The Sacramento Kings Will Be Aggressive This Summer: 2024 Free Agency/Offseason Series – Ep 14

The Sacramento Kings Will Be Aggressive This Summer: 2024 Free Agency/Offseason Series – Ep 14

all right Guys Sacramento Kings I don’t know about you guys but I’m personally pretty excited to get into these guys they’re going to be aggressive this summer they’re probably going to try to do something to get them back to the level of success that they had last year maybe they could try to swing for an All-Star type trade uh they also have the Malik monk free agency I’m going to get into that and just go over some couple roster builds see what the team could ultimately look like and please don’t forget to like And subscribe if you haven’t already it’s still a pretty new channel and will help with its growth a lot so let’s take take a look at the king’s payroll and see what their situation is like so far and the biggest thing to not is that I think their payroll is starting to add up pretty quickly and if assuming that they resign Malik monk they’re going to be right at or even above that $171.3 million luxury tax threshold which they’re not going to want to exceed this coming year especially given their result last year now ideally I think the Kings want to keep their top six guys are all pretty important maybe they want to try to upgrade on Harrison Barnes or Kevin herder but just given their roles I think those are pretty great contracts U however I am going to keep an eye on these three guys for trade purposes um Sasha venkov Davon Mitchell and Chris Duarte they were not Main Stays of the rotation and moving them can help them uh reshape the end of their bench a little bit uh there was a report that came out yesterday that uh venkov informed the kings that he will not be returning to them Davon Mitchell uh I think he’s extremely Expendable now especially given the development of Keon is who’s just a much uh he’s like the actualized version of what the kings were hoping Davon Mitchell to be and he’s much cheaper and then you’ve got Chris Duarte just another guy that I think that they could uh they don’t really need to prioritize and altogether that’s $19 million in effectively dead money occupying the payroll so if you can combine those players to trade for a useful rotation player or potentially even get off them completely you can open up a lot more flexibility below the luxury tax towards keeping Malik Monk and even bringing in bringing in another guy and then the other thing to note with their situation is they will be uh having access to the full non-tax pyramid level exception at just under 13 million however assuming they keep the same general roster build and resign monk it’s unlikely they’re going to have enough flexibility to use it but there is a way they could potentially use it while keeping Monk and I’ll get into that a little later all right Malik Monk so this is the most that the Kings can offer him this off season with his early bird rights it is a 175% raise off his $9.5 million salary from last year so would start him at 17.4 million can go up to four years pays him nearly $20 million a year that’ be pretty similar to what some of the other high-end backup guards in the league like Colin seon Norman Powell uh Gary Tren Jr I’ve been making so it’d make him one of the higher paid reserves in the league uh for guards now he’s been linked to several teams in free agency teams like the magic pistons for example and those teams have cap space they can offer more money to him than the kings are able to offer now it’s possible that that interest from other teams could drive up his price to at least get the Kings to pay him that full amount that they’re able to but if he does leave that’s kind of a worst case scenario for the Kings because all they’d have left to potentially replace them is that mid-level exception starting at just below 13 million and I highly doubt they’ll be able to find someone that’s better even as good as him with it but let’s say Malik monk doesn’t return he gets out bid from some other team for way more than the Kings can offer would that open up the flexibility for the Kings to pursue an All-Star they’ve been linked in the past to Guys Like O janobi Pascal SE yakum so there’s clearly an appetite for them to get another expensive forward so I’m going to use Brandon Ingram as an example uh not someone who’s really been linked to the Kings but he is one of seems to be one of the more getable uh Allstar level forwards on the market right now I don’t love the fit in Sacramento but I could see them going for it if he really is the best player they could possibly get so let’s say they do a three- team deal with the Pelicans and wizards uh they send Barnes and a in a future first maybe a second one to the Pelicans to get Ingram and then they get the Wizards involved the Wizards with their various trade exceptions absorb uh Sasha venkov Davon Mitchell Chris Duarte and in exchange for that they swap uh the 13th overall pick for the the 26 overall pick uh this just something I put together I think that could make sense for all sides so then this would be the king’s payroll for next season if they do that trade uh Brandon Ingram has a trade bonus it would increase his salary a little bit and they still have some flexibility to use a portion of the non-t tax pyramid level exception not the whole amount but a decent amount of it and they’d still be able to fill up the roster and finish right below the luxury tax so it seems like a pretty good team you get a upgrade at the four and a younger option there but the big concern with trading for a player like Brandon Ingram is that he will probably command the max contract so if you’re the kings are you prepared to pay that so here’s their payroll next year assuming that they do resign him to a Max I’ve also uh have that mid-level exception signing uh at its secondy year contract and they’re still able to finish below the luxury tax line which I’m sure will be important to them however their window with this type of roster build might not last beyond this season and that’s because it’s going to get really expensive after that Daren Fox is going to be on the last year of his contract and he could command the max contract that could pay him more than $50 million a year same type of deal