State Warriors has been a veteran presence on the perimeter for the Kings' young core since 2019, and now he'll head to a Spurs team building something different around Victor Wembanyama.
Source: yahoo.com
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