The Sacramento Kings and Philadelphia 76ers initiated an interesting trade with each other. Carl Landry, Jason Thompson and Nik Stauskas leaving the Kings to the Sixers, so Sacramento can go after Rajon Rondo, Monta Ellis and Wesley Matthews, or any combination of the three.

But that’s not all. Besides the Kings dumping deals, they’ve also sent a protected future first-round pick to the 76ers (2018, top-ten) and the right to swap first-round picks in two other drafts. In return, they get Arturas Gudaitis and Luka Mitrovic, who the 76ers drafted 47th and 60th respectively and another second round pick. All this to clear almost $16 million off the salary cap, and also the 2016-2017 deals for Landry which add up to $13 million.

All of this to try and sign Rondo, and at least one more meaningful player. Sources suggest Wesley Matthews, who is asking for $15 million a season from teams, including the Blazers who want to keep him, but Ellis, who is probably closer to the Hawks or Pacers, is also an option. The same Monta Ellis who couldn’t really co-exist with Rondo in the backcourt. The Kings never were the most logical thinking franchise, at least not in recent years.

And the Sixers? This is all just another move of adding assets in order to move them along. Sam Hinkie is hoarding big men through the draft (Jahlil Okafor, Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel) while having huge cap space (around $40 million before the trade) not to try and sign a big-name free agent and finally get out of the rut the Sixers are in, but in order to give him flexibility to make deals like this, and try to turn the players he acquired into more draft picks.

The Kings are about the now, only they keep making bad choices while having severe dysfunctionality inside the program (the Cousins-Karl situation) holding them back. The Sixers are only about the future, and keep delaying cashing in on all the “assets” they’ve acquired as an excuse to say there’s a plan and system in place, and the fans need to be patient.