Where do the Kings stand after the opening days of free agency?

Over the last couple of weeks, Kings General Manager Monte McNair has made some major moves to reshape a non-competitive roster into one that’s starting to offer some hope to Kings fans. Gone are Donte DiVincenzo, Damian Jones, Justin Holiday, and Maurice Harkless and here to stay are rookies Keegan Murray and Keon Ellis, as well as young veterans Malik Monk and Kevin Huerter. There’s been no doubt that the Kings have been aggressive this offseason, both in their expenditure of assets and in their acquisition of talent, but free agency isn’t over until Andre Iguodala signs a highly-paid contract with a random contender, meaning Sacramento still has some time to improve their playoff-hopeful team on the fringes. Here’s where they stand after the first few days of the 2022 offseason.

Spending Tools

With one big signing and one big trade under their belt, the Kings still have a few salary cap exceptions at their disposal to improve the roster, with the first being the remainder of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. After spending the majority of the MLE on Malik Monk’s two-year deal, Monte McNair left himself around $1.5 million (the exact amount will depend on the final terms of Monk’s contract) to use. The advantage to leaving a small slice available is that the MLE allows teams to offer contracts of up to four years, while several other exceptions are limited to two. However, that spending money is likely accounted for, as that amount of cash is a reasonable offer for Sasha Vezenkov, who the Kings are expected to meet with and eventually sign in Las Vegas later this month.

If the rest of the MLE is, in fact, accounted for, the other significant spending tool left for Sacramento is the bi-annual exception, which is worth around 2 years, $8.3 million. As is indicated by the name, the BAE can only be used every other year, so the Kings may or may not use the exception, depending on if they want to reserve it for next season, and using the BAE also hard caps a team, although that shouldn’t really affect what Sacramento plans to do this season. Higher level players who deserve more than that veteran minimum can often be lured to the negotiating table with the bi-annual exception in hand.

A lesser thought-of tool that the Kings may also utilize, and one that expires around the trade deadline, is their $4 million trade exception that was generated from the Tyrese Haliburton transaction. TPEs allow teams to take on extra salary in a trade, but they cannot be combined with any other exceptions, including other TPEs. If the Kings engaged in trade conversations with another team, and the other team wanted to send a player with a salary of $4 million or less, Sacramento could absorb that player without needing cap space or outgoing matching salary. Trade exceptions of such a low amount aren’t commonly used, but occasionally a team can net a lower rotational player in a multi-team deal if other parties need to dump salary elsewhere.

The final area opportunity in free agency for Sacramento is one that is available to every team: the veteran minimum contract. Minimum deals can run for up to two years and are paid according to how many years a players has been in the league, usually running around $2 million per season. Interestingly enough, the NBA also partially reimburses teams for some minimum deals, depending on years of service of the players, length of contract, and a couple of other factors. The Kings won’t find any game-changers for the minimum, but veteran depth pieces and injury insurance can be secured with those types of deals.

Roster Spots

After their two-for-one swap in the Kevin Huerter trade, the Kings still have a few roster spots they need to fill. With the assumption that Sasha Vezenkov is coming over this season, Sacramento should stand at 13 filled roster spots after Vezenkov is locked down. That will leave two open slots, one of which needs to be filled prior to the season, as teams are required to carry a minimum of 14 players throughout the season. With preseason months away, there’s no massive rush for Monte McNair to find his 14th, and perhaps 15th, guy, but that will need to be taken care of before the 2022 campaign begins.

The Kings have also already filled both of their two-way spots. Last year’s second round pick Neemias Queta will enter another two-way deal with the Kings, while undrafted rookie Keon Ellis will take the other.

Needs

Although Monte McNair has done an admirable job of filling out the roster with real NBA talent, there are still a couple of gaps in the rotation that need to be filled with the remaining available roster spots. The first is that of a reliable backup wing. Kevin Huerter can fill in at small forward for a few minutes here and there, but targeting someone to fill in for Harrison Barnes and Keegan Murray, both of whom look more like power forwards than threes, should be at the top of the front office’s priority list. If either Barnes or Murray goes down due to injury or even a single game of foul trouble, Sacramento is going to be forced to play a ton of three-guard lineups, not the worst idea in the world, but also not what a coach wants to be forced to do due to roster constraints. Justin Holiday and Maurice Harkless were the Kings most viable backup small forward options, and with both of them gone in the Huerter trade, Monte should be looking for a replacement as quickly as possible. The pickings are quite slim at this time of free agency, but Yuta Watanabe (unrestricted), Kessler Edwards (unrestricted), and Caleb Martin (restricted) are probably the best options remaining on the board.

The other glaring need is that of a tertiary ball-handler. It’s expected that De’Aaron Fox and Davion Mitchell will receive the bulk of the minutes at point guard, but securing a veteran third-string point guard is an important depth move for the front office. Over the last three years, De’Aaron Fox has missed a total of 56 games, or an average of 19 per season. If he were to miss a similar chunk of games next year, Davion Mitchell would need a reliable, real-NBA backup, and vice versa if Mitchell were to miss an extended amount of time as well. Any team hoping to reach the playoffs such as the Kings can’t waste games and minutes on unready G Leaguers and random guys pulled off the street, as they tried with Ade Murkey, Justin Robinson, and Emmanuel Mudiay last season, meaning another point guard should be sought. There are quite a few veterans out there who would likely be available for the minimum, with names like Facundo Campazzo (unrestricted), Elfrid Payton (unrestricted), and Chris Chiozza (unrestricted) all waiting for a call.

As free agency begins to tail off and as the depth of an already shallow class continues to decrease, Sacramento’s front office still has the opportunity to snag some quality depth pieces for low prices if they maintain the aggression they showed at the start of free agency.