Darren Collison or Deron Williams: Who's Better for the Sacramento Kings?

All-Star point guard Deron Williams was recently made available in trade by the Brooklyn Nets, and, according to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the Sacramento Kings could be interested in acquiring his services.

But with Darren Collison playing impressive basketball through the first quarter of the season, you have to wonder: Is dealing for Williams really in the Kings' best interest?

Other than the All-Star pedigree and sexier name, D-Will doesn't offer a team anything in the way of the production one could have expected from him just a couple of years ago.

Various injuries—including extremely balky ankles—have limited him in the past two or three seasons, and, as a result, his statistical output has taken a sizable hit.

Collison, on the other hand, is having a career year starting at point guard in Sacramento. A career backup—sans brief stints as a starter in both Indiana and Dallas—the UCLA product is enjoying, by far, his best year as a pro. 

Player	Games	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3FG%	FT%
Darren Collison	23	15.6	3.6	6.1	1.7	0.4	0.434	0.304	0.775
Deron Williams	25	15.6	3.1	6.8	1.1	0.3	0.403	0.382	0.880

As you can see from the table above, the two floor generals have been extremely comparable in terms of their raw stats so far this season. Therefore, the Kings are essentially already getting Williams' current level of production from Collison for approximately a whopping $28 million cheaper over the next two seasons following 2014-15. 

If the Kings were to pull the trigger on a trade for Williams, they would effectively be wasting around $14 million in salary that could be used on another piece or two. That's just an irresponsible usage of funds and doesn't even slightly improve Sacramento's chances of becoming more competitive in the Western Conference.

Acquiring Williams would also significantly alter the developmental process of Sacramento's other talented young players. Williams will officially be on the wrong side of 30 this coming offseason, making him seven years older than DeMarcus Cousins (24), ten years older than Ben McLemore (21) and three years older than Rudy Gay (28). 

By the time Sacramento would be ready to seriously compete for a top spot in the West—presumably when Cousins hits his prime between 26-28 years old—Williams will have already turned 35 years old. And by then, there's no guarantee that Williams would even still be under contract with the Kings. 

Of course, the same could be said for Collison, whose contract expires in 2016-17 just like Williams'. But Collison will have just crossed over into the 30-and-over club by then, making him a much more enticing candidate to re-sign than Williams, who would be at the tail-end of his career.

Given the current youth movement going on in California's capital, it's probably safe to assume that a 35-year-old Williams would be too old to run the break with young, athletic guys such as Cousins, McLemore, Gay and even Nik Stauskas.

Obviously, none of this is to stay that Williams cannot continue to be an effective player at the NBA level or even resurrect his All-Star form.

The odds just don't appear to be in his favor at this point, and Sacramento's current roster with Collison running the show as opposed to Williams just makes too much sense both monetarily and developmentally. 

Collison may not be the answer as far as championship caliber floor generals are concerned, although the Kings are reportedly "high on" him, according to CSNBayArea.com's Bill Herenda.

At this junction in Williams' career, swapping Collison for him would do nothing for the Kings other than clog their cap sheet.

All stats are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com, while all salary information comes from Spotrac.com.

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