According to Stavros Barbarousis of EuroHoops.net, the Sacramento Kings have invited Sasha Vezenkov to Las Vegas to meet with team leadership and potentially discuss contract details. Vezenkov, a EuroLeague prospect whose draft rights were acquired on draft night from the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for the 37th pick and cash considerations, is expected to come to the Kings and vie for a rotation spot, either as a floor-spacing wing or as a stretch-four.
Last season was the best of the soon-to-be 27-year old’s EuroLeague career, as he put up 13.7 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game, and he also finished as a member of the All-EuroLeague first team. And perhaps more important than those individual numbers, Vezenkov has proven himself to be an elite shooter overseas. Over the last four seasons, he’s shot at least 38% from deep and has finished two seasons with a three-point percentage greater than 43%. With the Kings clearly looking to surround De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis with shooters, Vezenkov could very well fill a need for Sacramento’s roster.
From a contractual standpoint, the Kings have three options to sign Vezenkov, and those paths probably depend on what priorities they hold for Sasha’s future versus other free agents left on the board. The easiest thing to do would be to offer Vezenkov the minimum, which would start at a shade over $1 million, although that may not provide Vezenkov’s camp the sort of raise they’re looking for. Another option for Monte McNair, and probably the most likely to be used, is to take advantage of the front office’s manipulation of the mid-level exception. Malik Monk’s contract took up the vast majority of the MLE, but fell around $1.5 million short (we’ll know the exact amount when the terms are released). The Kings could turn around and start their offer with that $1.5 million, and using the MLE’s terms, offer up to a four-year deal. With 5% raises, that could be 3 years, $5 million or 4 years, 6.5 million. That contract would also allow the Kings to maintain full Bird Rights, an important negotiating tool if Vezenkov turns out to be a good NBA player.
The last tool available for the Kings is the bi-annual exception, which is also their last significant spending asset available in free agency. The BAE runs for 2 years, $8.4 million, which feels like quite the spend for a player of Vezenkov’s quality. Sacramento could also offer him only part of the BAE, but that would essentially eliminate its use for any other players, with the Kings still needing to fill out additional roster spots prior to the start of the season.
Whichever method the Kings use to lock up Vezenkov, it seems all but a foregone conclusion that Sasha Vezenkov will suit up for the Kings next season. With Monte McNair’s sole focus thus far being snipers and floor spacers this summer, Vezenkov’s addition will offer Head Coach Mike Brown another shooter to fill out the rotation.
Here. We. Go!
Not sure he’s better than Lyles, but worth a flyer
Team is still woefully short on defensive wings.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/WinForBulgaria?src=hashtag_click
I compare this tape to the second summer league game today. What a difference a good PG and spacing makes. Bulgarian PG was not a Ferrari but a souped-up Tesla.
Sasha has a smooth stroke, cuts well and looks to shoot.
Not sure of position- depends on who he can guard Woth a flyer. Hope long term and cheap. These are highlights but it looks like he can shoot and will need to be guarded- that’s money for floor spacing. Too many teams just let Davion and DDV and Holiday shoot last year.
A complicated situation spread out beautifully for simpletons like me. I love this site. Thanks Tim.
Monte crushing it. This dude likely instantly competes for primary backup PF with lyles/metu and I think wins the competition.
Fox, Davion
Huerter, Monk
Barnes, TD
Murray, Sasha
Sabonis, Holmes
That’s talented and deep, much deeper than we’ve been in the 16 year drought.
If the full 2nd unit is on the floor for 3-5 min spells I wouldn’t even be worried much because it’s still a balanced and talented roster with 2.5 starting caliber players in Davion, Monk and Holmes.
I think with the added shooting on the wing and pf spots Holmes becomes more of the player we saw in seasons past. Let him high energy the post with sasha, keegan, trey, and Barnes spacing the court
I’d love it if Sasha could be convinced to take what is left of the MLE and not the BAE. From my understanding, the BAE can only be used on one player, so using a small portion of it, which is likely what Sasha is worth, kind of wastes it. It also triggers a hard cap for the Kings.
I get the allure of Sasha potentially being a nice wing or stretch 4, but I feel the Kings biggest hole right now is 3rd string PG. The Kings need a legit ball handler in case Fox or Mitchell miss games due to injury (which will most certainly happen). If the Kings can reserve the BAE for a legit PG, that might be better. A short list of experienced ball handlers that might fit that BAE or even take the vet minimum: Elfrid Payton or DJ Augustin? Others that might fit into the remaining MLE: Mac McClung or Carsen Edwards?
Nah, it can be used on multiple players, but because the numeric amount of the BAE is smaller than the MLE it’s tougher to split up among multiple players.
If they do use the BAE, it’s likely on one guy they might be hoping EBR’s are enough to resign with.
