The Sacramento Kings have signed Kent Bazemore to a one-year contract, according to a report from The Atheltic’s Sham Charania.
Free agent forward Kent Bazemore has agreed to a one-year deal with the Sacramento Kings, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 7, 2022
Bazemore spent 25 games with the Sacramento Kings at the end of the 2019-2020 season after being acquired via trade with the Trail Blazers. After leaving the Kings, Bazemore spent a year with the Golden State Warriors with now-Kings coach Mike Brown. Bazemore now returns to a city he’s familiar with, under a coach he knows.
Interestingly, even though it was just a couple years ago, there are very few Kings players who played with Bazemore in his previous stint. De’Aaron Fox, Harrison Barnes, Richaun Holmes, Alex Len…and that’s it.
No contract details have been reported as of yet. I would assume this deal is for a veteran minimum, or it may even be a partially guaranteed camp deal (as Matthew Dellavedova’s deal was later reported to be).
In case anyone is confused about roster spots being used, it’s important to remember that teams can carry up more players into training camp, and don’t have to be down to 17 (15 spots + 2 Two-Ways) until closer to the start of the regular season.
Welcome back to Sac, Kent Bazemore!
Purple Baze!
This changes EVERYTHING
Baze might give the Kings one extra win, so I’m changing my prediction for next season from 35 wins to 36.
I’m going from 41 to 42 locking up that lucritous 10th play-in spot we’ve all been clamoring for, not to mention the 2nd laker we’ve poached from the Lakers further handicapping their depth and shooting and sending them out of the play-in contention!! #LFG baby!!
1) Denver
2) Memphis
3) Warriors
4) Suns
5) Timberwolves
6) Clippers
7) Dallas
8) Pelicans
9) Portland
10) Kings
We’ll have to beat Portland and the Pelicans to break our streak but there’s a chance, this year’s Play-in will be the most competitive it’s been since it began. This is my humble opinion.
Who cares about LA? Not a terrible playoff prediction as of right now, but by playoff time, it will definitely be terrible.
Baze more or less.
He did alright playing the 3 a few years ago. Dunno that he’s got much left in the tank, but if so he could be an okay 3rd string wing
Last stop on the career train.
LFG 🔥 The 3 we’ve all been clamoring for.
Good positive energy/culture guy who brings his game face every night.
Another guy who knows and can teach The Mine Brown System.
It’s a one year deal. Me likey.
Mike Brown is hand picking the entire bench. You’ll certainly see his culture imprint, hopefully it all translates to the court. I like that it seems McNair and Brown are collaborating in filling out the roster. I can’t wait for the season!
He’s definitely hand picking the latter part of the bench with McNair, The top 10 were already on the works, but I do like that they are prioritizing high character workers that are essentially coaches on the players bench and lockers, internal moral and unity can make and brake a team, Brown made it very clear everyone from the top down will know their roles and there will be trust, me likey very much! Time for some accountability. So far in 2 voluntary player workouts minimum of 8 have showed up, Coach Brown has his guys motivated and all in so far, let’s hope it can translate into some W’s.
Dynasty type of move.
I really wish this sight didn’t sign me out every time so I would know when there’s comments.
And despite faithfully checking the remember me button and pledging that I am not a robot…
My cache is as clean as a whistle (which is a stupid saying because the inside of whistles are often full of mucus and germs).
We’re aware of the issue and trying to get it resolved.
Greg is a robot confirmed.
For me it’s been like that for months. I was assuming they were just trying to get rid of me and hadn’t tried hard enough.
Looks like we’re all in the same boat,
In that we’re all trying to get rid of Marty?
Be interested to see what Bazey’s deal looks like. Otherwise, I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it all shakes out. As per usual.
Luke ?? where have you been? you coming back too?
Back up 3? I assume he can play SF (small female???)
Veteran towel waving!
Didn’t see this coming at all! If he has anything left in the tank, I actually like the fit irrespective of any prior relationships (which could be beneficial). At 33, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could contribute. I would say Baze has a better chance of getting meaningful minutes than Delly, and maybe better than any of the young guys not named Keegan.
Welcome back Ace
Excellent reserve SF depth pickup! cool that mike brown is bringing in guys he knows, believes in, that believe in him who are all hard working guys who also bring it every night. The kings bench wont lack depth and grit. I’m liking this team! Now that Baze is back (who most of us were bummed to see go) whats the final roster? Does Delly make the team? Someone has to get cut. I think we see Alex Len released or traded for a future 2nd round pick very soon. Queta is available for big body backup C when needed and has significantly more upside. I would assume Brown and Monte want to keep Delly? He seems to fit ever so slightly better over Len.
