With just 11 games remaining for the Kings in the 2020-21 NBA season, Monte McNair is doing some end-of-roster housekeeping. Yesterday, the Kings announced the signing of Damian Jones for the rest of the season coinciding with the release of Chris Silva.
Releasing Silva and opening up another full-time roster spot has allowed McNair to do what he has reportedly done today: converting Chimezie Metu’s two-way contract into a standard NBA contract, according to The Athletic’s Jason Jones:
The Kings are converting Chimezie Metu’s two-way contract to a standard deal for the rest of the season, league sources tell The Athletic.
— Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) April 28, 2021
Worth noting, James Ham says Metu’s new deal is not a conversion.
Hearing Metu’s contract is a new contract, not a conversion of his two-way. Give the Kings a lot more options moving forward with the young big man. Also gives them an opportunity to sign a new two-way player.
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) April 28, 2021
The details of Metu’s new contract with the Kings have not been disclosed, but according the press release, “the Sacramento Kings have signed forward-center Chimezie Metu to a multi-year contract, according to Kings General Manager Monte McNair.”
In this instance, we can somewhat safely speculate that this multi-year contract is similar to what we saw the Kings do with Damian Jones yesterday, allowing the Kings to keep Metu beyond this season via a team option or partial guarantee if McNair wants.
Regardless of those contract details, Metu should receive a nice little pay bump for his work this season after the conversion, and he’s earned it. Metu’s raw numbers won’t blow you away his playing time has been sporadic this season, but if you’ve seen him on the court, you’ve seen the effort, the athleticism, and nice touch on his jumper that, at 24 years old, makes him an intriguing, cheap bench big option with some room to develop.
On that note, congratulations to Chimezie Metu! It’s always nice when players on the NBA bubble put the work in, play well, and land a new contract. Here’s to hoping Metu continues his development and makes McNair’s choice this summer very easy.
Update: Bobby Marks has the details on the new contract and it’s an absolute win-win.
Win-win for Sacramento and Chimezie Metu on the recent contract.
Metu received $700K for the rest of the season (a +$500K increase from a rest of season and +$630K increase from a 2Way).
Sacramento in return gets Metu on a non-guaranteed deal in 2021/22 and 2022/23.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) April 28, 2021
The $1.76M salary in 2021/22 has various trigger dates for salary protection and the $1.9M salary in 2022/23 has an end of June 2022 guaranteed date.
Good contract for both sides. https://t.co/gh0y1Zwlzo
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) April 28, 2021
The Kings can keep Metu beyond this year if they want, they still maintain flexibility for the future, and they’re rewarding Metu for his play this season. Fantastic.
Cool, happy for Metu. Hard work pays off.
Not earthshattering, but a nice player to have on the bench.
Exactly right. I like him coming off the bench at the four, and as a small-ball five. He’s got some nice polish for not having a lot of NBA minutes, and it’ll be good to have him in-house for the offseason activities.
Especially since he’ll be playing for a new coach. He’ll need the extra time to learn a new system. Or a system.
Yeah, that’s a good one. Sadly.
https://twitter.com/BobbyMarks42/status/1387445971718656006?s=20

Next thing you know, ol’ Met’s a millionaire…
Uh oh. Then kinfolk are going to tell him to move away from here.
Looks like McNair has found his Holmes/Bagley replacements for next season!
ding ding ding!
I didn’t read your comment since it’s probably hipster nonsense anyway.
lol
He almost certainly wrote this while listening to Neutral Milk Hotel, eating avocado toast, and waxing his mustache.
Close! I’m having vanilla almond raisin bran crunch and drinking a diet dr. pepper while listening to the compressor run non-stop in the fridge at my new apt. It’s very soothing like those whale sound CDs.
Whale sound vinyls, no?
cassette tape
Lo-Fi music via high-res media. That’s the real hipster style now.
Future hipsters: Blu-Ray or 1080p youtube?
Come on now you know it’s 8-Track.
I wish I had my parents’ old reel-to-reel system.
My pops had a dual 8-Track player when I was a kid. I was making mix 8-Tracks way before y’all were making mix tapes. 😉
I was holding a microphone up to the radio to record Casey Kasem’s Top 40 recutting it into mix tapes.
