When it was reported late Monday night that Richaun Holmes was returning to Sacramento, you could almost hear the sigh of relief from Kings fans all across Sacramento. Kings fans have been nervous about this moment ever since the trade deadline, when Monte McNair and the Kings bet that they’d be able to retain Holmes without overpaying and opted to keep him instead of trading him for future assets. Today, the Kings and Holmes made their reunion official.
The Kings do not have a great history of retaining free agents. Just last year the Kings lost Bogdan Bogdanovic to the Hawks when they opted not to match his offer sheet. Isaiah Thomas was also lost for nothing (unless you think Alex Oriakhi might still have some potential). This habit of losing good assets for little to no value has been just one of the many self-inflicted wounds this franchise has suffered during the past 15 years. So when the Kings failed to create cap space before free agency, and with Sacramento (maybe?) trading for Tristan Thompson and signing Alex Len, fans rightfully were getting nervous and preparing for life without Holmes.
But Monte’s bet proved to be the right one, and the Kings were able to bring Holmes back on a deal that works for both team and player. For the Kings, it’s a rare fair value contract instead of the classic overpay we’re all used to seeing. They also didn’t have to rush to do a salary dump to create extra cap space. For Richaun, he gets long term security but also the flexibility to explore free agency again in three years if he wants, plus a raise if he gets traded before then. It’s a win-win.
It’s hard to imagine how Sacramento would have been able to improve much next season if they didn’t bring back one of their best players, and Holmes’ impact cannot be understated. Per basketball-reference, the Kings were 8.4 points per 100 possessions better with Holmes on the floor than off it, the best mark on the team. He’s one of the most efficient offensive big men in the entire league (Rudy Gobert was the only player in the entire league with a higher FG% last season among qualified players) and only 8 centers scored more per game than Holmes last season. He possesses a lot of defensive versatility as well, able to switch to wings and guard the perimeter. Holmes is not without his weak points (dealing with bigger centers and outside shooting in particular), but his positives far outweigh the negatives, and who is to say he can’t get even better? He’s done that every season of his career so far.
90 seconds of the most automatic signature shot in basketball today: The Richaun Holmes push floater. pic.twitter.com/Bcc6f1QLG2
— Tony Xypteras (@TonyXypteras) February 18, 2021
Holmes is not a star but Kings fans are celebrating his return like he is. He’s beloved among the fan base for how hard he plays and the energy he brings night in and night out. His family brings an infectious positive presence to social media, a place where too often toxicity and negativity prevail. Joy is perhaps the epitome of the Holmes experience, as there are few players who seem to enjoy playing as much as Richaun and few players I enjoy watching more.
I don’t know how the rest of Sacramento’s offseason will play out, but re-signing Richaun Holmes was my top hope and priority for the Kings in free agency, and they knocked it out of the park in all regards.
Sure Block Holmes: It doesn’t take a sleuth to deduce this as a good signing.
The Kings are treading water!
I’m glad to retain Holmes, and he’s been one of the more enjoyable Kings to watch over the last decade. I think I would call the move “necessary” more than a “home run.” It doesn’t improve the team as much as it avoids making it worse. I’m glad it happened, and I’m hoping that a front office that doesn’t have to work on finding that missing piece can instead work on actually adding wins. The afterglow is going to fade real quick if this team doesn’t win 40 games next season. Waiting for the other shoe to drop…
How about a “Holmes Run”?
Excellent.
Already have a good player then keeping that good player. It is a good start towards stability. Maybe not a step forward but definitely not a step backwards.
Neutral is a good thing for this organization.
Happy he is back at a reasonable price. Easy guy to root for.
Keep your man at a fair price, without damaging the roster, or limiting options in regard to trades or free agents. Pretty neat.
Bizarro Kings.
One of the Kings better signings in recent memories, both times. I remember when he was originally signed and thought to be a guy that would push Harry Giles for minutes. Good times!
I remember thinking at that time we got Dedmon AND Holmes!? Yay us!
Welp, one out of two ain’t bad!
Alright, send Thompson, Bagley, Woodard and Ramsey to the Bulls for Markannen and Troy Brown please
Anything that brings Lauri in return. This franchise has to take flyers on young high draft picks that have underperformed and hope they can turn their career around here.
