Former Spurs star is about to be dismissed by his team (and fans won't be shocked)

The San Antonio Spurs have their sights set on a championship this season, but not every team is so lucky to have things like hopes and success. The Sacramento Kings have tripped themselves back into another rebuild -- and that likely means saying goodbye to a former Spurs star, DeMar DeRozan.

Trading DeRozan to the Chicago Bulls played a key part in the Spurs' rebuild. After multiple solid seasons in San Antonio as a playmaking wing who could score like few others, the Spurs sent him to the Bulls in a sign-and-trade that brought back a first-round pick (among other minor assets), a pick they later used to trade for De'Aaron Fox.

DeMar DeRozan is still balling

Since that trade in 2021, DeRozan has continued to fill up the scoreboard in Chicago and Sacramento, averaging 25.5 points per game with the Bulls and 20.3 points in two seasons with the Kings. He is just a few months from turning 37 and can still score like few others in NBA history.

The Kings, however, are not in a position to need 37-year-old volume scorers, as buttery-smooth as their pull-up jumpers are. They are tearing down the empty facade that they built to try and find young stars of the future. That they are entering such a rebuild right as lottery reform changes everything is the epitome of the Kings' timing.

Kings expert Ian Goodwillie recently wrote about which Kings players are not expected back next season on A Royal Pain, and DeMar DeRozan was the headliner. Goodwillie pointed out that DeRozan deserves to contend for a title with a winning team and that the Kings needed roster and salary cap space. That sets DeRozan up to be an obvious buyout candidate if he isn't traded this summer.

DeRozan is often on the move

DeRozan is a fascinating player in that he is an absolutely elite scorer, and you win basketball games by scoring points -- but he isn't a true winning player. That isn't necessarily meant as a slight, but more so that his brand of basketball makes it hard to pair with other great players to elevate a team to contention.

At the same time, DeRozan's ability to score 20 points no matter the opposition raises the floor of a team. It's really hard to be abjectly terrible with DeRozan on board. The Kings had a truly terrible season, with nearly all of their core players missing half the season or more due to injury; and yet down the stretch, DeRozan went on a scoring tear and drove the Kings to multiple wins that the franchise probably didn't want.

The Toronto Raptors traded DeRozan away because they needed a higher ceiling; Kawhi Leonard gave them what DeRozan could not. The Spurs traded DeRozan away because they needed to embrace a short tank to add top-tier draft talent (hello Wembanyama!). The Bulls traded DeRozan away because they closed their eyes, threw a dart, and that's where it landed.

Now the Kings are prepared to move on, a decision that should surprise no one. DeRozan can still score, and in the right role could carry a bench offense for a team that wants to keep its starters together in a rotation. Perhaps that's on a great team; likely it's on a middling team. Even so, DeRozan should still have a spot in the league.

Just not on the Kings. They shouldn't have traded for him, and now they can't stand to keep him. DeMar DeRozan will soon have a new team.

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