It's time to stop beating around the bush on this. If the Sacramento Kings want to find the next level of this rebuild, they have to lose Domantas Sabonis. But doing it is going to be time-consuming, expensive, and difficult for everyone in the organization, not to mention the fans who want better.
Being that Sabonis is a former All-Star, an elite rebounder, and a legit double-double machine, it's odd that success would hinge on getting rid of him. No one would be upset if someone who hadn't been paying attention to Sacramento's woes was confused why they wouldn't want to keep him.
The main problem with the Lithuanian-American big is that he couldn't play effective defense if his life depended on it. To be frank, it's like having a really big traffic cone on the court. Or maybe some sort of giant mannequin. Regardless, he's a terrible defender and that's an issue that needs to be fixed.
Additionally, he's really only good on offense when it's run through him. Mike Brown knew how to put Sabonis to good use. Doug Christie, on the other hand, either doesn't know how or doesn't want to do it. Regardless, the end result is the same as Sabonis is now expensive and unnecessary.
Ending the Sabonis era in Sacramento
With young fives like Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell who can play defense on the rise in Sacramento. the time of Sabonis is drawing to its inevitable conclusion. The problem is he still has two years left on a costly contract on top of becoming more injury-prone in recent seasons.
All of this makes him very difficult to move, as a trading partner has to want an expensive center who doesn't play defense. Being that said contract is still worth $94 million over those two years, a buyout at this stage of the game seems highly improbable. Well, unless Vivek Ranadive is in the right mood.
Making the buyout even more unlikely is the fact that DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and possibly De'Andre Hunter are better candidates for such a strategy. The only real chance of moving Sabonis in the near future is putting together a multi-team trade in the offseason. Good luck with that.
This is where patience comes in. More than money, it's going to take time to get Sabonis out the door. The Kings will just have to wait for their moment, then seize the opportunity when it arrives. It just means the rebuild process will creep forward a bit slower for a while.