Just a few short months into his tenure as Sacramento Kings GM, Vlade Divac swung for the fences to free up cap space so the Kings could try to make a major splash in Free Agency. That cap space eventually ended up turning into Kosta Koufos, Marco Belinelli and Rajon Rondo. The Kings hoped the addition of these veterans would elevate them into playoff contention, but alas, it did not.
More relevant to today’s discussion than the result of the trade was the cost of executing it. In order to entice the Philadelphia 76ers to take on the salaries of Jason Thompson and Carl Landry, the Kings ended up sending out Nik Stauskas (Sacramento’s 2014 lottery pick), the right to swap picks in 2016 and 2017 (in which the Kings had to give up the 3rd pick this year in exchange for the 5th pick) and an unprotected 2019 1st round pick.