There has been a decent amount of news this week surrounding the Kings, including Sacramento waiving DeMar DeRozan, signing Precious Achuwa and Daquan Plowden, Bobby Jackson’s looming departure from the coaching staff and the conclusion of the California Classic pivoting into the start of the Las Vegas Summer League.
Below are some excerpts from the press conference.
DeMar DeRozan buyout/departure
“I’ve been in the league 26 years, and he has been— he was one of my favorite players to work with … his professionalism, his leadership, the way he went about preparing for his job each and every day, exemplary. … We were trying to figure out ways how we could keep him. But as we all know, one of the things in this league, there is a financial component to this job. And so unfortunately, we weren’t able to figure out or do anything that would allow us to keep him from that standpoint. But I’m gonna miss him, I’ll be honest with you.”
Precious Achiuwa and Daquan Plowden signings
- On Precious: “That was very important to us because he had options, could have gone elsewhere, but he wanted to be here… He quickly established himself the way he competed each and every night at both ends of the floor.”
- On Plowden: “He should be an example to a number of players that are aspiring to be in the NBA… was one of the top performers in the G League. Anytime we had him play with the Kings, he brought effort and energy. Having people like that that play hard every day, that compete, that will defend, that are about the team, you can’t have enough of those guys. And so in my job, when you’re able to reward somebody like that, that’s very rewarding because that young man has worked extremely hard to get here, and we’re so happy that we can have him back on this team.”
Bobby Jackson’s departure
“Bobby will be with us through the summer until obviously he transitions out at the end of the summer. But Bobby obviously is a Kings legend… great guy, wish him nothing but the best, and it was a pleasure getting a chance to work with him.”
Zach LaVine’s future with the Kings
“Zach and I have been in communication since the season is over. We have a very good relationship and good understanding. Zach is still an excellent basketball player. He knows what’s expected of him coming back here this year. I’m very clear with him on that. He’ll be the first to tell you that, and I think he’s ready to come back and embrace that and perform to the best of his ability this year. So we can use a lot of the things that Zach LaVine is able to do on the basketball floor. So I’m looking forward to him taking a step forward with us this year and how we want to play the game.”
On Russell Westbrook
“Russ has always been a favorite of mine, as you know that. You know, Russell Westbrook probably outplayed a minimum contract, which is all we have right now. So that’s all I have really to say about him right now.”
The Kings kick off the NBA Las Vegas Summer League Thursday against the Los Angeles Clippers at 8 p.m. Maxime Raynaud is set to join the team in Vegas. He missed the California Classic because he was playing on the French team.
Had Perry never overpaid Dennis, traded Dennis and Keon for Hunter, then Kings would have had the cap space to retain DDR and then some. Perry quite literally took an overpriced MLE contract and an expiring contract and turned into $25M guaranteed to Hunter this coming season. Perry made this bed.
GMs can get away with these answers in press conferences because < 1% of fans do the accounting.
Most of being an NBA GM is the moves you don’t make. Unless you are Monty McNair who got himself fired for not making one starting PF transaction in 3 years … any move and the Kings likely make the playoffs at least one more time. Ya the team isn’t winning a title, but he’s got his job or least puts got Kangz to the playoffs multiple times to put on his resume.
The only nit I will pick is that Monte’s errors were not that he didn’t get a PF. He put a wing shooting team around Sabonis, which is exactly how it should be done.
To that point, who was the PF on the last 3 championship teams of the Knicks, OKC, and Celtics? Hell, the Spurs didn’t even have a traditional PF either. Barnes and/or Keegan fit those kind of modern wing molds/offense.
Monte’s (or Vivek if you believe it) fatal move was moving off of Barnes in favor of DDR. That’s when things began to spiral.
IMO, the idea around needing a PF (other than Murray/Barnes) was that since Domas doesn’t provide any rim protection, he needed to be paired with a long athletic PF who could. The ideal player-type was someone like DEN’s Gordon or CLE’s Mobley who provide some rim-protection and average 3pt shooting.
I agree with you about surrounding Domas with shooting.
His specific roster pairing needs are why I think the Kings should move on, he requires such a narrow window for successful roster construction that his presence ends up being a roadblock to improvement – not too mention that while he is a very good, annual fringe-All Star, he’s also very expensive which further hampers putting together a well-balanced roster.
I can see your point to a rim protecting stretch 4. The truth is, however, Keegan is a better rim protector than Gordon and a better 3pt shooter than Mobley. In a perfect world the Kings land a guy like JJJ, who I’ve thought for years would be great next to Sabonis.
