My ONLY hope is that this is just agent bluster trying to drive up value for Waiters. Before we all panic, just remember that Vlade told us last year that a lot of the players we "supposedly" bid on were players we had never talked to. I think we were linked to an offer to Monte Ellis and someone in Orlando (maybe Tobias Harris or Oladipo) and everyone was laughing about how we had no plan and were just offering to everyone. Vlade spoke after free agency and said we had never talked to several of the players we had been linked to, much less made offers.
Part of that could be Vlade covering up the rejctions, or part of it could be that agents (correctly) know that they can assign crazy rumors to Sacramento and most of the world will believe it. Last year, we never even heard about Marco and Kosta as targets before they were signed. Likewise, we knew we were wooing Rondo and Matthews, but only because they took trips here. Everything else turned out to be false. That is what I keep reminding myself. If we sign Waiters for any amount (but certainly $18m) I am going to be really sour. But I am still hoping this is the same "use the Kings to drive market value up" BS we saw last year.