The (un)official Sacramento Kings free agency primer

NBA free agency – there’s nothing like it. Each year, we as Kings fans pine for an established, good player to sign in Sacramento, and when that inevitably fails, we hope that a bargain-bin contributor will sign for a steal and somehow outperform their contract, a la Richaun Holmes a couple of seasons ago. This offseason, the Kings are in a bit of a different spot, as they won’t have any cap space to sling at veterans who will hopelessly underperform to their contract level (glares in Dewayne Dedmon), meaning exceptions and trades will be Monte McNair’s primary tools to improve a roster in desperate need of a talent infusion.

Cap Sheet

Before diving into what avenues of spending are available to the front office, it’s important to note why Sacramento won’t have the ability to go out and sign a Miles Bridges or Deandre Ayton to a max deal. When first glancing at the cap sheet, it seems as if the Kings should be able to find some flexibility in the marketplace. Their total guaranteed salaries as of this moment are around $103 million, well shy of the $122 million cap set earlier this year. There are the non-guaranteed salaries of Trey Lyles ($2.6 million) and Chimezie Metu ($1.9 million) to consider, and with Lyles’ late-season performance and Metu’s relationship with Mike Brown, fans should expect one or both of those players to return to Sacramento next season, especially with their low-cost deals.

With that pair of contracts pushing the Kings to around $108 million in salary, the Kings also have several significant cap holds on the books. Prior to some adjustments to the CBA in recent years, teams were able to wait on rookie deals to generate additional cap space, but that’s no longer the case. Unsigned first round picks account for 120% of their standard rookie-scale salary, putting Keegan Murray at an $8 million hold, pushing the Kings to $116 million in accounted salary.

In addition to Murray’s salary, the Kings will also be dealing with holds from pending free agents. While several aren’t expected to garner any interest to return to the team, Donte DiVincenzo, Damian Jones, and Neemias Queta could all be interesting re-sign candidates for the front office. Damian Jones’ ($1.8 million) and Neemias Queta’s ($1.6 million) cap holds are incredibly low, but the same cannot be said for DiVincenzo. If the Kings wish to retain his restricted free agent rights, and therefore the ability to match any offers from other teams, Sacramento must keep his hold on the books, which is an eye-opening $14 million. At that point, the Kings will be well, well over the cap line.

Of course, there is always the theory that the Kings could do everything in their power to create cap space for a Miles Bridges or whoever, but that path isn’t particularly realistic or helpful. If Monte McNair was dead set on shaving off as much salary as possible, he could cut Chimezie Metu and Trey Lyles, renounce all of his free agents, and even stretch the salary of a player like Maurice Harkless. If all of that happened, the Kings would be assessed three cap holds of $1 million apiece for empty roster spots, putting their total cap hold at about $111 million. And while all of that sounds executable in theory, Sacramento would be down to nine rostered players and would possess just $11 million in cap space, as well as the room mid-level exception, which starts at $5.3 million and can total 2 years, $11 million. Conversely, if they remain above the cap, they’ll have access to the non-taxpayer MLE, the bi-annual exception, and they’ll have Trey Lyles, Chimezie Metu, and Maurice Harkless on the roster, as well as still hold the rights to Donte DiVincenzo, Damian Jones, and oNeemias Queta. Operating above the cap is the only sensible option for Sacramento.

Restricted Free Agents

As was mentioned, the Kings hold the restricted free agent rights for Donte DiVincenzo and Neemias Queta. Assuming that Sacramento is willing to keep both of their cap holds on the books, the Kings will control the right of first refusal for both players, meaning they can match any contracts offered by any other teams for either contributor, and that player will return to Sacramento with the exact terms of that contract. The Kings don’t need available cap space for those players to return, and the front office can also negotiate new deals with those players without them ever entering contractual talks with other teams.

The only exception to the above rule is if DiVincenzo or Queta decide to take the qualifying offer, which is an incredibly rare occurrence. In that case, the player would be granted a one-year contract at a specified amount ($6.6 million for DiVincenzo and $1.6 million for Queta), and once that contract expired, that player would enter unrestricted free agency the following offseason. For DiVincenzo, a player still coming back from a serious injury who is seeking his first big payday, the qualifying offer doesn’t make much sense, while Queta would only be able to take the Q.O. if the Kings offered it to retain his restricted free agency, which may not be the case. Sacramento can also revoke the Q.O. at any time if they wish to open up a roster spot or for whatever other reason.

