The Kings already cut the player they baffled the NBA world by drafting 2 years ago, and it sounds like they couldn't give him away

pulse

February 14, 2018 11:17 PM

It's rare to see NBA teams refuse to take a young player like the Cavs and Jazz did with Georgios Papagiannis.

Last week, the Sacramento Kings waived Georgios Papagiannis less than two years after taking him 13th in the draft.
According to a report, the Kings tried to trade Papagiannis at the trade deadline but the Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz refused to take him.
It's rare to see teams refuse to take on young players who were lottery picks.

In the 2016 NBA Draft, the Sacramento Kings surprised the NBA world when they took Greek center Georgios Papagiannis with the 13th pick.

Papagiannis had not been a frequently mentioned name leading up to the draft. In fact, from the sounds of it, few people even knew who he was.

"There were people in the league who were literally like, 'Did they say the wrong name? Did they mean somebody else?'" ESPN's Zach Lowe said on his podcast, "The Lowe Post", of Papagiannis' draft selection.

Unfortunately, the Papagiannis era did not last long. At the trade deadline last Thursday, the Kings waived Papagiannis. In 38 career games, he averaged 4 points and 3 rebounds per game.

Making the selection look even worse, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the Kings were trying to push Papagiannis into a three-team trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz and could not get anyone to take him.

The Cavaliers wanted to acquire Rodney Hood from the Jazz and George Hill from the Kings, while sending Jae Crowder and Derrick Rose to the Jazz and Iman Shumpert to the Kings.

According to Wojnarowski, the Jazz and Cavs were both angry when they felt they had the parameters of the trade worked out and then the Kings sent a trade deal memo that included Papagiannis. The Kings insisted to ESPN that Papagiannis was always part of the deal.

Wrote Wojnarowski, "

The Kings, meanwhile, could not get teams to take Papagiannis.

It's unclear if Papagiannis has a future in the NBA. For the Kings, investing money into a player they decided to cut after two years is a brutal return.

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