So Marvin Bagley? Another win for Monte! : )
I’ve come around to believing that Marvin IS exactly the type of guy you bet on and should be kept. Why not? We trade nothing, he doesn’t need to start and has lowered expectations, and we just see if he can get a season of good ball in to make for an interesting S&T candidate or not. Forget everything up to this point, the dude can give you 20-10 any night. Why not see if he can really carve out a dynamic stretch-4 role? Maybe he’s always a defensive liability, but he’s proven he can play next to Holmes or Len. Worse case scenario – you get him on a cheap second deal to be a bucket getter in an 8 man rotation – especially with the new defensive support Monte has brought in. I’m in no rush to trade him, and would love to trade Buddy + picks to get players like him. I even heard someone mention Buddy for Vassell and I’d be ALL for that.
Agreed. Was having a joke, but I’ve been on that train for awhile on here, especially bc you control his rights. I’m still on Bagley island as being a productive NBA player. I got my row boat ready, but haven’t left the shore yet.
Heard the same Buddy/Vassell deal and thought no flippin way, but would do it in a sec. Would need to balance salaries though somehow.
It’s not that far to “somewhat productive.” He just has to get to below average on defense and well below average as a passer. It’s been three years, so maybe it’s not going to happen, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable for any NBA player to get get over those minimal hurdles.
I seriously doubt he’s in town next season. I would be shocked if there wasn’t trade request before last season’s deadline. I think both Bagley and the Kings would be better off if he’s somewhere else.
I agree this may be the case which is why I’m also an advocate of packaging him with Buddy for picks, prospects, or a starting 3.
Unfortunately “Team Bagley” has convinced him that he is much better than he is. He has decided that on another team he will be a star. Like the others he was drafted with. Maybe he is someday?
I think Bagley needs to go to one or two more teams before he accepts the fact that he needs to earn his spot in the NBA.
Better for the Kimgs, Bagley’s daddy, and Bagley to move on.
Hopefully it happens.
Meh, respectfully disagree. No need to take on another reclamation project, IMHO. What this team needs is an injection of guaranteed, bona fide exceptional NBA basketball skill. Something that shifts the franchise’s center of gravity a bit. If that takes parting with a couple future first-rounders along with a malcontented Buddy and a sunk-cost Bagley, so be it. Go big or go home, I say.
Put Bagley, Buddy, 2 FRPs on the table and call every team in the league and see what you can get
I wouldn’t call Lauri a reclamation project, but not a bona fide blah blah…somewhere in the middle. The dude is a proven 7′ that can shoot the 3
yes, back to basketball.
I agree-Lauri can shoot it . I think Bulls put too many expectations on him. A second chance might be good for all.
As much as we criticize this FO for all the stupid decisions they make, we have to give them credit for retaining Holmes on a fair value contract. Aside from Holmes’ play on the court, the contract is very valuable as a trade chip down the road.
Has the current front office really made any particularly stupid decisions, at least of significance?
Holding a presser to say Luke is the guy to get us to the playoffs?
Fantastic response! Honestly the only obviously bad call imo though and we don’t know how hamstrung Monte was with that call
It was like a hostage video. The only thing missing was that he wasn’t holding that day’s newspaper.
To be fair, Monte isn’t the most telegenic dude. The draft night presser had an ISIS quality to it as well. He does work for Vivek, and likely has Dumars skulking around as a boss/rival/enemy/coworker on top of it. I can only imagine.
That being said, if Walton was retained for money, dodge the question, don’t lie. If Monte has watched the last four years of national politics at all, he should know that jumping in front of a bus to cover for a narcissist gets you tread marks, not loyalty or gratitude.
hostage video about covers it.
I worry that the Wright for TT trade might cross over into “stupid”. TT costs more, is redundant, especially now with Holmes, Len and Jones and various small ball configurations
I think most would point to Bogi leaving and no asset return. Bucks trade bungled by whomever. Think that spilled beans they didn’t want him back, lost some leverage.
