Former Dallas Maverick Acquired By Rival San Antonio Spurs in Sign-And-Trade
The Sacramento Kings made a big move late Saturday evening, agreeing to a sign-and-trade to bring six-time All-Star and California native DeMar DeRozan to Sacramento. DeRozan had spent the last three seasons in Chicago and will now be headed close to home on a 3-year, $74 million deal.
As part of that sign-and-trade, Sacramento has sent former Dallas Maverick Harrison Barnes to the San Antonio Spurs, who should fit in seamlessly with budding young superstar Victor Wembanyama. Barnes was in Dallas for two and a half seasons, including the first 49 games of Luka Doncic's career in the NBA.
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Barnes was traded from Dallas to Sacramento at the 2019 trade deadline in exchange for Justin Jackson and Zach Randolph. Randolph would be waived after the completion of the trade. It was essentially a salary dump to get off long-term money as the Mavs would also trade for Kristaps Porzingis and knew he'd need a new contract.
The best years of Barnes' career came in Dallas, averaging 18.7 PPG in those 205 games. He's never had another season with more than 16.4 PPG since being traded away from the Mavs and now San Antonio is hoping he will fit well in their rebuild. They had to trade Devonte Graham to Charlotte to make the money work. With a likely starting lineup of Chris Paul, Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes, Jeremy Sochan, and Victor Wembanyama, and a bench unit that includes Stephon Castle and Keldon Johnson, the Spurs could surprise some people this year and possibly push to make the Play-In games.
To complete the trade, Chicago received Chris Duarte and future second-round picks. Whether or not DeRozan will help elevate the Kings as a Western Conference contender will be a big question mark. DeRozan is a great mid-range scorer but hurts team spacing and he'll be in many lineups with Domantas Sabonis, who also doesn't space the floor well.
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AUSTIN VEAZEY
Austin Veazey joined NoleGameday as the Lead Basketball Writer in 2019, while contributing as a football writer, and started as editor for MavericksGameday in 2024. Veazey was a Florida State Men’s Basketball Manager from 2016-2019. Follow Austin on Twitter at @EasyVeazeyNG