Welcome to Contrarian Corner: Gimmick Column Number Two!
For those of you who’ve been around a while, you might remember the second Beam Team season (2023-2024) when we ran a bi-weekly-ish column that tracked player performance and roster standing. It was a mix of stats, the eye test, and good old-fashioned moxie. Well, that idea is six feet under now, and here we are two seasons later with a fresh, kooky concept.
Introducing Contrarian Corner! This column is born out of two things: (1) the undeniable tendency of Kings fans and media to get a little cranky, often harping on the chaos and incompetence swirling around the organization, and (2) my natural inclination to be a contrarian in life. Pair that with my irrational confidence and blind love for the Kings, and voilà—a new column.
The goal? A refreshing dose of optimism. (Don’t boo me!)
You may have caught the unofficial kick off with a glass-half-full re-evaluation of the De’Aaron Fox trade haul, if not please give that a look too! But now, we get an in-depth look at Scott Perry’s moves (and non-moves), and what might still be on the horizon.
Let’s dive in.
The Scott Perry Era Begins
The ink on Monty McNair’s last paycheck hadn’t even dried when Scott Perry officially joined the Kings as the “lead decision-maker” on April 17th. If you’re not familiar with Perry, let me bring you up to speed on his pedigree and why he’s earned the right to the throne.
Most notably, Perry had a cup of coffee with former Kings general manager Vlade Divac and the Kings back in the day as VP of Basketball Operations, where he was part of the brain trust that drafted De’Aaron Fox. Before that, he cut his teeth under old friend, Joe Dumars with the Pistons in the early 2000s, spent time with the Supersonics and Magic, and eventually became the Knicks’ GM from 2017-2023. During his time in New York, Perry made some impressive late-first and second-round picks, including Miles McBride, Jericho Sims, Quentin Grimes, Mitchell Robinson, and Immanuel Quickley. Oh, and let’s not forget the steal of the century: signing Jalen Brunson to a four-year, $104 million deal in 2022.
When Perry walked back through the Kings’ prestigious purple doors, the roster had just undergone a cosmic shift. Zach LaVine, Jonas Valančiūnas, and Jake LaRavia were the most notable newcomers. LaVine in particular, joined the immediately glaring redundancies of DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk as shoot first, defense, never guards. The other known issue? A lack of primary playmaking and a lead distributor at point guard after Fox’s departure to San Antonio.
Perry acknowledged this in his first press conference, echoing public feedback from “the Ox” himself, Domantas Sabonis, who mentioned point guard was a need. Unfortunately, the free-agent point guard market was as shallow as the pool of candidates for the Kings’ GM job. Here lies the most polarizing move of the offseason: signing Dennis “The Menace” Schröder to a three-year, $44.4 million contract (with only $4.35 million guaranteed in year three).
The Dennis Schröder Signing: A Polarizing Move
Fans and media alike have criticized the deal, arguing that Schröder is overpaid compared to his previous two-year, $26 million contract with the Raptors. He’s older now (32), and his role as a starter/back-up hybrid has raised questions about the team’s direction. Are the Kings just treading water in the brutal Western Conference?
Here’s the breakdown of the criticism:
- Value Concerns – Schröder’s new deal is worth more per season than his previous contract, despite him being two years older.
- Role Uncertainty – Is Schröder a starting-caliber point guard, or is he better suited as a backup?
- Team Direction – Critics argue that this move keeps the Kings stuck in the middle—fighting for a play-in spot rather than rebuilding or making a serious push.
Contrarian Corner: Here’s What I Think
Alright, now that we’ve covered the facts, let’s get into what I think. Here’s why I believe the Schröder signing isn’t as bad as it’s being made out to be:
- Cap Efficiency – Schröder’s contract accounts for just 9% of the cap. Compare that to Domas (27%) and LaVine (25%), and it’s a bargain.
- Market Realities – Schröder was the best available point guard this offseason, and his agent had all the leverage to maximize the mid-level exception.
- On-Court Impact – Ranked 24th among all point guards by HoopsHype and among the top rotational point guard available by Dunc’d On Prime, Schröder offers solid value for a starting point guard—especially considering the opportunity cost of using the full MLE to secure him. With only 30 starting PG roles in the league, his defensive intensity, playmaking, and ball-handling make him a worthwhile investment relative to the cap space required. Speaking of playmaking, after the Fox trade, the Kings’ assist rate dropped to 25th in the league, highlighting the need for a competent distributor. While Schröder isn’t John Stockton, he’s a skilled ball handler and a reliable playmaker who can help stabilize the offense.