Personally I don’t see as much fault in that because I wouldn’t have felt great with Bogi at 18 million on the roster. Think that contract looks OK now in Atlanta, not sure how great and moveable it looks if he was on the Kings whole year.
I think that’s a terrible contract for him, always injured, takes horrid shots quite often, negative defensive guy…no thanks
Didn’t want to be here. Tony Snell’s contract in return. I’m good with it, too.
Every opinion from guys that cover the NBA was that it was stupid for the Kings to lose Bogi for nothing and points to the franchise’s continued ineptitude and inability to get basic things right.
You may think it was nothing losing Bogi without return, but every opinion I read on the Bogi situation lambasted the Kings for losing him for nothing.
Huerter and Reddish were reported to be available last offseason, are you telling me we couldn’t have gotten one of the two in a deal?
For a team with such few assets, the assets you have can’t walk for free, which is why retaining Holmes on a fair contract is a big score for this FO. Let’s see what move they have up their sleeve next.
I was hoping for one of the same guys. But I have to think that wasn’t on the table. Kings lost leverage once it was revealed they were going to ship him at 14-15 mill from Bucks. At 18, Atlanta knew they didn’t need to part with one of those guys.
It’s just not fathomable that Atlanta offered one of those guys and Monte was just like , no thanks, I’ve got Jabari Parker. Just weren’t available once the Bucks deal got hosed I think.
agree. Bogi contract too rich. A Snell return would have not been good. The Bucks “trade” that fell through did have promise- Donte + a pick I believe.
Still of the opinion it was a tough call. Also remember they did have a deal with the Bucs for a decent return.
Which I believe Bogi sabotaged. Wonder now, in hindsight, if he wishes he would’ve gone to the World Champion Milwaukee Bucks. Ah, choices.
It’s always debatable.
But keeping Luke and not getting anything for Bogi are the things one can argue.
To be determined are how he handles Bagley and Barnes. And Mitchell is a pretty unconventional choice so we will see how that pans out.
I guess I give them a bit of a pass for the Bogi debacle because they clearly had a plan to trade and get something for him, and that blowing up (it would have been a very nice move, I’d argue) might not have been their fault. And they may have lost all leverage after that blowup in making a similar move. In general, though, I think they were right not to re-sign Bogi.
Keeping Luke is a bigger issue to me. It’s hard to know, though, how much influence Vivek has there. But yeah, that would be the biggest issue to me with McNair’s tenure. With a lot of stuff, I see him as between a rock and a hard place, though, considering the personnel and situation he inherited. In general, I think he’s taken a pretty reasonable approach so far while lying in the weeds waiting to do something bigger and better (I hope).
Well, so far, most of their decisions/moves have been pretty insignificant.
Pursuing the play-in instead of tanking was an incredibly stupid move.
Ehhh, I get that the idea of going for the 10 seed is not glamorous and I agree, not some great accomplishment. But to me tanking would have meant selling off Barnes, Buddy, Holmes etc. Maybe they get down to the 6/7 in lottery finish. Top 5 was gonna be tough nut to crack record wise at deadline.
Alternate universe if this team had no Holmes, Barnes, Buddy or Davion, but rather#7 Jonathan Kuminga (or Wagner) and say an additional middling first, A. Nesmith (Prospect name from thin air) and whatever platter of salaries you got back for those guys…are they much better off? Maybe some salary cap space…who are they getting with that roster construction based on free agency this year?
If one wants to go all OKC and 4-5 year tank job then OK I get it. But tanking just for this year while ridding yourselves of decent proven players especially Holmes and Barnes, I don’t think gets you anywhere in next 1-2 years unless you got super lucky and moved into Top 4 with the increased 10-15% odds.
Guess it depends on your appetite for the long rebuild.
I would rather have gone full tank and rebuild over the next 2-3 years with tons of assets/cap space, and high draft picks. I hope Monte proves me wrong!
That’s fair. I was definitely along that train of thought for quite awhile. Think I’ve changed some. I feel like smart moves can turn around a team in a couple years, without decimating it. But the full tank is certainly a path that has some merit. Ala, Philly.
