The Sacramento Kings guaranteed the final year of Nemanja Bjelica’s contract, per NBC’s James Ham.
The Sacramento Kings chose not to waive Nemanja Bjelica before today's deadline, making his $7.15 million contract for the 2020-21 season fully guaranteed.
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) November 20, 2020
Bjelica, who signed a three-year, $20,475,000 contract in 2018, had a deadline Thursday to make the last year of his deal fully guaranteed. Sacramento opted in, choosing not to waive the 32-year-old stretch four.
Last season, Bjelica appeared in 72 games and played 27.9 minutes per game, a career-high mark for the Serbian. With the uptick in minutes, Bjelica posted career-high numbers in points, rebounds, assists, steals, field goal percentage, three-point percentage, free throw percentage, and more.
Monte McNair and company clearly saw the value in retaining Bjelica’s services; whether they keep or trade Bjelica is something to monitor moving forward as a contending team could fancy his talent.
If he isn’t in the Kings’ plans for this season, Bjelica should be a valuable trade chip especially near the trade deadline. He’s shot over 40% from three each of his seasons with the Kings, including a career-best 41.9% last season on 4.4 attempts per game. That skill, on a reasonably-priced expiring contract, should be appealing to playoff teams.
I’m kinda liking this mcnair guy
Even though he’s clearly not going to be a part of the future here, and I’ll be glad he’s traded for an asset or two, it’ll be sad seeing him go. I really enjoyed watching him play here.
At that price, he is well worth it from a production standpoint and given his game he probably has another 5 years of being a solid NBA rotation player left. If they don’t trade him at the deadline I wouldn’t be surprised to see McNair offer him another 1 + 1 contract.
I would love it if this happens. He’s one of my favorite players, and almost certainly my favorite post game interview of all time.
Good. He’ll be useful as a player & as a trade asset.
I am 100% good with this. You can’t find a better value to contract guy who does what he does in free agency. Good asset management.
Makes me think ownership is allowing McNair to spend some money. Which is cool, if true.
That would have been a pretty bad sign financially if they hadn’t picked up this deal.
Credit where it’s due: we know from reports that the Kings have taken a big financial hit. We know some of their other business ventures are also hurting. But the team is still being run an in a way that doesn’t scream poverty. The only possible exception is Walton, who would be rather expensive to fire, and McNair may be willing to simply see how he does this year.
Yeah, I think the first inklings of this were McNair being allowed to add significantly experienced front office staff. And now this.
Well done on the Kings part.
Who do you replace Walton with? I get it were it Erik Spoelstra. But… he’s not available.
I’m not a huge fan of Walton, but I don’t see what replacing him really achieves.
Replace him with anyone that looks at this roster and doesn’t think, “We need to slow things down and work out of the half-court offense. And obviously, Buddy Hield will initiate the offense half the time.”
I truly believe that the team would have had more success with no coach last season. These guys know their own games, and can make adjustments. They’re professionals! It’s not as if they’re going break down and cry if a team switches to a zone defense.
Apart from the fact that I like and value Bjeli, he came specifically to Sac after backing out from a deal with the Sixers. Keeping him is a reward for that and is the right thing to do.
It may give McNair also some extra credit with players and agents, as an aside.
Apparently BB8 has the same agent as Bjelly, so I’m seeing Bucks fans pointing to that as a precedent for what happened w/BB8. I wonder how NBA FO’s feel about that agent?
Love it.
stay and play.
smart smart smart
now do the same with Bogi and trade Buddy.
Smart move. He’s a solid vet and will be wanted by somebody. If they can move Buddy and match Bogdan (hopefully deal at the deadline), I like the roster to start the season
Fox/Guy/CoJo
Bogdan/Halliburton/Ramsey
Barnes/Woodard/Brewer
Bjelica/Giles/Parker
Bagley/Holmes
Between Bogdan, Halliburton, Barnes, Woodard, I see a lot of offensive positional flexibility. Love to see that.
This is good
Kind of a no-brainer as a future trade piece, really. He’s arguably been the best player on the roster the last two seasons, and only making $7 million.
Curious if this Hawks Dedmon trade with the Pistons, has something to do in matching salary in a Bogi Sign and trade. Conceivable that Snell does fit some of our team needs, and our history with Dedmon would make it hard to have him back. That was the obvious salary for them to move now they could in theory move Snell instead.
I guess its also possible Snell is the go for the Hawks, over seeking Bogi, considering their reported interest in Rondo, Danilo. Might have been a patchwork job to keep FA room.
Still the Dedmon trade seems relevant in Bogi to Atl.
Another shrewd move, Nemanja should be a great trade piece this season.
we keep getting positive news fellow Kings fans. It’s refreshing.
Babaloo approves. I think this is a smart move.
This seemed like a no-brainer to me, but I know a lot of people felt otherwise. Bjelica is an excellent asset going forward, on the court in Sacramento, or sent elsewhere for useful pieces/picks.
Monte is batting a thousand.
This may foreshadow a bit in regards to Bogi’s status. Not only do they share the same agent, they are also friends. I guess we will find out soon enough. 3pm today!
At least a little bit of a litmus test here for the organization. As an expiring $7.2m contract, picking up Bjelica’s option would seem to be a no-brainer. He has at least a little bit of value to contract, and he could fetch a future late 1st / 2nd round pick if there is a playoff contending team that needs to boost its bench deep shooting up front (also, the Kings are marginally better with him than without him). But given the financial strain from the pandemic, I would not have been surprised to see the Kings cut Bjelly loose, especially after Parker picked up his option.
Good basketball operations decision that was not overridden by the bottom line. Count it as a small victory for an organization in need of victories.
Yogi214’d.
Fuck it…he deserved it!
Real rough look, but with Gallinari and Dunn, Hawks still have enough for the rumored around 18 per for Bogdan I think. I understand the signings help in thinking they might sign and trade but I still think they have the room upon quick glance. And having addressed the other needs prior to having to be cap locked while the Kings deliberate, there is arguably even less incentive to sign and trade as they have made signings to help prior to waiting on the Kings verdict.
I just hope McNair is able to find something workable for Buddy, but nothing is remotely being rumored. I think its going to be very hard to find a deal. And that leads to tough choices for our new GM upon what think is a likely offer sheet over sign and trade.
Badge Legend