Faced with the NBA deadline to trim their roster to 15 before the official start of the 2016-17 season, the Kings today waived guards Isaiah Cousins and Jordan Farmar, along with Lamar Patterson. That means that Point Guard Ty Lawson has officially made the final roster. These cuts should come as no surprise, as Lawson was widely expected to make the team and will likely be the starting Point Guard for the first 8 games of the season while Darren Collison is suspended. Even an incident involving a missed flight after partying the previous night in Las Vegas didn’t deter the Kings from keeping Lawson.
We’ve also received a little bit of clarity regarding Lamar Patterson. According to Sean Cunningham, the reason Patterson was re-signed after being waived did have to do with some way for the Kings to secure his rights for the Reno Bighorns, should Patterson decide to sign a D-League contract. The Kings clearly like the young wing, but right now there just wasn’t enough roster space to keep him on. The new CBA that the NBA is apparently close to announcing is also rumored to be adding 16th and 17th roster spots for NBA teams to use for the D-League, but that won’t go into effect until next season at the earliest.
Farmar will likely be on the Kings radar throughout the season if he doesn’t get picked up by someone else. The Kings still don’t have very much Point Guard depth and they could be in trouble if one of Collison or Lawson goes down with injury. Garrett Temple will likely be playing some Point Guard throughout the season as well but it’s not his natural position.
Like Patterson, Isaiah Cousins, the 59th pick of this year’s draft, will likely be headed to the Reno Bighorns, unless of course he decides to go overseas.
The Kings season starts in just two days, when they’ll take on the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix.
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