Sidenote: Well, into the late-90s and early 2000s, I would work with a sound engineer from time to time that was still doing manual edits with an exacto and tape.
AT40 is some great nostalgia, I’ll catch replays of the old show on Sirius occasionally.
One of the best outtakes ever: “I want a goddamned concerted effort to come out of a record that isn’t a fucking up-tempo record every time I do a goddamned death dedication!!”
ecco the dolphin soundtrack? Also that’s a great breakfast save for the diet dr pepper
Does the AM/PM sell avocado toast?
I just moved to Lafayette, and I was heartbroken when I learned they don’t have a single AM/PM in this town. There’s a 7-Eleven, but it’s just not the same (their pizza is good tho).
Whatever you do don’t argue against WaWa with someone from South Jersey!
This explains a great deal about you.
I see you went all rich bitch on us. Well played, Bratz.
Looks like it. Holmes walks next season. Mcnair drafts Kai Jones.
Says the guy who spent weeks and months concocting hypothetical trades for Buddy and Barnes when it was friggen obvious they were going nowhere.
And the guy we were really trying to trade was Bagley, which I stated ahead of time and before the news broke our GM was trying to do just that.
With this as context, McGenius WANTS to resign Holmes. Again you are wrong and will be proven wrong. The big contract for Richaun is being penned. Why would he not want to bring back Holmes? The guy is a baller and we want ballers, which is why we just inked Metu to a multi-year deal.
Just like HB, I hope Holmes is a SAC King for life and I strongly suspect, no I know, our GM feels the same. Book it!
Please show receipts that you also stated ahead of time and before the news broke (on March 5th) our GM was trying to [trade Bagley]. I’ll go first:
I don’t need to show the receipts. It is in the log history. Look it up yourself I do not have the time or inclination to look it up.
You are the one who talked extensively ad nauseum about hyptoethical trades of Barnes and Buddy to another team when it was obviously a futile exercise.
I told you they were going nowhere, and I told you the guy McGenius really wanted to trade was Bagley. It is in the history. Look it up my friend.
I would NOT engage in hypothetical Barnes and Buddy trades as you did because they were never going to happen.
And all you did was cite what Sam Amick said, like props are due for that, I don’t even listen to Kings media.
hmm sound like you don’t have proof to back up your claims
I’ve enjoyed his play and assuming it’s around league min, it’s a solid value play by the team.
Me likey a lot.
What about this Guy?
It must be kind of a bummer for Guy when the other 2-way guy, and the 10-day guy get a full contract before he does.
Great. Another player to take the ball out of Fox’s hands!
All I know is I really don’t understand the Bjelica trade.
Bjelica was unhappy. They traded him and got Harkless because they thought he would help the team for the remainder of the year. Harkless has been better than expected. They got a look at Silva and decided to move on.
Did they even kick the tires on Silva? Did he play at all? He got some playing time in Miami. I figured he’d get more of a tryout with the Kings.
McGenius didn’t trade Bjelica because he was unhappy. He traded him because he sucks.
Despite you’ve never been wrong, and you know everything, I think this conversation would be more interesting w/o your sage input.
I understand the trade, but didn’t understand him being in Walton’s doghouse.
It’s because of his defensive iss- oh, wait.
Some combo of the Bagley family’s whining and the fact the Marvin had barely played for two years, plus reports that Bjelica refused to play.
He was something like 5-21 on 3s , and could not guard his own shadow, was that possibly a cue why he may have been in the doghouse?
OMG, 21 attempts?
Thank goodness the defense improved without him!
Uh, horrible on offense and defense, is that not enough, Otis?
I was guessing at the numbers but they were pretty pathetic, and his 3s included attempts 3-4 feet beyond the arc, SO slow and lacking in agility, Bjelica had to launch from 30 feet! Was this not enough of a sign?
And by the way I watched Bjelica with the Heat. He is playing HARDER. He is running the floor, and y’know, actually trying. The Heat are playing him at center, or they were, before they realized he sucked too.
Yet many to most of the fans on this forum gave Bjelica a pass, while griping about Whiteside, 20 PER, when I called out Bjelica for his horrible effort and apathy before the season began.
I said Bjelica and Joseph, aka CoJoSlo, were non-rotational players before the season began. FACT CHECK: TRUE!
