He was traded to the Atlanta Hawks for Christian Laettner, but Pollard never suited up for a game with them and was waived almost a month later. Pollard was traded to the Sacramento Kings, whose management was in the midst of building a successful playoff team at the time. With the Kings he suffered an injury that allowed him to play only for sixteen games during the lockout-shortened 1999 season. It was during his stint with the Kings that he became a solid backup to center Vlade Divac, often starting at power forward when Chris Webber was injured.