as Ingram’s uh and then Keegan Murray needs to get paid as well he will be extension eligible The Following Season he could command north of $30 million a year at least so they could be looking at a roster with three players making north of $40 million a year plus Keegan at whatever number he requires and that’s before factoring in whatever it might take to bring back Kevin herder he’s going to be on the last year of his deal as well so they’d be in a pretty similar predicament as the Wolves except worse because they don’t out of all these max level players uh that they’re paying not one of them is even a top 10 player so I’d probably stay away from this build just too much money for three nons Superstars I don’t think this team is particularly great or a legit Contender at all and it probably take them pretty deep into the luxury tax in following Seasons let’s go back and say that Malik monk does resign with the Kings he takes the maximum he’s allowed to get with them which I do think is probably the more likely scenario with him anyways so that would put them right at the tax line and that could kind of be it for them as far as moves go uh maybe they could do some marginal trades afterwards with some of those guys I mentioned like with venkov Mitchell and Duarte they can try to combine them maybe they can try to get like one good role player who can help something maybe they could consider combining some seconds and trying to get someone like a Bruce brown or Jonathan Isaac however another option which I think is a little more likely would be to still uh salary dump those guys which could open up the full non- tax pyramid level exception and then maybe they can get another Wing player to come off the bench like a Caleb Martin or Royce O’Neal so I’m going to use the Wizards again as an example and let’s say they do a two team trade where the Wizards absorb those three players and they end up swapping the 13th pick for the 26 overall pick now the Kings open up enough flexibility to use the entire non-tax pyramid level exception and stay right below the tax after filling out the rest of the roster but let’s take it even further let’s say the Kings want to make a change to their starting lineup and they decide to move on from Harrison Barnes get someone a little younger so I’m going to use Kyle kosman as an example also from The Wizard so whatever trade they’ve got going would be expanded uh not the most ideal addition um It’s been a worse three-point shooter than Barnes but also he’s been taken a lot more as one of the higher usage players on the wizard so maybe he could go up a little bit in a smaller role with the Kings uh also though three years younger and the Kings have traded for him before three years ago uh but then the Lakers Chang your mind and send kozma to the Wizards in that Westbrook trade so maybe the interest in kozma is still there with the Kings but I’m guessing that they would have to include a future first round pick to get the Wizards interested which is still less draft Equity than it’s probably required to uh get Brandon Ingram so the same trade is also happening with those other role players going to the Wizards and they get kozma as well and upon getting traded his his salary would increase a little he’s got some trade bonuses and some uh incentives that would be adjusted and Malik monk is back at that full amount that the Kings can give them and they’re able to use a large portion of their non- tax payment level exception while staying below the first apron because they would be hard CA they’d be a little bit over the tax but they can still get below it with a trade later in the season and uh if they don’t find anyone that they can uh that they want with the non- taxpayer mid level exception they could hold on to it into the season and use it as a trade exception now they could take someone um that uh has a contract of no more than four years and has a salary no more than that uh right under $13 million starting amount uh it’s a new addition to the CBA that’s starting this season and when looking ahead this roster build is a lot more sustainable than the other one espe especially because Kyle kosma is on a nice cost control deal that’s on a descending scale so it’s just going to get lower each year and here I filled out the roster I’ve got Monk on the second year of his deal they’re mid-level signing on the second year of his deal uh Trey L they have enough flexibility to resign him so I’ve got him at the same amount that he’s about to make this season or alternatively they can sign someone else with the mid-level exception and when they fill out the roster they’ll be in a good position to avoid the tax next season but even more important is that they’ll be in an even much better position to uh sustain this roster while having to give a raise The Following season to dearen Fox and Keegan Murray it’s not the most splashy off season uh but I think this is a more realistic outcome given their payroll situation

After getting a taste of the playoffs in 2023, last year’s Kings could not repeat the same magic. They only lost two more games and suffered several injuries down the stretch that left them shorthanded. However, the rest of the Western Conference also got much stronger, and the Kings probably weren’t any closer to getting out of the first round. The Kings will look to aggressively improve the roster this summer and will seek upgrades in the trade market to improve their starting lineup and bench. But they also need to maintain what they have. Malik Monk is entering unrestricted free agency and is limited to offering him a four-year, $78 million contract. Will that be enough to retain him or will another team with cap space steal him away? It will be a challenge for the Kings to accomplish all their goals, which could require an expensive payroll for them to improve over rival teams in the West and sustain their core for several more seasons.

0:00 Intro
0:29 Kings 2024-25 payroll analysis
2:28 Malik Monk
3:31 Brandon Ingram trade scenario if Monk leaves
6:32 Scenario where Monk stays and Kings open up the full mid-level
7:42 Same scenario but they also trade for Kyle Kuzma
9:24 Why this build is sustainable with incoming raises for De’Aaron Fox and Keegan Murray

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