Seth Curry is another Kings blunder

The Dallas Mavericks scored an upset victory over the Utah Jazz on Thursday, led by starting guard Seth Curry. Curry hit huge shots down the stretch to help propel the Mavs to victory, and has been a nice surprise for a Dallas team that initially struggled this season. Curry is shooting 41% from three for the season, and has averaged 16 points per game over his last 10 games. Curry’s on an extremely modest contract for just $3 million dollars per season.

And the Kings let him go for nothing.

Curry played sparingly for the Sacramento Kings last season, but played well when he saw the floor. And then this past offseason, when the Kings lacked depth at the guard position, Sacramento renounced their rights to Curry, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent.

The Kings did this, we were told, because Curry didn’t see an opportunity for minutes in Sacramento and wanted out. The Kings obliged. Many Kings fans, including Grant Napear, defend this decision with the logic of “he didn’t want to be here, what can you do?”

Well, the Kings could have used their leverage to retain a young asset. The Kings could have traded Curry and gotten something like a second round pick, or the rights to an international prospect. Who knows. But they didn’t do any of these things. They let him walk for nothing.

You could argue that the Kings were trying to build a reputation as an organization that does right by players, or that they were building good relationships with agents. But those explanations fail to account for Rudy Gay. Rudy didn’t want to be in Sacramento this past offseason, and made his desires known. But the Kings held onto Rudy, trying to get a better return or, according to some reports, hoping to change Rudy’s mind this coming offseason.

The Kings mismanaged an asset, plain and simple. They let Seth Curry walk when they didn’t have to, and now Kings fans have to watch another prolific scoring guard play for another team.