I am becoming a bit skeptical of the OKC type rebuild thus far as the majority of their extra picks are not going to be in the lottery likely (Or they are even lottery protected) and the hit rate of those just isn’t high. I feel like they are going to have to nail their own pick, because it will likely be their highest pick each year for the next couple years. Obliviously they can package the extra picks, but weren’t able to this year (if they even tried).
Just for fun I went and looked at the past results of picks 13-16 (definition of middling) in the last 15 drafts. Of the 60 picks I would count about 17-18 as decent NBA players you might want on team. That includes the likes of guys like Oubre and TJ Warren who have bounced around. So about 30% hit rate or getting any reasonable player, nevermind the 10-15% hit rate on a true difference maker.
Guess I’d rather just have Barnes and Holmes for the next couple years and see if you can make smart moves around those types of guys.
I think the Kings front office, for whatever reason, evaluate their players too highly, when players like Holmes, Barnes, Buddy are average, at best. Unable to move these assets in a red flag to me that these players are really not that sought after.
So going for the 10 seed was a bad move, in my opinion. Unloading of players who never moved the needle, like a Barnes, would have been the prudent thing to do, because going into this season we look like another 31 win team.
It will be interesting to see what OKC decides to do, but they have the assets and cap space to basically make some major moves whenever they choose to. So far they’ve only spent 1 season outside the playoffs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them back in the playoffs in 2022-23.
Definitely possible, personally would be surprised if it was that quick, but they were doing decent last year (vs expectation) before they completely shut it down.
These are good points to argue against the non tank decision last year. It’s totally fair.
having Barnes still as a building block towards winning again is big and likely his value will only increase as the contract length gets shorter.
I don’t think I’ve criticized THIS front office as of yet. All wins IMO…
I mean, not on the basketball court.
Somewhere, far off in the balkans, a man by the name of Vlade Divac is lighting up a cigar, thinking, “at least I got one thing right.”
Vlads: Ya I finally got one?
To be fair, he was right on Harry Giles, too
do you mean he was right in drafting him? or in admitting he was wrong by not bringing him back?
They got him on a great contract. He’s a meaningful building block who gets better every year. And he plays defense, which is a rare commodity in Sacramento.
LEEETSSS GOOOO
Just a welcome relief to be able to get to see that push floater or that much longer.
Glad Monte got it right
https://twitter.com/JandersonSacBee/status/1423702211150770183
Nice, Metu playing Summer League.
Those birth years are making me feel very, very old
I was already old at the time of those birth years!
But you have nothing on ElRon…
I’m 6 years older than the youngest guy on this roster and It’s making me feel old
When we finally get a Larry OB
Re-signing Holmes was critical. It was not pre-ordained: the first Wright trade messed up some possibilities, RH was on early bird and a few teams were interested. I think his asking price was high and the 3-4 other teams backed away. We can praise Monte for foresight or we can say he was really lucky. Trading for TT gave a hint that Monte was not totally confident. I did not like that trade at all and it may have been barely acceptable until RH signed. Now it is a bad move and I hope that it gets modified.
Drafted two guys-one a redundant guard and the other not ready. Time will tell however
FA- re-signed a guard, a forward and a center and added a center/Len who is better than Hassan.
Have 2 disgruntled guys on roster.
Lost Wright on bad move (so far)
Considering D. Jones and JJ.
Released K Guy.
Last years second round picks , at this point, have not progressed.
at this point, except for draft, about status quo
Guy has shown more than Woodard, or Ramsey in the NBA. Much more success in college as well.
you are absolutely correct.
I really enjoyed rooting for him, though he didn’t shoot well. I don’t think Luke helped with his confidence. Reminds me of John Stockton’s son. Skilled, but too small.
I hope he can stay in the league.
Meanwhile, Tristan Thompson is in some strip club right now wondering if he’s gonna have to report to Sacramento.
In all honesty, it would not surprise me one bit that if/when the trade goes through, he requests a buyout.
Kings will settle on a price that was less than they owed Wright…and that is why the trade was made.
What does this get them? The trade was made literally for cash considerations? If so, that’s positively Maloof level bad. And if you do make that deal for cash, you can’t trade Wright into someone’s space for a second round pick, or a cheap player coming back that’s equal to what Thompson’s buyout would be? Seems a really convoluted way to make cash, not to mention a little disturbing.