You know I think this coach is trash, right? So if I had the chance to criticize him I would. But I was not about to criticize him for “doghousing” Bjelica bc even this coach knew this bjum could not play.
You’re another one that seems way too worried about tooting their own horn. Y’all live together at the inferiority complex?
I am not interested in tooting my own horn. But it is extemely difficult to ignore how often I am right. 🙂
But more than that I am interested in the Kings being a winning team instead of the Doomers around here who are stuck in the past. I am not stuck in the past.
Metu and Davis and Kyle Guy have nothing to do with the losers who once played in a Kings uniform. It it is an insult to try to premeptively castigate them this way, which is what many fans do, the lazy Kangz narrative.
I am present minded and looking to the future that is why I butt heads with the likes of you, I suspect that you don’t see the present or the potential the future holds.
You wont even modify your assessment of Fox , for example, based on the season he has had. That is intellectualy disenguous and sad when the guy is an undeniable beast.
I admit when I am wrong, do you??
The problem with you tooting your own horn (which you’re clearly interested in, let’s be honest) is doing it before the evidence is in.
“McGenius” has given us a team that’s performed worse than the team he inherited. He gets credit for drafting Haliburton, but he’s really done nothing else notable to this point.
And whether he was forced by Vivek or not, this franchise decided to chase the play-in rather than deal off Barnes and Holmes at the deadline. Which is, quite frankly, idiotic.
That doesn’t mean I’m anti-McNair, I just think the jury is still out.
And Fox is a fine player, but if you’re waiting for me to call him an elite talent, you’ll be waiting until he shows it on the floor. He’s modestly better than last season, but that’s a far cry from All-Star or All-NBA. Maybe next season.
And if that changes, I’ll absolutely be sure to chime in here.
The same Cory Joseph who has played quite well for the Pistons and absolutely destroyed the Kings when they last met?
One game sample, then? Joseph is a trash player.
One game sample? You’re the guy who cans Woodard as being slow and worse than Metu when the guy has only played 29 NBA minutes.
C’mon guys. I invite everyone here to do a hard reset. Let’s argue hoops as hard as we want and stop with all the ad hominem attacks. I’m your dad and I don’t care who started it, I want it to stop. Hug it out!!
Long Live the King!
Trev Queen and Lamine Diane aren’t busy. Just saying.
I don’t want to step on any toes, but…this is good.
OT: Looks like that strain the other night is keeping Barnes out for now:
https://twitter.com/JandersonSacBee/status/1387459990227619841
Luke Walton: “Dammit! Our goal is still the Play-in!”
“Hey, Woodard. Lace them up … just kidding! Moe, you get all the minutes tonight!”
– Luke
I mean, should Walton play Woodard while he’s injured?
My experience is that good jokes are almost never followed by, “Now let me explain to you what that was funny.”
Luke needs to watch the tape first.
Thanks for spelling his name correctly.
LOL, but the reason Woodward cannot get minutes is not because of Moe, it because he is not agile enough to play the SF and Metu is probably kicking his butt in practice which makes him the logical backup at the PF.
So while I will take every opportunity to criticize this coach, when deserved, I cannot fault him in this instance.
Harkless has been better than his initial impression. He’s pretty good, actually. Not that I want him back next year, but he’s not been bad, though his shots are pretty cringeworthy. And Metu is simply better than Woodward, which is why he is buried in the rotation.
See, if Woodward projected as a guy who could guard SFs we might see him on the floor. Thats the issue in my mind. So given the choice between two guys to develop at PF, Metu wins out.
Again, Woodard is injured. I doubt he’s been tangling with Metu or anyone else at practice.
Could I trouble you to direct me to the footage that you evaluated in assessing Woodard’s agility? I’ve not seen a lot of him at play, and my impression was that he may be a superior athlete, but I’m always up to have my mind changed.
Maybe I am wrong. And I stand corrected when I am proven wrong.
I want to be proven wrong, perhaps because I am right so often I do not mind the rare blue moon, so I can learn and be better as an NBA analyst.
I am more interested in truth than ego gratification. Thats what makes me an awesome commentator compared to guys like the guy who once had a chat with Nancy Lieberman, LOL.
I was wrong about Harkless, for example, he can play a little, more than I thought, and I readily admitted I was wrong he had more left in the tank than his initial impression, though his perimeter shot is not exactly a sight to behold.
