The Sacramento Kings are waiving Orlando Robinson, according to a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania. Shams also reports that Jae Crowder and Doug McDermott will be kept on the roster and their salaries will be fully guaranteed. Today was the deadline to waive players with partially guaranteed contracts in order to have the players clear waivers before the January 10th guarantee date.
Robinson was signed this summer to provide depth at the center position, but has failed to make an impact even as the Kings have needed help at the backup center position. Robinson appeared in just 9 games and played 57 total minutes for the Kings, averaging 2.1 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 1.0 assists.
ESPN’s Bobby Marks reports that the move will leave the Kings with $3.2 million in space before the luxury tax, and $7 million in room below the first apron. The Kings are hard-capped at the first apron this season due to the sign-and-trade deal to acquire DeMar DeRozan, although it’s unlikely the Kings will go into the luxury tax. Vivek has not paid the luxury tax since becoming owner of the Kings.
Sacramento is now $3.2M below the luxury tax and $7M below the first apron.
There is a $959,779 cap hit on the Orlando Robinson waiver.
14 teams now have an open roster spot.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) January 7, 2025
I’m not surprised to see Robinson waived. He had a difficult start to his tenure in Sacramento, suffering an MCL sprain and missing most of training camp and the preseason. I’m a little surprised the Kings kept Jae Crowder. He will not be trade-eligible before the trade deadline due to signing with the Kings later in the season, so he is not being kept for any sort of salary matching purposes for trades. I’m guessing the Kings just like his veteran presence in the locker room. I’m not surprised that Doug McDermott was retained, as he’s still seen limited-but-regular playing time as a backup wing and shooting threat.
We wish Orlando the best of luck with the rest of his career. At just 24 years old, I won’t be surprised if he gets another shot somewhere this season or next.
Thanks for trudging through the mire with us, Orlando. Now that things are going well, we wish you well.
Orlando Robinson was in a position of need, and yet couldn’t find playing time. Perhaps there is another prospect (not named Isaac Jones) that can also provide some rest and relief for Domas and Alex Len. A shot blocker, athletic big would be nice.
These guys all work hard to make a team, Hope ORob finds work with another squad.
Best wishes, ORob! We hardly knew ye!
in the prior thread, Adamsite suggested promoting Isaac Jones to a roster spot and then utilizing the other 2-way spot to roll the dice on another prospect.
With the open roster spot we can bring in prospects on 10-day contracts without any other moves. DC has decided to use Len and Lyles to back up Domas for the time being. Although I like what little I’ve seen of Isaac Jones, I don’t see any need to change his status in the near term.
Agreed. There really is not point now to promote a 2-way player before the deadline. Better to keep the roster spot open in case it’s needed in a trade. If Isaac Jones becomes a contributor to this team and they somehow make the playoffs, he can then be converted to a regular roster spot and used in the playoffs. The Kings did the same thing with Keon last year.
Yep. I’d expect that roster spot to stay open for trades and 10-days. Towards the end of the year if it’s still open they could promote Jones if they want to be able to play him in the postseason.
i like your optimism about making the postseason!!
Postseason could include even just the play-in! Kings are a half game out of the play in right now, and just 3 games behind the 4 seed! The West is brutal this year and it’s all bunched up right now. The Kings could miss the play in or they could end up with home court advantage. Everything is on the table still.
Isaac Jones last couple outings weren’t great, but he hadn’t been any consistent burn, and was actually playing well for a stretch before falling victim to Brown’s odd rotations and a lack of a feel for game flow with proper substitutions. Would have been great to have had I Jones last night against Miami as another big guy. Hope DC calls him back up soon. Dude was showing a lot of promise and didn’t deserve to be sent down as a byproduct of Brown holding out the younger guys as punishment when they make a mistake.
Has Skal shown enough to be brought up the Sacramento? My guess is no since he is still down there.
In 5 games in Stockton this season Skal has averaged 15.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1 block per game, while averaging 25.6 minutes.
For comparison: Orlando Robinson played 2 games down there and averaged 13.5 points, 11 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, 1.5 assists, in 28 minutes per game.
Neither set of numbers are great. But for the things you’d be looking for from a backup 5 like shot blocking and rebounding, we just cut a guy who did more of that in the G League than Skal.
Skal is a good guy to have in Stockton. Productive player, good guy, can tell the young guys about the NBA. But I don’t see him making it back to the NBA at this point.
Imagine how hard it must have been for Monte to accurately assess the Kings squad while Mike Brown was driving it into the ground by not maximizing the players’ strengths and by having the most wack rotation in recent history. Hopefully Monte can really get to work now with Doug leading this team upward and forward.
Warriors losing by double digits to the same Heat team we played yesterday makes me VERY happy.
Yeah, Miami is legit good, which means we’re also currently legit good. We didn’t play tonight but still made up ground in the standings, with GSW, L*kers, and Nuggets all losing.
Suns, too. Minny got a gimme from NO, though.
Steph with another 0 assist night!
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Buddy Hield going 2-9 from three is delicious. I haven’t hopped over to the Warrior fan pages in a while but they were so giddy about adding him this last offseason. Knowing how the oasis-like promise of Buddy always turns into a puddle of sand, I bet their dismay with his performance this season would provide a good amount of schadenfreude.
I remember Warriors fans were excited when Buddy Hield got traded to them. Kings fans on social media were warning them about the “Buddy Hield experience” but they dismissed it when the season began since Buddy was shooting okay. It brings me joy knowing that they are getting that experience now.
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