- Defensive Edge – Schröder’s defensive tenacity is a much-needed asset. As Draymond Green put it, Schröder is a disrupter, in all the best ways. Just ask Shae Gilgeous-Alexander, who once said, “Hey man, they called this show business, not show friends.” While Schröder and SGA are friends, the incident highlighted the professional and competitive aspect of basketball, where personal relationships can sometimes take a backseat to the demands of the game. That’s the kind of edge the Kings need.
- International Success – Let’s not sleep on the gold medal Schröder brought Germany at FIBA EuroBasket 2025, where he averaged 20.3 points, 7.2 assists, and 3.4 rebounds as the freaking MVP!
Was Dennis Schröder the ideal replacement for De’Aaron Fox? No. Do I agree with the overall philosophy of staying afloat rather than taking a step back to rebuild? Not in the least. But the value of the Schröder deal is undeniable. At just 9% of the cap, it’s a low-risk move that could pay dividends. And who knows? If things don’t pan out, Schröder could be flipped for assets that make the naysayers eat their words.
Conclusion
Scott Perry’s track record with the Knicks—especially in the draft—gives me hope. The GM search may have been a joke, but the Schröder signing suggests he’s no scrub. As for Dennis Schröder, he may not be the perfect fit, but he’s a solid addition at a reasonable price. Stay tuned for more on Perry’s draft with the Kings earlier this summer and all the hot takes in the next Contrarian Corner.
Good insight. My issue with the signing is that it kept the Kings in “staying mid” argument in the West. I wanted them to either swing big for a star level guy, or just go in the tank, develop young guys, and get assets.
I think Dennis is fine, he will help the Kings be more competitive for a play-in run, even if that’s a crappy thing to watch your team strive for.
My optomist take: We still have Domas, was just listening to him talk to Carmichael Dave and he’s a good guy and lots of fun to watch. He needs to put up 25ppg and pass less IMO. We have Lavine who is a lethal scorer and him/Monk are both fun to watch. If DeMar can learn to be the 3rd option and Christie plays him less minutes then he might be useful. Keegan and Keon need to step up and be better than last year, Schroder needs to be solid and not try to do too much. If the Kings do those things and Christie improves the defense a bit, they could be a 6-8 seed maybe, that’s the ceiling for this team to me.
I had that same thinking that Domas needs to shoot/score more, but then I heard Will Z on a podcast talk about how when Domas shoots more, the team actually lost more games (I don’t remember the threshold of FGA he was using). I think what I want to see from Domas is that when he has the opportunity to score, especially down low, that he takes the shot.
For me, the key is to have DDR shoot less, Dennis to fit in to the offensive flow, Keon and Keegan to get up more 3s. If they can work on that, then I think the offense will be fine.
That’s fine but the issue isn’t signing Schroder per se. The issue is that he doesn’t fit with any of the pieces on the roster that already don’t fit AT ALL. This roster is a disaster of mismatched pieces that I firmly believe is going to be much worse than the talent level would suggest. I am confidently taking the under on 30 wins this season. This is not fantasy basketball. Guys like Lu Dort, Cason Wallace and Hartenstein aren’t individually as talented as guys like Lavine but they’re just better at playing winning basketball within a team concept. The Kings somehow after 12 years of Vivek at the helm still haven’t figured this out. It’s actually incredible to be this sycophantically wrong for this long. There’s new owner syndrome and then there’s braindead owner syndrome. We’re dealing with the later.
Well stated.
Yes! Which is why Keon needs to play more.
I feel Keon and/or Carter are going to be left out of the rotation on most nights, especially if Doug prioritizes Nique minutes at the 2 spot. I’d imagine there might be some directive from Perry there. They did trade up to get him, so not playing Nique would be really dumb.
I Monk can get moved it opens up time for Keon, Nique and even Carter.
If they preach defense this much and don’t play Keon, then what are we doing here?
Following the shit show that is the Vivek owned Kings?
You have to ask yourself, have the Kings ever prioritized defense in the Vivek era? Have they acquired anyone that was pre-known for their defensive attributes?
Vivek has always been about offense and scoring points. It’s what sells and is fun. Don’t stop your opponent, just outscore them. 4 vs 5.
Yep.
Only chance is if LaVine plays a lot of SF, like 25 minutes.
All the SF/PF minutes are split between Keegan, DDR and LaVine. but that would mean only like 10 minutes with LaVine, DDR & Keegan on the floor together. As the assumed starters, it won’t be that low.
Have Keon on the 2nd team. Damn this team is thin in the front court.
No argument here. If they were smart, they’d start Schroder, Keon, Keegan, Demar and Sabonis and attempt to play good guard defense to protect Sabonis and surround Demar with shooting. Bring Lavine off the bench. Or swap Lavine and Derozan in the starting lineup. Either way, at least that’s a good faith attempt to try and make sense of this disastrous roster.
