How does the Delon Wright acquisition affect Richaun Holmes’ future in Sacramento?

Immediately following the Sacramento Kings win over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday evening, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN announced that the Kings were sending Cory Joseph and two second round picks to the Detroit Pistons for guard Delon Wright.

At first glance, this sort of maneuver is a savvy one by Kings General Manager Monte McNair. Joseph, while a locker room presence and an on-court veteran guide for the Kings, has lost more than a step in the last few years, and frankly, his on-court play had become unbearable to watch. Wright represents a major upgrade as a backup point guard for the Kings, and he’s locked up next year for an extremely reasonable rate of $8.5 million. Snagging a rotational player of his caliber without having to battle other teams in free agency is pretty smart for a team in Sacramento’s position, and well worth two second rounders.

However, the acquisition of Wright also creates an interesting conundrum for Sacramento and their future with starting center Richaun Holmes. Swapping out Joseph’s $2.4 million guarantee for Wright’s full salary will put the Kings in a difficult cap situation. If no other moves are made between now and the start of free agency, Sacramento will almost certainly elect to operate as an over-the-cap team, unlocking two paths to potentially re-signing Holmes: the standard, non-taxpayer mid-level exception, or early bird rights. While it’s true that the Kings could also choose to go under the cap to start the summer, they would only have about $4 million in space, not nearly enough to make a dent in the open market.

If the Kings do operate over the cap, the MLE would be an unlikely tool to re-up Holmes for a couple of reasons. First, it only allows a team to sign a player for a maximum of three years, rather than the traditional four, and Holmes will likely be looking for long-term security at this point in his career. Also, the MLE starts at about $9.7 million, with 5% annual, non-compounding raises, allowing Sacramento to put forth a deal at a max of approximately three years, $30.6 million, probably much lower than Holmes’ camp will be seeking after his best season in the pros.

Thankfully, the Kings also possess his early bird rights, but those still may not be enough, depending on the demand for Richaun’s services. Early bird rights allow a team to go over the cap and re-sign a player with two seasons on the book, for either 175% of their previous year’s salary or 105% of league-average salary, whichever is greater. In Holmes’ case, that would be 105% of league-average salary, projected to come out to approximately $10.5 million in the first season of his deal. Early bird rights also allow a team to offer a four-year deal, as well as 8% raises, which helps the Kings a bit. In total, McNair could throw an offer in the range of four years, $47 million, which gets Sacramento much closer to Holmes’ expected offers.

Unfortunately, there’s no way for the Kings to add a cent to that contract, meaning a team could come it at four years, $50 million, and the Kings would almost certainly see their starting center, and one of their most important contributors, walk for absolutely nothing.

Of course, there are multiple solutions to be found for Sacramento – all hope is not lost. If the Kings end up picking in the 7 – 10 range, and if they keep two of DaQuan Jeffries, Chimezie Metu and Justin James, they’ll enter next season approximately $4 million under the cap line. Assuming that Monte McNair wants to get gain between $15 and $20 million in available cash, the Kings will need to shed around $11 million in salary. That seems to coordinate perfectly with an expected Marvin Bagley trade, but things may be more complicated than at first glance. If the Kings only shed Bagley in the hopes of getting far enough under the line to re-sign Holmes, they’ll need to take zero dollars in multi-year salary back, which feels unrealistic given Bagley’s lack of value in the market. It’s possible, but not a guarantee.

Another option for Sacramento is to move a much larger contract, either that of Buddy Hield or Harrison Barnes. As it’s been well-reported, the Kings have been in multiple discussions with other teams regarding the availability of Barnes, although they seem to be seeking a sky-high price for their starting forward. Hield, on the other hand, seemingly has no interest, at least for any sort of positive return for the Kings, although if Sacramento is desperate enough to open up some money, they could probably find a buyer that would send back a couple of expiring deals and a minor asset or two.

If the Kings aren’t willing to part with Barnes, and they won’t sell low on Buddy Hield, their only other available path may very well be to simply move Holmes himself. Too often have the Kings missed out on value because they held onto a pending unrestricted free agent for far too long, only to see them walk to another team in the summer, and Sacramento can’t afford to do the same with Richaun. There is a clear market for him, as the Charlotte Hornets, Toronto Raptors, and the Dallas Mavericks have all shown interest in him in the last 48 hours, and cashing out on a soon-to-be highly paid big man may be the best path forward for Monte McNair, who has emphasized financial flexibility time and again in his press conferences.

If there was one player that fans would have predicted that Monte McNair would have been unable to move for value, it likely would have been Cory Joseph, but Sacramento’s General Manger found a way to get it done. Now, he must determine his priorities going forward in regard to Richaun Holmes’ future in Sacramento. There are plenty of options for resolution, and the next 12 hours or so will determine exactly how much of a priority Richaun Holmes is to this team in the coming future.