The Sacramento Kings picked up 2018-19 options on Willie Cauley-Stein, Skal Labissiere, Buddy Hield, Georgios Papagiannis, and Malachi Richardson, according to James Ham. The moves were expected, as today was the deadline to pick up the options.

The Sacramento Kings have picked up 2018-19 options on Cauley-Stein, Labissiere, Papagiannis, Hield and Richardson. As expected.

— James Ham (@James_HamNBCS) October 31, 2017

All this move really signals is that none of these guys are conpletely out of the organization’s long-term plans yet. Richardson’s name popped up in trade rumors earlier today, but the Kings certainly aren’t looking to let him walk away for nothing.

That said, several of these players have serious question marks going forward. Willie needs to prove he can be consistent, Skal needs polish, Hield hasn’t shot well to start the year, and Malachi has barely seen the floor enough to be properly evaluated. This is still a group of players who are far from the surefire players you hope for by the time you exercise these options.

Personally, I’m just glad the Kings avoided any sort of paperwork mishap that would have resulted in an inevitable bidding war to retain Papagiannis.