The west is stacked. Kings will have a tough season as will the rest of the league.
One could easily predict this:
1) Warriors
2) Nuggets
3) Grizzlies
4) Suns
5) Timberwolves
6) Clippers
7) Mavericks
8) Pelicans
9.) Lakers
10.) Portland
11.) Kings
12.) Rockets
13.) Jazz
14.) Thunder
15.) Spurs
One could also see the Kings be the 6th seed. At first thought, the 6th seed seems insane. That said I do believe the top 5 teams on this list could end in any order (even reversed) and I wouldnt be suprised.
I think you could say the same thing is true with where the 6 -11 teams finish. Theres two teirs, the top 5 who likely wont finish more than 7 games apart from each other and the bottom 6 who likely wont finish more than 7 games apart from eachother. Kings need to start strong, if so… maybe theyll shock the world. I will not allow myself to get my hopes up though.
Side note, when you look at how high the competition is (recognize that the kings want to make the playoffs) I don’t see how you can reasonably expect a Harrison Barnes trade. No chance. Without Barnes THE Kings hope fore a playoff birth goes from hopeful to impossible. Not to say it’s impossible to dream of a scenario where Barnes, Holmes and a future first are traded fo an allstar calliber SF but it surely seems unlikely.
I am not one that can see the Kings be the 6th seed. That would put them at 45+ wins(?). Assuming no injuries and teams at full strength heading in to the season, Kings would be lucky to be the 9th seed. I am hoping for better, expecting 10th or 11th seed, again.
Yeah, a 15 win improvement would be remarkable, but unlikely. They’d need quite a bit of luck to make that happen.
Random thought/prediction: The Kings may not have a chance at a legit playoff run until the league goes through another round of expansion. They may need a bit of dilution of talent in the West to make the 6th-7th seed.
Why would a 15 win improvement be remarkable? Do we have any idea how good this group can be yet? What baseline are we using to forecast this team?
The baseline for this team is a boat. No, no, sorry. It’s baseline is a mystery box.
Well, Minnesota did that last season (rewarding them with the 7th spot, or Top Seed of the Play-In (so ridiculous)) and for Monte McNair to secure his future as GM for The Sacramento Kings, King Vivek has publicly stated his mandate!
Or it could be a boat.
theres no mandate according to Monte. This whole “mandate” thing was a word a reporter used with zero quotes from anyone in the organization who would actually have that inside info. Theres nothing to back it up as a real thing. Sports media and social media latched onto the kangzy concept and ran with it. Very quickly the word mandate was in every article about the kings since basically the playoffs began. It’s all bull shit.
Do they want to make the playoffs really really really really really really really bad? Yes. Did someone in ownership say they expect a big jump in wins this season with the addition of Ox for 82 games? maybe/probably. Is that a “mandate”? No it is not.
can you tell how sick I am of this “mandate” shit!?!?
Maybe because the last and only time the Sacramento Kings improved by as much as 15 games it was the lock out shortened season of 1998-99 when the Kings added CWebb, Vlade, Peja, JWill, and Adelman all in the same offseason?
The went from a 27 win team to 27 win team in a shortened season that equated to 44 wins, good for a 17 game improvement…but who know what it would have been in an 82 game season. So the truth is, they have NEVER improved by 15 games in a full regular season. That’s a pretty good baseline to forecast from.
Other teams have done it recently, like PHX, Memphis and Minny, but they also had healthy superstar talent.
I like the new look Kings, but they aren’t that good. I’d love to see it happen, but history is not on their side.
First off, they turned over the entire roster minus Corliss Williamson and Tariq Abdul-Wahad. Why the ’98 win total is being compared to the ’99 win total seems a bit convoluted of an argument. Especially when it was obvious the 98 team wasn’t going to win anything anytime in the future.
Second, why are we starting with the notion this was a 30 win team for the entirety of the season? A) they tanked the last 50 games up to the deadline, B) tanked (loose definition of tank actually) another 10 after Fox and Sabonis were paired, and C) it’s not like the Fox and Sabonis pairing was automatically going to produce out of the chute with the roster they had.
So, I ask again, what’s the baseline for this team? And, what’s the basis for determining that baseline?