The simplest explanation is that they think “toughness” has value, and that’s what they’re trading for. I am extremely skeptical of that idea.
Toughness does have value. DW had a bit of that. TT has maybe a bit more but how good is toughness when you are not in the lineup
DW was 8 million for one more year, I think and TT is 9.7 one year.
“Cash considerations” might lead to a $ breakeven but DW had some skill. Cash considerations does not.
Our buddy CC could help in clearing salary via buyout, though.
Bet it’s 50 cents on the dollar buyout. That way Thompson can go where he wants and they get some cost savings without having to tie up a roster spot for him.
Part of this is they weren’t confident they could dump Delon Wright for nothing, and frankly I don’t blame them. I don’t see any reason to expect that either.
If this ends up being what happens, the Kings tossed two second round picks aside for nothing in the Joseph to Wright trade. If you don’t make that deal at all, you have two seconds and no salary commitment this season. Trading Wright for Thompson is bad value. Making that trade and buying Thompson out is indefensible. Neither is going to kill the team, but it’s not good asset management. I still think Thompson either plays or is sent out in another deal.
Joseph had a 2.4 million buyout. So, not quite.
Maybe I missed it but I’ve seen 4/$46M and 4/$55M on Richaun. Any clarification?
There’s a bunch of extra potential meat because of a trade kicker, annual bumps, and such-and-such. It’s really the same max offer that the organization was able to offer, but they put some feathers on it and made it pretty.
Here’s my longer comment. Sims essentially pointed out what the deal is.
Some easier numbers to digest (that are slightly different than the one’s I used in the longer comment).
Speaking of the trade kicker, the value of that will come from when Holmes is traded. The maximum value is likely what boosts the contract by the 8+ million, and that’s assuming Holmes is traded at the deadline.
The other point is that the trade kicker would have to apply to the 4th year, and so unless that ends up being renegotiated, the 55 million number isn’t possible. Put another way, trade kickers don’t apply to option years so unless that option year is eliminated before Holmes is traded, the trade kicker won’t apply to that 4th year. Which is, by the way, the most expensive year on the deal.
It is unknown how much of the 55 million number includes trade incentives.
Last but not least, I’d think of this deal, especially if Holmes stays with the Kings throughout the duration of the contract, a 3 year 33 million dollar more or less. That option year changes the whole nature of this contract for not only the Kings but Holmes himself.
must…keep…31…win…team…core…together…must…keep…31…win…
Man, we need to sign Laurie Markennan, pronto! The Bulls have NO interest in retaining him, he does NOT want to be there. This is the opportunity we have been waiting for to get something back for Marvin, a player with NO trade value and NO future in SAC.
Markennan is a younger stronger more athletic Bjelica. Bjelica was a good player about 2-3 years ago, before he neglected his fitness. Markennan average 19 PPG as a 21 year old in the NBA, the talent is undeniable. Meanwhile Bagley is working on his 3 ball and lastest rap song that will sell 12 digital copies.
Markennan could choose the Hornets, but there is less of opportunity for him to establish himself in the league. That team is more set on the wing than us. He can come here and be our starting PF, splitting time with Metu.
So if he is smart Markennan will be willing to take less from us so he can get minutes and establish himself as a bonafide player and help space the floor for Ty Fox and Davion. It is only if we need to retain Bagley to go after a more appealing option (Siakum, Simmons) and those negotiations are still in play that we may want not be able to commit to Markennan.
McGenius needs to get a sense if a trade package of Davion, Buddy, Bagley would have any interest to the 76ers, and also, who is going to beat that offer? If Klutch Agency is trying to orchestrate a move to a California team, that narrows down the options drastically.
LAL are not trading Anthony Davis for Simmons. What do LAC have to trade, Paul George? Would 76ers want Wiggins, Moody, Wiseman, Kuminga? Meh. GSW are going to play Draymond and Simmons, that won’t work. I heard the Blazers do not want to trade CJ McCollum, let alone Lillard. So where is this magnificent godfather offer for Simmons going to come from?
