The newly acquired Sacramento Kings swing player DeMar DeRozan DeRozan has played for four teams over his 15-year NBA career. However, he may be the first to say that each trade to a new team in a new city doesn’t get easier, even if his latest trade brought DeRozan back home to California. During a recent appearance on Paul George’s “Podcast P,” the six-time All-Star explained why getting traded is difficult for NBA players.
“For me, being away from my kids is the hardest,” he said in the interview. “Since I left Toronto, most of the time my kids are in L.A., so being away from them, missing a lot of things… whether it’s the daddy-daughter dance or my son’s playdate or something that you miss. There are certain things that you miss and it hurts in the moment. It puts you in a daze when you can’t be there.”
Kings forward speaks out
DeRozan continued, “Especially my oldest. My oldest asks questions like, ‘Why weren’t you here?’ or ‘Are you going to be here for this?’ One of my daughters even asked me the other day, ‘Are you going to be home for Halloween?’ And it was like, ‘Holy crap, I have to check the schedule,’ so for me, that’s the hardest part of it all.”
Before Upon arriving at the Kings, DeRozan played for the Chicago Bulls, who made the playoffs in 2022 but lost the playoff tournament for two consecutive years.
In 2022, the The Bulls also had a healthy Lonzo Ballwho helped them achieve the best record in the Eastern Conference at one point. As the Bulls’ leading scorer, DeRozan averaged 25.5 points, 5.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds.
He had also played for the San Antonio Spurs, after a Kawhi Leonard has been sent to the Toronto Raptors.
That trade for the disgruntled Spur also catapulted DeRozan’s former team to the NBA championship, which must have hurt, considering the many playoff eliminations DeRozan’s Raptors faced thanks to LeBron James.
It was also against DeRozan’s Raptors that LeBron earned the nickname “LeBronto,” after demolishing the Raptors in 2018 and almost single-handedly eliminating them from the second round.
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Now, after three previous NBA teams, Demar DeRozan is looking to revive his playoff hopes with the Kings and make it through the playoffs despite playing in a very tough Western Conference. The young team had just returned to the playoffs in 2023, but lost to the then-defending champion Golden State Warriors in seven thrilling games.
What’s next?
However, they stumbled a bit in 2024, failing to improve on their previous 48-34 record and falling short in the play-in against the New Orleans Pelicans despite avenging their playoff loss to the Warriors.
While the Kings aren’t lacking in offense, it wouldn’t hurt to add a playoff veterans like DeRozan It remains to be seen, however, whether their style of outclassing their opponents in every game will take them far in the playoffs.