Thanks for that clarification, Nate. Maybe they can split the BAE between Sasha, and additional wing like Edwards, then use the vet-minimum on an establish PG. That would be my hope, anyway.
A 3rd PG would be nice, but a defensive wing is a bigger need IMO.
Mudiay, Frank Mason, Jimmer, the other guy who played about 10 minutes last year and never made a shot. ????
Colin Sexton– but I am kidding there.
Good value pick up but didn’t we trade the 37th pick to the mavs for 2 future 2nd rounders?
We did. The thought may have been that there was no room for the #37 pick on the roster this year, so they converted it into two future 2nd rounders.
If you told me pre-draft that we’d come away with Murray, Sasha, Ellis & two future 2nd rounders, I’d have been OK with it.
The issue with keeping the #37 is how do you keep that player beyond 2 years. The only way to do that is use part of the MLE or have cap room.
So I think the issue is far less use the use of a roster spot (Queta is back on another TWC, I might point out), but rather do you want to spend 2 years developing a player to have him walk in FA because the cost of matching that player’s offer sheet just isn’t worth it to you? Which I think is a legitimate concern because you’re talking about years 22-26 potentially of a players career. And those can be the most valuable to a team.
Unlike Sasha Vezenkov who we are talking about years 27-32 at most in all likelihood. Those aren’t nearly as valuable and nearly as worrisome to lose.
@BigRorDawg on Twitter has talked recently about how McNair has looked to buy wins, and buy wins as cheaply as possible. You’re no doubt familiar with the concept Rob as I’ve seen you say similar things (using different language of course). One way to buy wins inefficiently, IMO, is to pay money to develop players with little likelihood of reaping those benefits. Now it’s not expensive in terms of total dollars of drafting a #37 pick and signing him to a 2 year minimum deal, but Malik Monk’s value to you might be 10M this year. Since his starting salary is presumed to be around 9.2M this year and 9.7M next, he’s going to be a reasonable bet for a fair value contract. Wouldn’t surprise me if Huerter’s value is somewhere in the neighborhood of 17-18M just based on what he’s done the last several years in Atlanta. Which provides a bit of excess value, but not a whole lot. But both of those guys are headed into their age 24 season. Do you want to sign a 19-20 year old to lose him at 22?
I don’t think the issue with the #37 was as much roster spots but opportunity cost benefit analysis. Under the same header as to why you don’t ultimately offer Donte DiVincenzo a QO (who will end up signing for most of the Tax MLE with GSW), or why you include a 1st rd pick for Huerter while trading away Justin Holiday and Maurice Harkless in a deal.
One of the things that I think is a credit to Monte McNair, IMHO, is that he looks for value big and small. He doesn’t want to overpay role players (like DDV), he doesn’t want to spend more money and time developing players that the Kings won’t likely benefit from, and he wants to prioritize the most valuable assets he has on the roster: De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. And that #37 doesn’t really fit either of those guys TL’s either.
At some point, you can’t punt on the 2nd rd every year. But I do think it’s instructive that they’ve brought in players who fit on Fox and Sabonis’ TL more than they’ve brought in teenagers who they hope will develop.
Very Moneyball explanation- nice wisdom. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this.
thanks. Using this structure, how do you evaluate the GSW drafting (buying the pick) Rollins at 44. They say they will use a roster slot for him and not a 2 way. Is this due to losing the back end of the bench and having no financial flexibility?
They are going to spend close to 400M this year.
He may have been the missing third PG for the Kings.
Well, GSW is in a different position. They can plug and play rookies into their rotation in a way the Kings are not likely to be able to do so for the next season or two at the bare minimum. And getting a pick at 44 for a team isn’t that big a deal. Plus the reported deal for Donte DiVicenzo comes in well below the total Tax MLE amount GSW can offer. They can still come up with a 3 or 4 year deal for Rollins that makes sense to them even if he doesn’t pan out this season.
Yes, on Steph, Klay, Dray, Wiggins to name 4. Plus the fact they’ve been incuring luxury tax penalities year after year. The repeater tax is starting to get them big time. Yet they likely can afford it because they just went on a championship run.
Sasha came with the trade for the 49th pick , not the 37th which went wastefully to the Mavs for two future second rounders.
to answer Richie88- Kessler Edwards is a defensive minded SF.
Vegas, eh?
How about:
LEAVING OLYMPIACOS
I’m not sure if this is true but I just saw something where he shoots 59% and 65% from the corners.
https://3stepsbasket.com/player/aleksandar-vezenkov/shooting
He’s 27… How much do Bird rights actually matter?
A one or two year minimum deal is what makes the most sense here – if he’s good, he can justify a raise in the NBA and if it doesn’t work out he can go back to Europe while he’s still under 30.
They might have the 2 year minimum in mind for Vezenkov. And they could use the rest of the MLE on Vezenkov to give him a 5% raise instead of a marginal raise on the 2 year minimum.