It would seem if Morey does trade Simmons, he will NOT trade him to an Eastern conference rival. He will want to send his West where he sees him 2x instead of 4X per year.
So if we have any realistic hope to get Simmons, something only our GM can gauge, we may have to miss on Markennan if we need to reserve Bagley for that trade, instead of sending Bagley to CHI in a S&T.
Another consideration is ff Davion plays brilliantly in the LVSL does that give the team confidence they can include Haliburton to the 76er to get the deal done?
Would you trade Haliburton, Buddy and Bagley for Simmons? I would hate to lose Ty but it would balance out or roster splendidly. The key is that we need to see Davion play really well next week and that will give us some flexibility and leverage in the trade negotiation.
Davion is a great player with a bright future. But would I trade him, Buddy and Bagley for Ben Simmons? Oh hell yeah I would and I think our GM would too.
A lineup of Ty Fox Barnes Simmons and Holmes with the bench players we have could beat anyone in the league. We would fault right up there with the Suns. I know I have bagged on Simmons, but he would thrive much more with Ty and Fox and being a secondary playmaker than primary, and being encouraged to develop his offensive game like Giannis, a fresh start without the the baggage that would come with returning to Philly after his historic choke job in Game 7 vs the Hawks.
Simmons is a longshot, a probable pipedream at the price we are able to pay, but if there is a possibility we need to pursue it relentlessly. If they are asking for the Moon (i.e. Fox and many picks), then they can kindly f-off and we need to sign Markennan as a depreciated asset and mercilessly unload our depreciated asset in Marvin. Cmon McGenius, don’t let me down!
I really wonder if they eventually let Lauri hit the market if no trade comes to fruition.
I’d love to be able to use assets for a siakam trade and then try and grab Lauri with the MLE
Lakers: Buddy
Kings: Siakam
Raptors: Bagley, Schroder, Kings top 10 protected ’22 pick
Kings: Lauri for MLE
Fox, Mitchell
Hali, TD
Barnes, Moe
Siakam, Lauri (starting early while siakam out)
Holmes, Len
That’s an absolutely legit lineup…too bad the HC would still be Luke lol
I like the Nemanja comp for Lauri.
He certainly isn’t the next Dirk and isn’t tough enough to equate to Galo’s game.
If Lauri could replicate Nemanja, I’d love it, always felt Nemanja was an under valued player.
C’mon Monte, this can’t be it, can it?
Every hour decreases the likelihood that anything else of significance will happen. Our only “big move” this year will be re-signing a center who was already on our roster for way more than we used to pay him. We now have less financial/cap flexibility than before, but can expect roughly the same on-court results. I love Richaun Holmes, but simply keeping what we already have is obviously not going to change things at G1C. Sigh. Kangz.
Interesting discussion, and yes, it is with Bill Simmons.
https://twitter.com/BillSimmons/status/1424035441217458177?s=20
What does the TKH crowd think?
I love the physicality of the international game. IMO, the NBA has gone far too offense friendly. I’m sick of players drawing shooting fouls while really not attempting to shoot. It shouldn’t be an automatic foul on the defender if the offensive player is the one drawing all the contact. Get rid of the hand check foul and allow defenders to defend.
Sadly, I don’t think the NBA will change. It’s and entertainment industry and most folks don’t want to see defense, they want offense and big numbers.
I think that you’re probably right about the NBA making any changes, but I’d sure as hell rather watch great defense that seeing Trae Young initiating contact over and over so the game can stop while he shoots twelve free throws every night. It’s terrible viewing.
Anything that favors defense would be welcome. The NBA and NFL have gone too far in favoring offense over defense the past decade and a half.
OT: I doubt anything happens to Miami
https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine/status/1424089680002396162
Of course not.
Great news all around! Retained Holmes on a reasonable deal. Resigned Harkless and TD on value deals. Len was a nice pickup too. The only questionable move was Delon for Tristan Thompson, but that might have helped with negotiations on the free agent big man signings, and all things considered, the frontcourt is really good now. Perhaps it was more to clear the way for Davion to get big minutes, but whatever, not complaining.
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