The ironic thing for me is that the best front court pairing Sabonis ever had was probably Myles Turner in Indy, but they felt the need to break that duo up.
To your point on Aaron Gordon, I feel that is who Keegan can become but with better shooting and rim protection. Gordon is an excellent 3rd banana on a good team. I hope the same can be the case for Keegan. The Kings have just failed miserably to develop and utilize his skills properly.
Fingers crossed, I’m hoping for a solid 15 and 7 year from Keegan with a 36% from deep, a block per game, all while being the team’s primary wing defender.
Monte McNair failed in a number of ways- and given the Vivek problem, the why and why nots are hard to pin accountability
Harrison Barnes had his pluses but his minuses were the lack of supportive rebounding and his limitations as a defender, being half a step too slow to guard wings and too small for bigs.With the shortcomings of Domas, it was a bad match. JJJr, Naz Reid even Bobby Portis are the type of player the Kings still lack. . Precious Achiiwa is the bench, non 3 point shooting version.
To me- where the Kings failed worse and left Mike Brown in the lurch, was at Shooting Guard. Kevin Huerter in particular. Poor defender, underperforming 3 point specialist who also couldn’t create off the dribble was your starter. Harrison Barnes could be argued to have been a legit starting caliber front court player. You couldn’t say that about Red Velvet. Worst starting SG of any playoff team at the time. Because they had his FRP debt and he was a fan favorite, they didn’t move him out at the trade deadline in the 46 win season and they became a Play In team. A lot options available at that position.
It seemed clear at the time, and is obvious in hindsight, IMO. They kept Huerter and moved Barnes leaving a Domas Keegan front court.
Murray WAS a better shooter. Nothing since his rookie year makes me believe that’s coming back. And I’m a Murray-stan
I agree with this, he’s a great player but wasn’t what this team needed. DDR was the beginning of the end of this team’s very short lived success. And it wasn’t his fault….
Well said.
And this is not a hindsight re-evaluation. Every one of those moves was clearly and obviously bad when Perry/Vivek did it.
Yup, I remember joking here and on the socials with Kings fans when after the Kings failed in 2025 with Monk running that point that, “the Kings are gonna sign Schroder, aren’t they?”
Folks said it in jest, and not only did it happen, they overpaid in the process. Amazing. Few, if any, were on board with giving Dennis the full MLE. It was like watching a slow train wreck.
Yes. And for the love of God, no more fucking Westbrook. He is a waste of space. He just takes up Minutes. The young player should be having and when he’s on the floor, he doesn’t do a very good job of sharing the ball.
I wish they could get rid of Zack Levine too.
If not this year then next year for sure. 49mil.WOW!
Why? He’s not a hostage. He’s so happy to be here. He even opted in to stay with us. I will be forever grateful for that.
Hopefully DC is gone sooner than later. Defense wins championship is BS under Vivek. Run and gun with ceiling 2nd round playoff exit. Is that a bad thing?
The Kings front office says lots of things.
Today on the 1140 ((((shudder)))) midday “show”, they mentioned how Perry is continuing to build culture.
What a place.
I mostly stopped listening to 1140 because of this and my radio was locked on the station for years. I’ll occasionally listen to the morning show but it’s most 98.5 for me.
1140 has one good show , The Drive Guys and 1320 has none .
Perry does decent work in the draft to the tune of “slightly above average.” That’s about as far as his GM skills shine. Everywhere else is lacking. There’s rust on the FA acquisition process and the trade-ing wheels have steel belt showing through what’s left of the tread. Its got a new motor but the carburetor runs too lean and there’s a bad leak in the front office…er, oil pan. I’ll never forget buying my first used car from a lot…
Huh, I didn’t realize Bobby Jackson left. I Googled and didn’t see that he got an offer somewhere else, so I guess it was just a mutual parting?
Yeah, the vibes are immaculate.
All the best B-Jax, glad you are out of BB hell. Could you also take DC with you, and ask C-Webb to not even think about it 😀
Ham speculated on Locked On Kings that ownership told DC to make a change in the coaching staff. He said DC wouldn’t push BJax out otherwise, this all assuming that BJax didn’t have something lined up already.
Crandell’d
The “nobody is a hostage here” was my favorite bit.
Just waiting for Wagler vs Acuff in Vegas…
I feel like GMs never actually explain why they did what. Because it puts them in a position to be proven wrong. Instead they spin things afterwards.
If Perry had been able to trade Levine, he’d have a great explanation for why that was his plan all along.
