Kings' Kevin Huerter discusses trade from Hawks, fresh start in Sacramento

Welcome to The Kings Beat, a subscriber based independent news source with more than a decade of experience covering the Sacramento Kings as credentialed media. Please consider supporting independent content, such as this, with a premium subscription.

0-3 is not where the Sacramento Kings want to be, but it is the reality of the situation so far. The team will have a shot to get in the win column Thursday night when they host the Memphis Grizzlies at Golden 1 Center.

Despite the rough start, there isn't a doom and gloom feel around the team. A lot of players are new to Sacramento and they haven't had an opportunity to feel the weight of the 16-year playoff drought.

One of the players who is coming in with a clean slate and looking forward to making a new home in a Kings uniform is shooting guard Kevin Huerter. Through three games, the 6-foot-7 wing is playing extremely well, averaging 16.7 points, 3.7 assists, and 3.7 rebounds while shooting 48 percent from long range.

The 24-year-old looks comfortable starting alongside De'Aaron Fox and there is plenty of room for growth as he builds chemistry with his new teammates.

Following shootaround on Thursday, we were able to sit down for a one-on-one with a player affectionately known as "Red Velvet." It has been a whirlwind couple of months for Huerter, but he's embracing the challenge ahead and looking forward to building something positive in Sacramento.

James Ham: This was your first NBA trade. How did all of that go down for you? Where were you? What were your first thoughts?

Kevin Huerter: I was actually on vacation, I was on vacation with friends. I was out of the country at the time. I happened to be away from my phone and it was one of those situations where, like, you’re in a different country, you have horrible service and all of the sudden you get back to the internet and your phone is blowing up.

Trade-wise, I wouldn’t say it was necessarily something I was expecting. But just the way the last season had ended in Atlanta, the team was kinda looking to do something and the different personnel that I had heard they were bringing in and had already brought in, I knew there could be something on the horizon. So mentally, I think I was preparing myself that something could happen, just that I had no idea where I was going to go and obviously, I didn’t know if I truly would [get traded].

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.