The trade of Thomas Robinson, Francisco Garcia and Tyler Honeycutt to the Houston Rockets for Patrick Patterson, Cole Aldrich and Toney Douglas came as a complete surprise. Really, it was shocking.
With the pending sale of the franchise, most people around the league thought the Kings would quietly watch the NBA trade deadline come and go – not be one of the teams to break the seal on trade season.
While the burn was fresh in the minds of media both locally and around the country, we decided to seek their reaction to the news.
After years of Kings deals that had more to do with the bottom line than basketball, this is, well, the bottom. It seems entirely conceivable that Thomas Robinson will blossom into the sort of high-energy, scoring, rebounding brute with the Rockets that he was at Kansas. And every time Kings fans watch him in action, they will be reminded that they deserved better in these last five years.
NBA people I have talked to have said Geoff Petrie was forced to do move for financial reasons. Certainly has to be tough to move someone drafted so high, so fast.
–Marc J. Spears, Yahoo! Sports
If the trade was made based on money, it’s wrong. If the trade was made based on talent, it’s really wrong.
– Scott Howard Cooper, NBA.com
“My first thought was if you’re giving up on Thomas Robinson so soon, why even draft him? Did the team realize they made a mistake? Looks like passing on Damian Lillard will go down as one of the draft mistakes in recent years. But with all the uncertainty with ownership, it’s hard to make sense of much these days.”
There is little doubt this was a salary dump. If the NBA didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel with the Maloofs, they might be inclined to step in and do something about it.
–Aaron Bruski, NBC ProBasketball Talk
“It’s unfortunate that the Sacramento Kings feel the need to continue to drive down the value of this franchise in the name of finding a way out of town. A short-term ‘solution’ like this trade doesn’t actually solve anything other than trying to drive away promise and fans.”
– Zach Harper, CBS Sports Eye on Basketball
“It is utterly stunning to watch a team with literally nothing but hope give up on a young, raw, hard-working player after four months for a good player who could be gone in two months. But hey, it’s the Kings. This is normal.”
–Tom Ziller, SBNation and Sactown Royalty
We’ll have more analysis and opinion to come on the Thomas Robinson trade and any other deadline moves by the Kings on this week’s Cowbell Kingdom Podcast.
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