Armstrong was traded from Hornets to Kings

At a time for team to make random trades to clear salary, the New Orleans Hornets decided to trade center Hilton Armstrong to the Sacramento Kings in order to save money by removing Armstrong’s $2.8 million salary from the Hornets’ payroll.

Sending Armstrong to the Kings, the Hornets thus have only a little more than $500,000 over the luxury-tax threshold. They shouldn’t miss him much on the court, either, as Armstrong averages just 2.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 13.3 minutes and hasn’t played in several weeks due to injury. Comparing to the one left, they may have much more expectation with a future, conditional second-round pick offered by the Kings in the trade.

Putting on a new style of No. 12 NBA jersey, Armstrong could help the Kings’ frontcourt. But with Spencer Hawes, Jason Thompson and Jon Brockman around there, he may not expect much more playing time in Sacramento than he had in New Orleans.