Now, obviously I’d prefer to trade Derozan, Lavine, Sabonis, Monk and anything else of any value other than Keon and Keegan and go from there. Be horrible in get a high pick in an excellent draft with 5-6 potential difference makers. But that’s never happening so we’ll get a mess instead.
I like the starting five but instead of DDR I would start LaVine. Zach is one of the best offensive players in the league and plays a little and I say a little better defense. Trade DDR for a backup SF or PF like Kyle Kuzma or Rui Hachimura. Start Keon instead of DDR.
Kudo’s to being positive. I wish I could find the strength.
But:
Other than TKH, which media outlet here is actually cranky and harping on the organization? I must have blinked.
This is where it begins and ends for me
Every move under Vivek is really just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Perry is just a Vivek yes-man, and I even think that applies somewhat to Doug too. Shroooooder’s NBA career to date doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in me that he’ll somehow take it to the next level now (he’s great for Euro play, though!), and other than the draft (agreed that he may have done decent there) Perry’s work as GM has been somewhere between meh and downright concerning. The West is still brutal and the team is still old and unbalanced. There’s no way this team should be trying to carry out a wacko “win now” directive but here we are. I think the results will be easy to predict.
This is the kicker:
Even if the team somehow improves on paper and dudes put up solid numbers (think the year DMC, Rudy and IT all averaged 20PPG in a 28 win season) the West is just too stacked the Kings don’t have depth and the current parts don’t fit.
I could honestly see every guy on this team putting up their solid career averages, which look good on a fantasy team, but the team fails to crack 30 wins.
I just can’t rationalize Schröder’s contract as being good. I don’t care if it is 9% from the cap. He signed for the full MLE in a very depressed market.
I get that the Kings prioritized a PG this summer, and I’m fine with that, but I just don’t see Dennis as the PG that this team needs. He’s more in that scoring guard mode, like a Malik Monk or even Fox, than he is a floor general PG. In all honesty, I’m not too sure he’s all that better of a PG than Monk, at least not worth having both of them on the roster with similar contracts. There is just too much redundancy there, especially when it comes to their poor shooting.
I think Perry simply overplayed his hand and overpaid Dennis in a rushed move, especially when guys like the Jones bothers, D’Angelo Russell, or even Spencer Dinwiddie took far less money to fill similar roles.
Give me a 28 year old Tyus Jones on a 1 yer deal at $7M as opposed to a 32 year old Schröder on a 3 year $44M deal. This also doesn’t take into account the need to move JV to open up space which meant adding Saric and Eubanks. It also might have allowed the Kings to retain LaRavia. The entire offseason just snowballed in a bad way because of the Schröder signing.
But hey, let’s stay positive. Maybe Dennis can be a solid leda guard on this projected sub 40 win team and can retain his value. He is not a bad defender and he will be needed to pick up full court as the POA defender. He did it with Germany, so lets hope Doug has him do it here in Sac. Part of me wonders if a team like Houston may come calling for his services come December 14th. He is the kind of lead guard they could use. I feel the Kings will be well below ten games under .500 by then, so maybe they become sellers.
I commonly see the world through Purple colored lenses. Here is that perspective: SP is playing the medium to long game- he knows he cannot rebuild the team in one off season. He gets DS for 2-3 years for temporary stability. He knows the roster is unbalanced (good for fantasy but not for playing) and will slowly but consistently reshape it. There were no good deals out there for DDR, Cater or Monk. His draft picks seem solid (now) and if either can contribute as a rotation player, he wins. The up-tempo rap is all he’s got. Bad teams can overcome deficiencies with gimmicks like that. But if the other team scores you can’t run.
I think it is positive that he did not bite on Kuminga or Westbrick. JK is not a savior- the duds know that.
the reality is that despite the mis balanced talent here, the West is tough and much better balanced than the Kings. The good teams have an identity. Most good teams have a very good PG (like Fox) but it is possible to win with 5 good players- possible, but less likely. DS is average at best PG. But he can be pesty and that’s his best skill.
I also hear that the top 3 player in next years draft are pretty good. Just sayin’
Schroder is not the first Eurobasket MVP to play for the Kings. Name the two others.Bonus: Name the former Eurobasket MVP that has ties to the current roster.
Sobering trivia quiz: Name the Eurobasket MVP that most recently precedes Schroder.
I know the last one because I bought it up a few days back as a reality check: Willy Hernangomez
One MVP that did not play for the Kings but should have based solely on his name is Chris Welp.
LOL!
I’m gonna guess on your other two (without looking it up) and confidently say Peja is one. The other….Nemanja?
Got one of them (Peja).
Sasha?
I know he was Euroleague MVP, but not Eurobasket MVP
I’m trying to think of what countries have won the cup. I know Spain has won a few. Sergio Rodriguez?
Hint: It was not Papagiannis.
Sarunas Marciulionis!
Ding!
