It's been eight months since the Atlanta Hawks parted ways with Trae Young - one of the most accomplished players in their franchise's history.
As difficult of a decision it was, his eventual exit quickly became inevitable, and the organization was focused on not only doing right by him, but getting a quality package in return.
The thing is, in the middle of last season, there weren't many realistic suitors for Young. A few teams had exploratory interest, but none more than the Washington Wizards - the spot he was ultimately dealt to.
An organization who had rumored interest in Young multiple times before his January trade to Washington was the Sacramento Kings. According to a recent report, a conversation was held regarding a specific package, of which Sacramento declined.
Atlanta needed to match Young's salary and open up future cap space
No team was in a spot to just take on Young's max contract. If a deal was going to go through, an interested suitor needed to send out around $46 million.
Luckily for the Kings, they had a perfect contract on the books. The only thing stopping them from bringing in Young was their interest, which clearly wasn't too high.
Kings insider James Ham noted, on a recent episode of Locked On Kings, that Sacramento turned down a Trae Young-Zach LaVine swap proposed by Atlanta.
On the surface, LaVine's recent production doesn't match the max salary he's making, but at the time of the conversation, he had just a year and a player option left.
At the conclusion of last regular season, he opted into his $49 million player option for the 2026-27 season. If Atlanta had ultimately gone the LaVine route, he would've been on the books for just this upcoming season - giving them plenty of cap room for the summer after.
Atlanta's main focus was long-term flexibility, not an immediate fix
LaVine would've added quite the scoring boost for the back-half of last season and into the new year.
Who they ended up landing for Young, though, has provided the same, and even received a one-year extension. CJ McCollum is set to make significantly less money than LaVine this upcoming season, so Sacramento turning down Atlanta's offer appears to be a true blessing in disguise.
Young's tenure in Atlanta was special, but now that it's over, they can focus entirely on the future and the trajectory of their current group.
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