What I see of Woodward however is a guy who will get DUSTED against mobile wings. He doesn’t have the agility of a Metu or Barnes or Moe to keep his man in front of him on the perimeter. I saw this clear as day in the presason.
With Woodward strength and length, it would be awesome if he could be agile enough to check 3s, then we are in Kawhi Leonard territory. That was my hope.
But since he is not there or close to there this limits his chances on the floor. This is why the coach buried him. He cannot trust him to guard and this is SO important.
Why do you think, for example, Davis, gets around 20 MPG, although the guy is often launching bricks? The guy defends hard, the guy can be trusted to get after it.
Davis is a threat to Buddy and his minutes bc he can play well when his shot is off. You cannot say this about Buddy. This is actually a positive for both players, just like maybe the performance of Metu will spur Woodward to correct for his deficiencies.
But the bottom line for me , and I await to be disproven, is Woodward is a PF, and Metu is a better PF than Woodward, and that is why he is not playing.
It’s pretty impressive you can draw all these conclusions about Woodward when the guy has played a total of 29 nba minutes.
He is too stiff and immobile to check 3s. That was my impression, you saw differently?
How many minutes do I need to conclude that a guy is stiff and immobille, 29 minutes seems about right. 😉
Look, I want the guy to be good. I want to be disproven. But I dont think I will be. Woodward is a PF and Metu is better than him. Now lets see if this assessment is wrong or not.
This passage is nothing short of magical:
So, this means that you won’t help me find the video you’ve examined in drawing your conclusions about Woodard’s agility?
Dang…
This one isn’t bad but it’s from college. Hoop Intellect does a decent job.
The available highlights, of course, are all, well, highlights and almost entirely offense.
The G-League does offer “condensed games” on their YouTube channel. So you could watch those and hope for glimpses.
I’m not sure if they offer full game replays online.
Outstanding, thanks, BHE!
Woodward is an elite athlete by literally every measure. Both eye test and objective measurements. In college and G-league, you’ll find plenty of examples of him sliding with guards. In the NBA combine SPARC measurements he ranked just below the 95th percentile for all NBA players tested. Woodward may not ultimately be a quality NBA player due to a deficit of overall awareness and modern perimeter skills, but his athleticism will not be the thing that holds him back. He is more of a SF/PF type. While Metu is a PF/C type. So, while there’s overlap there, Metu isn’t the thing keeping Woodward from minutes. At the moment, the issues standing between Woodward and minutes are experience, health and, of course, the coach’s opinion.
Woodwars is an elite athlete but his superior strength adversely affects his agility. That is what I see. He’s super strong but he’s NOT super mobile. Hence he’s a 4.
You might be right. But what I know is that we want invest this time in the season in the prospects who can be part of our core and the determination was made Woodward can only be part of our core as a PF and Metu has outperformed him.
It could be Woodward, once he gets healthy * will * be given chance at the expense of Metu or at the SF, but there is an opportunity cost associated with this. Why should we invest in Woodward when he has not impressed enough relative to Metu, not shown the versatilty to play combo forward?
Fine y me however, go ahead and let him get minutes over Moe at the 3 and with Metu at the PF. I don’t think the results will be pretty, but it is not a bad idea to get confirmation or be pleasantly surprised if he outperforms expectations.
Is Woodward better than Metu, didnt he shoot 42% in G-League?!
I don’t necessarily think Woodward is better than Metu. But they play different positions and different roles. They aren’t really competing against each other. Woodward would primarily be competing against Barnes and Harkless for the Combo F role minutes. While Metu is competing against Bagley (when healthy) and Holmes for minutes in the PF/Smallball C role.
And I agree the early results likely won’t look good for Woodward. Like I mentioned, his awareness isn’t great and, of course, rookies almost always struggle defensively as they adjust to NBA level schemes and moves.
Woodward is a huge project. And not one I’m especially enamored with except in a “hey, the season is over, the other SFs are vets, may as well throw some minutes at the kid if he’s healthy enough” kind of way.
And DAMMIT I keep screwing up his name. In my defense, I’ve known multiple families and friends named Woodward.
Sorry, Robert. I’ll try to do better.
“Bob Woodward” is already accounted for in history.
Follow the money!
Metu is better than Woodard? Based on what evidence?