And the MVP with ties is Arvydas Sabonis.
If you don’t have hope for your team in the preseason, why be a fan at all? The Kings might be surprising this year. They might be. Right now their record is 0-0, just like all the other teams. Are they going to win a championship? Well, let’s say that 30 years from now Maxime Reynaud is regarded as the dominant NBA player of the second quarter of the 21st century, Then, the answer is pretty likely yes. Or they use the 12th pick in the 2026 NBA draft to pick the next Giannis. Or Nique Clifford is the next Michael Jordan. Or… Okay, a 45 win team that finishes 8th in the west and then gets the number 8 spot in the play in. Admit it, that’s more entertaining than anything we saw in the DeMarcus Cousins era.
Because being fan is somewhere between a multi-year to lifelong affair? Not a seasonal matter?
Leon Rose was the President of Bball Ops while Perry was with the Knicks . He was hired from the Kings by Steve Mills , than Knicks President of Bball ops . Mills was fired several seasons later . Not sure how Perry gets credit for drafts since he was never the final decision maker . Hope he is the final decision maker but strongly doubt it . Monte to his credit was an Executive of Year .
who then drafted an injured guard on a team with too many guards and a glaring need for a power forward/center or long SF. He did that with the 13th pick. For a team with its entire future as a unit riding on making the playoffs. I do think Monte was a pretty good GM but that mistake was monumental. Kel’el Ware as taken two picks later at 15. Dalton Kinecht was taken 4 picks later at 17.
Put either one of those dudes (who were both rumored as the predicted draft selection for the kings) and you’re looking at a playoff appearance and Fox signing a contract extension here in sacramento.
I too am a natural optimist, and therefore conclude the Tinder Ownership Group will ignore all the haters and continue to build a legacy built on incompetence.
I wish I could be optimistic, maybe I’ve given into pessimistic side of my nature.
Why can’t the Kings just hire a proven GM. I know why Vivek won’t, I just have the feeling and I’d love to be wrong but Perry and his talk building blocks and culture sounds like BS once this team loses 6 straight and Lavine and DeRozan suck on Defense are still on the floor.
I get that this roster needs work but I see a complete lack of imagination or thinking outside the box of who to improve this Roster. Dennis is a decent player but god lord this talk of him being this culture changer and how he will be picking guys up at 94 feet when he has played on 10 teams in this league makes us sound like a cult the way he is talked up Why couldn’t the Kings take a flyer on some young PGs like Cole Anthony for a year
I like Doug Christie but in which other organization would he have a job, I wish the guy well but I just see this going well.
The Thunder have more picks than they know what to do with, you look at the exciting guys at the bottom of their roster and they way the develop them, and the Kings resign Dougie McBuckets and Drew Eubanks
If Sabonis or Dennis gets hurt it doesn’t seem great
I’d love to know what the last offer for Kuminga was and I suspect it was the Warriors greed that saved the Kings
duds have a high opinion of themselves and their players. They have gotten deals over and over. We could call that savvy or the jerks win.
They were trying to punk the Kings on JK. In the old ABA days, he would be great- all offense, shoot first and often but he is not a team guy despite his so-called immense talents. He was worth the first offer: 2 seconds + Saric and Carter but not the second or third offers. Come January the duds will come calling again, this time starting with a worse offer. To think that the Kings might have promised him a starting role is sickening.
OT: Just saw this video and in it he included the Kings in a blockbuster move of Lauri to Minny. In it he had the Kings giving up 2 first round picks and Monk for Jaden McDaniels. That seems like an incredible overpay to me for a guy who, although a very good defender, would still be behind DDR and Keegan.
It got me thinking more about Lauri than McDaniels. Monk and DDR is almost. perfect salary match for Laui. Ainge would for sure want picks, so would the Kings add 2 or even 3 unprotected firsts for Lauri? DDR and Monk would be gone. Kings go all in on Lauri, Sabonis, extend Keegan and let LaVine expire or take a pay cut after next season?
I would take Eason over McDaniels only for the reason we could possibly trade for Eason. Both are great defenders.Eason playing along with Murray at the 3 and next to Sabonis would be a really good fit.Murray and Eason together would give the Kings one of the best defensive duos in the league.
I’ll have whatever he’s having please.
Trying to decide if it’s even worth it to buy a few games to see live this season–home and away. Fans want wins, not individual stats. I’m really pulling for Doug Christie to turn this into a winner.
Don’t go to a single fucking game. They do not deserve support.
The fuck is there to be excited about this abortion of a team? At this point any fan hates themselves. Its a humiliation ritual. I couldn’t care less what Vivek’s next puppet man Scott Petty says. This team will be shit forever.
My biggest issue is we keep signing contracts that we think can be flipped and then discovering they don’t actually have any value. This could be another one
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