It’s like when a gm drafts a couple of high character guys and goes this is team strategy, or drafts guys who play D and says our plan has always been to build our defense. Then a few weeks later they trade for a guy who assaulted his wife or a player who never played D previously.
I’m still waiting for Vlade to explain his thinking on passing on Luka.
It’s because he’s an idiot.
This is such a huge transition year for the Sacramento Kings. I feel like SP has done as much as he can, given the huge salary constraints and untradeable contracts he has to work with. It’s not pretty, but none of the moves this offseason have been egregious like the decision to sign Dennis Schroeder last year. I even feel as though SP has kind of set up the team for a decent rebuild.
Our future hopes hinge on the development of Acuff. I’ve watched so many videos on him and it feels as though we may have gotten a potential future star with the 7 pick. It’s a star-driven league and the Kings never seem to walk away from the draft with stars. The one time we did with Tyrese, Fox was blocking his path and then MM made the ill-fated decision to trade Tyrese. This time around, nobody blocks Acuff’s path.
If Acuff turns out to be the star that many analysts think he can be, a lot of things fall into place. Payroll drops by $75M next year and another roughly $75M the year after (to something like $52M if we pick up all team options). With the cap rules forcing playoff teams to have to make hard decisions on players, we should be able to use that cap space to find the right players to surround Acuff.
On the other hand, if Acuff sucks….oof….
And1, surround Acuff with vets and get some good health, we might be a fringe play-in team if he has a ROY caliber season (IF).
Acuff / Monk
Lavine / Clifford
Hunter / ???
Murray / Precious
Domas / Raynaud / Cardwell
I love that we would also have Plowden, Sharp, and Karaban in reserve to provide some defense and potentially wing shooting. And as much as I love DDR, I’m very thankful that we won’t have him taking shots away from Acuff. This roster allows Acuff to be the primary facilitator and could end up with Lavine and Murray having excellent shooting years.
I just read an article supporting the idea of using Sabonis to develop Acuff and because Sabonis will not bring much back in a trade, the suggestion was to start Max and Raynaud for the next year or 2. I don’t believe that the two of them would work well in the post, but I think it would be worth trying out. Hunter could easily come in to rest either one of them and Precious would get his time as well. Cardwell would be the defense and energy guy when we have a lead or a close game to rest these players.
Yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see how Acuff fits with Lavine, Murray and Sabonis. Ideally, they help elevate his game and in turn, he elevates theirs.
If the Kings are looking for a backup point quard IMO the best place for Sabonis is with the Hornets. Sabonis for Grayson Allen Grand Williams and Tijane Saluan plus one of the Hornets 2027 first rounders the best one is the Dalles pick. Allen becomes Acuff’s backup point guard. Williams is a free agent(13 mil) and Saluan is a promising young talent. Now the Kings have 2 first rounders next year. Could happen.
I’ll keep stanning for 2nd year PG Javon Small as great backup option that won’t cost much to obtain being a former 2nd rd pick and with MEM having 23 players on the roster; 20 of those
shotsbeing standard contracts.What’s the huge transition, exactly?
Vivek and Matina are still pulling the strings. DC is as unimpressive as they come, Perry is a walking charicature. A roster with no cohesion, some decent players, and perhaps one diamond in the rough.
I guess people need some hope?
“In reality, hope is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs man’s torments.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche would definitely be a Kings fan. If only for the philosophical study of suffering.
The transition is moving away from veterans to youth, with the team centered around Acuff. I don’t need hope since I have a life that isn’t centered around the shittiest franchise in pro sports. I know I used the word “hope” – it’s just a reference to the fact that life is more fun during the rare times the Kings are good. I’m not waiting with baited breath.
Side note, I pretty much stopped posting on this site for months because of responses like this. Nothing against you personally, Dutchman, but what is the point of endlessly reciting the failures of Vivek and Matina? It gets boring to read when every other post here is about how much everyone hates them. I’m excited about Acuff and that’s what I’m talking about here. Sure, maybe they’ll fuck up and send Acuff away at some point, too. But I’m really not focused on that at all.
No one is untradeable. If Memphis can move Morant and Philly could Paul George, Perry can move anyone on this Kings roster.
I use talk-to-text and I don’t spend a lot of time being too careful about my exact wording. Of course, anyone can be traded – it’s a question of whether you want to give something up to make that trade.
In a year where they’ve changed the lottery rules to incentivize winning, Lavine, Monk, and Sabonis have some value to this team. When I say untradeable, I’m simply acknowledging that any trade needs to make sense to the team now and/or in the future. I don’t see any reason to conduct a fire sale when they can simply wait out contracts and utilize their skills at the same time.
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