Uh, eyes being opened.
Funny!
…but true.
Fuck you Bill Walton’s son.
It’s so frustrating Woodard is out right now. Tonight and the next few games would have been perfect to get him minutes.
Daquan Jeffries still with us?
He’s currently riding pine in Houston.
At least he’s still in the league.
He’s roughly the 6th best version of Daquan Jeffries on their roster at the moment. The have a real fetish for 6’4-6’6 athletic guys.
Them and the entire NBA.
True, though I feel like most of that trend is closer to the 6’7-6’8 area.
McNair sure loves his “value.” This is good!
Ah, good news. I like Metu, this is a great way to fill out a bench.
Great news! Metu > Marvin.
McGenius strikes again! McGenius is a legend in the making!
Doomers be like “meh…next”. LOL
I said way back when I loved this prospect and hoped he made the team over Kaminsky, the talent differential was obvious and dramatic. Metu has a good feel for the game and he KNOWS he belongs. He has a smooth stroke, is not fazed going up against the stars of the league and can jump through the gym. He needs to get stronger, of course, to get the boards and secure his position in the paint.
Metu has major upside! Why can he not be like a guy like Christian Wood, from nobody to star?! Doomers be like ” but my doom paradigm does not allow…no compute…..system malfunction….system overload……cognitive dissonance overload…” I project Metu as a PF , the player that many Kings fans wished Woodward to be.
Guess what, if Woodward wants to see the court, he needs to outplay Metu in practice, and I suspect Metu is kicking his butt! Woodward days are numbered, Marvin days are numbered, out with the bums, in the with the boom-shaka-laka!
It bears repeating this is great work by our GM (Princeton grad) to build out the bench on the cheap with high priced players in Fox, Barnes, Buddy and soon-to-be Holmes. If Vlade was still in charge he would have kept the sleepy eyed loafer Frank the Tank, reminiscent of the man he sees when he looks in the mirror, and we would not even be having this conversation.
This move makes Marvin that much more expendable, bye dude, go make a rap song no one will listen to!
Thus far, I’m inclined to think that McNair’s decisions have been on the happy side of average, but this “McGenius” thing really throws cold water on your opinions, whether I agree with them or not.
Haha…I feel you. There’s some comments where I am like “yeah I kind of agree with that”. But man it’s said in the most irritating way impossible….can’t rec out of principle : )
I agree that Metu has some FEEL for the game….
and I would like to see him able to grab some rebound…so he can be our “C. Wood”…
This is awesome. I love the attitude, energy and SKILL that Metu brings from the bench.
It’s almost as if his early years as a professional were spent with an organization that knows how to build players into their best selves. Barring a coaching change, all of that ends…NOW.
I have a trade proposal. Buddy/Bagley for Kevin Love. I did the salaries on the NBA trade machine. The Cavs would get one of the better shooters and a young prospect in Bagley. The Kings would get a legitimate stretch four and 20 point scorer that can take over games, plus Love is a good rebounder. I think Love can be solid for at least the next 3 years.
A resounding NO.
That would have to include some pretty substantial draft compensation to get me to even consider it.
I’ll be honest, I have a hard time seeing Love being solid for next season, let alone two more after that.
This is good
About time you showed up.
Sorry man, New Zealand vs California time zones put me out of sync. This is bad.
I’m thinking that the Metu and Jones signing’s are a step away from Bagley for the organization. Also didn’t see him on the sidelines of the last game, which was weird because it was a home game and he’s supposedly close to coming back. I have no problem with rehabbing away from the team when you’re going to be out an extended period of time. But once you’re close to coming back you should really be around the team as much as possible….to know what’s going on, to get a feel for the rhythm of the team so you’re ready once you get the final OK from team docs. I’m really curious what’s happening behind the scenes. It really sucks the way the whole thing has played out….for the team, for Bagley, for the fans…
I like the move. Reward for playing hard. Metu can definitely be a trusted role player for this team. Sure hope we keep Holmes. Would even like to keep Bagley one more year hoping it all starts to click for him. He was better this year. If he could make the next level in improvement and healthiness, the Kings would be much better off. Don’t think he brings much back in trade now.
Love those low risk…high reward deal…
Keep the flexibility…
and of course…Metu is a exciting prospect to see on the court…….
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