Unrestricted Free Agents

The Kings also have several unrestricted free agents hitting the market. The two players to likely capture the interest of Sacramento’s front office are Jeremy Lamb, who came over in the Domantas Sabonis trade, and Damian Jones, who stepped up in Richaun Holmes’ absence last season, eventually usurping his minutes as Holmes struggled when he returned. For Lamb, the Kings hold Bird Rights, which would allow them to re-sign him to any contract amount, up to the maximum amount, for up to five years. As with all of the other exceptions, Sacramento would not need cap space to use Bird Rights for Lamb’s contract.

Jones is a bit of a different case, as he has only been with the Kings for two years, which is a season short of full Bird Rights. Instead, the front office can offer him a contract using Early Bird Rights. While the terms aren’t as flexible as those listed above, securing a player of Jones’ level should be relatively east with Early Bird Rights, assuming they want him back and he wants to come back. The exception will allow Sacramento to re-sign Jones to a deal worth either 120% of his previous contract, which would be a starting salary of around $2.3 million, or the Kings could offer a contract at 104.5% of league-average salary, which would grant a starting salary of up to $12 million in the first season, and in either case, the new deal could go for up to four years.

Spending Exceptions

With cap space out of the question and with the different restricted and unrestricted free agents sorted out, the last opportunity for Sacramento to spend some cash is with salary cap exceptions, of which they’ll control two.

The first, and the biggest, is the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. The Kings will be able to allocate $10,349,000 toward the MLE, and while the MLE cannot be combined with other exceptions (like the bi-annual exception or a traded player exception), it can be split among multiple players. In short, the Kings can offer one player a contract of up to 4 years, $44.5 million or they can split that up into two or three deals for lower-level contributors. Sacramento can also hold onto part or all of the exception to spend later on the year if players become available after being stretched or waived or whatever may be the case.

In addition to the MLE, the Kings will also have access to the bi-annual exception. As the name indicates, the BAE can only be used every other year, and the exception also triggers a hard cap for any team using it, although that likely wouldn’t cause any concerns for the Kings this season. The bi-annual exception is a much smaller tool than the MLE, as it has a starting salary of $4 million and the contract can only be two years, as opposed to four with the MLE. Typically, teams utilize the bi-annual exception when they’re targeting a player who deserves (or wants) more than the veteran minimum but who doesn’t quite deserve a chunk of the full MLE.

Assets

Outside of outright signing or re-signing players, Monte McNair’s final path toward improving the roster is trades. While this isn’t a review of potential available trades for Sacramento, understanding the team’s current assets, outside of players on the roster, can help build theoretical deals throughout the offseason.

The good news for the Kings is that they fully control all their future first round picks; there aren’t any J.J. Hickson-esque first rounders floating out there. Sacramento can trade every other first round pick in their control, up to seven years, according to the Stepien Rule. If a star player becomes available, and that team is looking for picks, the Kings hold quite a bit of flexibility in that arena.

Second round picks are also something that the Kings are swimming in, especially after Monte McNair’s draft nights moves last week. In addition to their own entire portfolio of future second rounders, the Kings also own the following trade chips: 2023 Indiana, 2024 Dallas, 2025 Portland, and 2028 Dallas. And while no combination of second rounders could ever equal the value of a single pick in the 1-30 range, second rounders can often be used to lubricate trades that are otherwise on hold, especially when value-balance is a hair off for one side. They’re the “sign up for emails for a 10% off coupon” of the NBA – perhaps not deal makers, but rather, deal sealers.

While the Kings may not possess the cap space of years past, in which they were able to throw barrels-full of cash at hopeful difference-makers, they can still make an impact in free agency through smart spending and positional targeting. Finding a backup forward or two to support Keegan Murray and Harrison Barnes, and perhaps finding a tertiary ball-handler should be the priorities for Sacramento, and their available exceptions should be enough to complete those objectives, assuming they’re aggressive in their negotiations.