Kevin Pelton hands out trade grades for the Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz deals involving Terence Davis and Matt Thomas.
The deals
Kings get: Terence Davis
Raptors get: Two 2021 second-round draft picks (via Memphis and Golden State)
Jazz get: Matt Thomas
Get more trade grades from Pelton here
Toronto Raptors: A-
Davis and Thomas, both rookies, were on the fringes of the Raptors' playoff rotation last fall. Both played precisely 84 minutes to tie for eighth most on the team. Since then, however, both were surpassed in the rotation by Stanley Johnson and Paul Watson. Neither had played in the previous three games before getting minutes in Wednesday's blowout win over the Denver Nuggets.
That made them logical candidates to move if the Raptors needed to clear roster spots in case they traded Kyle Lowry for multiple players in return. I'd imagine these conversations started then. Even after no Lowry trade materialized, Toronto decided to grab a couple of second-round picks for players who weren't clearly part of the team's future.
With two open roster spots, the Raptors could promote some of the players from Raptors 905, which posted the best record in the G League bubble before losing in the semifinals of the playoffs. Already, Toronto signed big man Henry Ellenson to a 10-day contract, now expired, while forward Alize Johnson is on a 10-day with the Brooklyn Nets. Guards Gary Payton II and Nik Stauskas and forward Tres Tinkle would also be candidates for promotion to the Raptors roster.
Utah Jazz: C
It's surprising to see the Jazz both adding salary to their luxury-tax bill at the deadline and giving up a pick in the middle of the second round (projections based on ESPN's Basketball Power Index peg it 47th on average) for a player out of a rotation. Clearly, Utah had targeted Thomas as someone who could be effective in its system. His shooting certainly fits. Thomas made 47.5% of his 3-point attempts as a rookie and is at 46% over 140 career attempts.
Historically, Thomas has been used coming off a lot of screens for shots. The Jazz won't likely ask Thomas to do that as much because they prefer to generate open looks in different ways. Still, Thomas will have plenty of opportunities to knock down 3s. The question, as always, will be whether he can hold up well enough defensively to stay on the court. Nick Nurse often went to zone defenses with Thomas on the court, something Quin Snyder might emulate.
Sacramento Kings: C-
After an impressive debut that netted him a spot on the NBA All-Rookie second team as an undrafted rookie, Davis hasn't been as effective in Year 2. In part, regression to the mean as a shooter should have been expected. Davis hit 39% of his 3-point attempts and 54% of his 2s in 2019-20, out of line with his performance at Ole Miss (Davis peaked at 37% from the shorter college 3-point line and was at 52% career inside the arc). Predictably, those marks have dropped this season to 36% on 3s and 49% on 2s, pushing Davis' efficiency worse than league average.
Unlike Thomas, who has a non-guaranteed 2021-22 salary of $1.8 million, Davis will be a restricted free agent this summer. So if he plays well the rest of the season, the Kings will be forced to pay up to re-sign him. I'm not sure that's worth giving up a pick projected to finish 43rd on average by BPI.