I thought it was the 46th pick for him and longtime Kings stalwart Cash Considerations.
i see this as another solid pickup on the margins. Maybe Brown convinced MM that he can work his defensive magic on the current group.
Defense is as much a team effort as an individual effort — we saw from the Wolves last year how a team can make up for limited defensive talent with great scheme and effort. Hoping Brown, Domas, and Mitchell can enforce that in Sacramento
the same wolves who just traded 4 frps for a a dpoy? They don’t seem to share in that philosophy
Kings trade #49 for Sasha plus Cash Considerations (1.75M with Sasha’s buy out less than that)
Cash was used for a used Ferrari who plays on summer league, but not well.
Worth a flier if Monte can get him at a good rate. Nemi 2.0 wouldn’t be the worst thing for any roster.
You hope he’s a lesser expensive Ingles($6.8M)/Kleiber ($7.8M)/Bertans($16m!)/Bjelica($2M – but went to Fenerbace for next season) to give you instant outside offense with any D a plus.
$4M sounds high – Bjeli money ($2M/2 yr) sounds right as he’s slotted as your 4th or 5th PF or 3r SF).
As mentioned by others, I’d rather see an Elfrid Peyton, DJ Augustin.
How much is he making in Europe? Seems like we’d need to pay him more than that, otherwise what’s his motivation to come over? The cachet of playing in the NBA?
Hopefully we can bring him over on a reasonable deal.
NBA brings a ton of exposure, endorsement opportunities, networking, and if you play well you can get paid big time
I was hunting for that a few days ago and with exchange rate seemed about 900k-1 mill if I remember right. Signed for 2 more years, but has a buy out after each year.
His contract is approximately $2.8 mil / 3 years. The Kings can offer more, even though I’ve heard that taxes are much heavier there, specially for professional athletes.
Even if they don’t offer much more, it’s still a dream for any player here (Europe) to play in the NBA. That’s why so many have a buy out clauses specifically for that. I feel like it’s a done deal.
Seems like a very high IQ player with a super quick release and not afraid to shoot it over players with little space. Made some nice cuts too. This would be the deepest team we’ve had in idk how long
Thanks for this. I watched some other videos as well and he looks like a rich man’s Murray. Has the spot up and cutting game down, but also has a floater/midrange game as well. Nice looking player.
I just love that we seem to be getting high bbiq players. Our glory years we had a team full of smart players with great chemistry who played well off each other’s strengths and weaknesses. If coach brown comes in and gives the team defined roles, I’m cautiously optimistic
he looks much more athletic here. I assumed a Bertans like guy but he is far more athletic.
I like this move. With all the new players coming in, it looks like they’ll be a lot of competition for minutes.
As the roster stands now, hopefully the only guaranteed starters are Fox, Sabonis, and Murray, with the remainder of the spots open based on performance.
Barnes is locked in as a starter…only competition is Monk and huerter with huerter likely having a lead due to positional length/defense
agree Mike- Fox, Huerter, Barnes, Murray and Sabonis.
Barnes starts due to stability and skill. Murray at the 4 spot because he can’t guard SF’s.
Fox, Monk, Huerter, Barnes, Sabonis
Mitchell, Murray, Holmes your first three off the bench
Davis, Vezenkov, Lyles, Metu, Len adjusted for match ups, injuries, game play.
That’s 13 with Queta and Ellis your Two Ways.
Did Monte bring in Monk and Huerter to sit on the bench? I don’t think so. Since Huerter is considered a small forward in his bio, where does that leave Barnes? Huerter is also making starter money.
I can see a Fox/Monk/Huerter/Murray/ Sabonis starting five. Should Barnes be a lock to start, based on reputation?
I feel Barnes will be coming off the bench this year.. If he comes off the bench, I feel your starting lineup of Fox, Monk, Huerter, Murray and Sabonis is the likely outcome.
No way Barnes comes of the bench.
If that happens, and Barnes is penciled in as our opening day starter, I wouldn’t expect more than 35 wins.
Not that it’s all on Barnes, but I believe things really need to be shaken up a heck of a lot more heading into the season.
If the Kings are going with mostly the same starters, I would expect the same result.
Even though we picked up 3 new guys, it’s still not enough to sniff post season play, just more mediocrity.
Murray will come off the bench to start the season. It’ll build confidence for him against 2nd units and help him exploit match ups to benefit him.
He reminds me of a less erratic Omri Casspi. Let’s get Vezenkov and Kessler Edwards. If they need to open up a roster spot, I am sure they could figure out a way.
My next question is if they use the remaining leftover MLE on Vezenko who could or would the Kings target with the BAE with the ramiaing free agents available?
Some how could we trade for Matisse Thybulle? With he and Mitchell we have two outstanding defensive players.
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