Healthy? Surely you don’t mean Ja Morant who missed 25 games last season. Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson aren’t superstars either. And qthey are no doubt valuable.
I love Anthony Edwards and he’d be my #1 choice to build around if I’m taking a player from the last 4 drafts. But superstar last season? That’s pushing it. The next several years? I would not argue that. But that’s not what you said.
KAT a superstar? Yeah, not going to agree with any big being a superstar without getting a minimum of 11 RPG or at least being a top 10 defensive rebounder.
Devin Booker: Sure, why not? After all, his first 5 seasons in Phoenix he clearly was a winner. I do surely remember all those deep playoff runs the Suns were making all those years ther with Booker as the centerpiece.
Why would history be on the Kings side here? What suggests they’ll be bad? Or good? Or the second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit? Or chuckleheads on the mean streets of Narnia?
***
This just comes down to you don’t believe in De’Aaron Fox being the best player on a successful team. Which is fine, but it would be alot simpler to come out and say ‘you’ll believe it when you see it.’
And I’ll ask again: What’s the baseline for this team?
It’s true, I don’t believe Fox can be the best player on a successful team, but Sabonis can, and has been.
And you are right, I’ll believe it when I see it, but I’m just expecting to see it. The current talent and math just don’t support it, but who knows, maybe Keegan comes out of the gates as the shoe in ROY and Huerter becomes the second coming of Klay Thompson. I have about as much faith in that as I do in Sabonis becoming a rim protector and Fox becoming a threat from three.
IMO, it would take a near perfect season to increase the win total by 15 or more, and by perfect I mean no major injuries and some career years for the Kings, and some injuries to their opponents. Coach Brown would also likely be worthy of a fair share of COY votes.
Actually you don’t need career years out of these guys to have big improvement. Remember the new guys are coming in to replace guys that had big dip in efficiency (Buddy) or end of the bench guys playing big minutes (Harkless, Metu). And Holmes was very below his standard.
You can expect a bounce back year from Fox and Holmes. Everyone else can be true to their skill set and efficiency.
Not sure how much improvement there will be. But they should be at least top 10 offense.
If their defense can get better, then their offense can even get better. A few more stops can turn into easy transition points.
Hopefully Fox bounces up.
Baseline for this team is 31 wins. Same as the baseline for any team.
What do you think the baseline for this team is?
I am probably way too bullish on this team and can see 42-44 wins. My reasons are as follows:
I just like the construct of this roster I believe that Sabonis will do great, Fox will get better Murray is going to be very effective for a rookie Mitchell will get better and if we can remain relatively healthy I do not think that 42 to 44 wins is out of the question. This is the most bullish I’ve been on the team and 12+ years
Because 15 more wins is 50% better than 31 wins.
That is remarkable for most sports teams let alone this record setting losing NBA team.
I have them winning 40-42 games which this year I beleive only gets you the 10th seed bearly, so 45 wouldn’t be miraculous in my eyes and my basis is we weren’t really a true 30 win team last year just like Phoenix wasn’t really a 60 win team. I think had we gone all in and not tanked we would have won 35 games give or take, but I do agree that some luck would have to go our way to win 45 plus games. I think there will be 5 west teams in the tankathon race once the dust settles.
Hopefully the Kings finally tank if this roster doesn’t work out.
Very nice, reliable bench guy at the wing should they need him, and if I recall, actually plays defense.
Meh, the guy began last season as a starter for the Lakers but was moved to the bench about a month in. The second half of the season he had a bunch of DNP-CD. By the end of the season he was only getting garbage minutes. He ended up playing in just 39 games on a shit roster in LA.
Do you want Bazemore playing in more than half the games in the coming season for Sacramento? With any luck, he won’t need to.
Yes, because I love the sheer neurotic reaction Kings fans have to everything.
I sure hope not, but right now it looks like he needs to beat out KZ or Moneke for the backup wing spot, one of which might be cut.
As of today I’d say the ones least likely to make the final roster spot are Moneke, KZ, and Metu. In that order.
If those guys beat him out, great. If he beats them out, great. I’m perfectly find with bringing in a mix of proven vets and hungry young guys and letting the best players stick around.
He’s no Shump. Which is probably a good thing cuz Shump is looking at jail time.
All kidding aside, Bazemore was a solid role player when he was here last. Not the guy you want for your starting 3, but good enough to fill in when needed.
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