The J.J. Hickson trade still reverberates in these halls.
In 2011, just before the lockout began, Geoff Petrie sent Omri Casspi and a conditional first-round pick to the Cavaliers for J.J. Hickson. (Hickson played a half of a season and was horrible before being waived.) That pick is only conveyed if it is worse than No. 12 this season, and worse than No. 10 in each of the next three seasons.
That pick is now owned by the Chicago Bulls. The Cavaliers included it in a trade for Luol Deng on Monday. That means it'll be Bulls fans rooting for the Kings to be better than the 10th-worst team in the league next season, not Cavs fans.
The Deng deal will be compared to the Rudy Gay trade. Cleveland gave up just a player it was going to cut (Andrew Bynum), but also included the Kings pick, a 2015 pick swap option and two seconds for a guy who will be a free agent at the end of the season. The Kings gave up four roster shrugs (one of them on a bad contract) for Gay, who admittedly is way overpaid compared to Deng. (And is also not quite as good, certainly not as a defender.)
