Kings’ Star ‘Unlikely’ to Return Next Season Amid Trade Rumors originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The Sacramento Kings are coming off another disappointing season that saw them miss the playoffs once again.
Sacramento had high expectations entering the season after adding DeMar DeRozan to their core of Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox last summer.
Things changed quickly during the season for the Kings, though, as they fired head coach Mike Brown in December then traded Fox to the Spurs in the same deal that landed them Zach LaVine from the Chicago Bulls.
With their new core, the Kings struggled to end the season as they finished ninth in the Western Conference before being eliminated in the Play-In Tournament by the Dallas Mavericks.
Now the Kings enter an interesting offseason that could see them start a complete rebuild or just retool their roster by moving on from one of their star players.
The latter is the likely option for Sacramento and ClutchPoints’ Brett Siegel recently reported that DeRozan is unlikely to remain on the team heading into next season.
“It isn’t much of a secret that the Sacramento Kings are looking to acquire a draft pick in the middle of the first round. As we reported at the start of June, the Kings are exploring the trade market for veteran star DeMar DeRozan, and it continues to look unlikely he will return to Sacramento,” Siegel wrote. “Once again, the (Miami) Heat have been labeled as a prime destination for DeRozan. It is worth mentioning that Miami owns the 20th pick in this year’s draft, a spot Sacramento would like to move into before the draft.”
It is clear that the Kings are searching for a first-round pick in the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft and trading DeRozan would help them land one.
Of course, the Heat have been the main team linked to DeRozan, like Siegel mentioned, but other teams who end up missing out on a Kevin Durant trade could also shift their focus to the Kings veteran forward.
Because of this, it is likely that Sacramento will move on from DeRozan this summer to retool their roster around Sabonis and LaVine as they try to turn things around next season.
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 21, 2025, where it first appeared.