There's a definite risk of the luxury tax if we sign him to an MLE+ deal, though I think not picking up the full option on DeMar might offset most of it. Perry has his work cut out for him and this is where the Dennis deal could really bite him.
[Rumor] Fischer: Keon Ellis a popular name on the market but Kings also interested in extending him
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
Maybe its the simplest answer
If I saw another team treat a recent lotto pick like that my mind would immediately go to "what going on behind scenes with this guy"
Yeah the simplest answer could be the correct answer. At least with a normal organization. Sac is clearly not normal so it's difficult to say if Devin is a problem or if the org is just doing their normal weird thing, like burying a budding role player in Ellis for a bunch of has beens in a rebuild year.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
This is all fuel so Perry can ditch Christie and nobody will question it. So, the two most "pillar" guys in Keon and Carter are the players that DC (who was basically them in his playing days) doesn't like. This is so Kangz is not even the cute Kangz of old. This is just... pathetic.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
Keon is a role player, nothing more. But one that fits the supposed direction. The only negative thing about him is his contract. Overpay him for what he gives you and he's not the last piece? Yeah, Holmes/JT all over again. If he wants anything close to MLE type money, let him find it. DO NOT extend him. Let the market set itself and live with the results. Carter however has team control. There is not a single reason they shouldn't be investing time in him. All he can do is go up as a trade asset.
ockingsfan
Starter
Unfortunately, all of these DNP signals to me that Keon is definitely on the trade block. They don’t want him to get injured before a trade.
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Not sure if Ellis is equatable. He’s a 26 year old known quantity with a specific game that you either do or don’t treasure
With Carter it’s either the org is being petty because he was a draft pick of the previous admin, completely doesn’t know what it’s doing, or Carter is totally unappealing in his habits behind the scene that the org was trying to deal him as soon as last summer
Wolves: 28-19, 6th in West
BOS: 29-17, 2nd in East
NYK: 27-18, 4th in East
IND: Obviously down in the dumps this year, but they collect Keon Ellis types and are a well-run organization coming off a finals run
There's something to take from this, but can't really put my finger on it....
ShastaKingsFan
Hall of Famer
The organizations that don't value 3&D players who improve the +- of the team, are the ones that don't figure out how to contend for anything
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
And especially when they say that's the main "pillar" they're building on style wise. LOL. I get it with Keon, it's all about timing and a team in this state certainly doesn't want to be paying role guys big money but so far this has been good 'ol Kings from the start of this new regime.
I would not be surprised it money has something to do with it. Plus he'll be 29 before we even sniff the playoffs again.
ShastaKingsFan
Hall of Famer
"Now" is after the fact. It's the 2 seasons leading up to this that doesn't make sense
If it takes Keon and one or two of the vets to get a first and or a young future piece, then so be it. Still weird since Keon seems like he could be a future piece.
Jdbraver137
Starter
Keon will be traded for a high 2nd. This FO is a joke.
He will be packaged with DeMar or Domas most likely
DeMar and Domas are the two that need to be moved to preserve the tank, and their value may not singularly be where we want it
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
That's the problem, the Kings suck and that Schroder deal killed any chance of offering him MLE type money without going over the tax. If the Kings can't dump someone and they get a high lottery pick they'll be way over on that alone. In fact, they might be right near the apron.
I wouldn't be worried about the apron if we're in a rebuild situation. It's not like we need that salary flexibility to add a key piece in the off-season. Other than Keon expiring, whatever deals are on the table now there will probably be better ones in 5 months. Extending Keon and then trying to trade him (like GS did with Kuminga) would make more sense than losing him for nothing since he's generating more trade interest than anyone else on the team but would Keon sign that extension now? Probably not.
ShastaKingsFan
Hall of Famer
yeah, it appears that Ranadive/Perry underestimated his value around the league. shocker
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
They more so overestimated Schroders.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
No rebuild team is paying that or going over the apron. That's beyond the fact that Keon isn't worth as much to this team as he is one that's competing. This next deal for Keon will likely take him into his 30's. If the Kings overpay, just like with Monk, the same thing will happen to Keon. Mark it down.
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
Or they more so SEVERELY overestimated their own respective values.
ShastaKingsFan
Hall of Famer
probably both
If that's the case, then it's just more evidence that this front office is in over their heads. There is currently only $34 million in salary committed beyond the 2027-2028 season. Clearly no owner wants to spend $180+ million on a last place team but those salary decisions have already been made for the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 seasons and the only means of getting out of them likely involves trading assets that we will need to rebuild with (draft picks and cheap, good, young players). Furthermore, most of the people responsible for making those decisions have already been fired.* That salary has to be treated as sunk cost.
And I don't agree with your premise that Keon is worth more to a team that's competing then he would be to us. He is worth exactly the same to any team that wants to win basketball games, and that should include us in the future. We don't get to stash him on some other team's roster for a couple of years and then get him back when we're trying to win again. We know this season is lost already and we're better off losing games then winning them at this point but we don't know what will happen in the draft and we don't know what will happen next season. I don't think bad teams get better by jettisoning one of the few net positive players they do have. Especially if those players are barely 26 and should have 10 good years of NBA production left in them.
You're floating the idea that Keon is about to become overpaid. That remains to be seen. Jonathan Kuminga couldn't even get a contract offer last season coming off a post-season series where he averaged 21 ppg and shot 8 for 19 from three point range. Historically teams have valued Kuminga's skillset (elite athleticism, combo forward size, defensive versatility, shot creation skills) far more than Ellis'. Yes a lot of teams want him right now on the trade market -- because he has a salary of only $2.3 million and is a great short-term fit for any playoff run.
As for the Monk comparison, obviously I would like Monk better at $15 million per season (especially if we didn't happen to have 5 other SG on the roster) than I do at $18-20 million per season but when the luxury tax threshold is projected at over $200 million for the 2026-2027 season (and increasing from there in subsequent years), I don't know that the extra $3-5 million per year is as big of a deal as you're making it out to be. And I would bet that on average the 2-3 years immediately after a player signs their second NBA contract tend to represent the best cost/production ratio of any type of contract in the league. That's where we would be with a Keon Ellis extension. It's whoever signs him to his third contract that is likely to be overpaying.
*I say most because this front office is responsible for the Dennis Schröder contract which includes $14.8 million in guaranteed salary for the 2026-2027 season and $4.3 million in guaranteed salary for the 2027-2028 season. (link)
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
Therein lies the issue, the Kings are going to be rebuilding and winning isn't necessarily goal 1A if they know what they're doing, flexibility is. At least for a few years. Keon or any role player being overpaid is based on use and need. It always is. If he signed to the Kings at a MLE level contract and is used to the same degree or heck, even what he's shown as a starter and the wins aren't coming? He's on the cusp of being an iffy contract because teams will move on. I remember saying the same things about Monk and got the same push back. 6th men making bigger money is no different than a 3 and D player because their value is mostly based on need. It might not bite them, but it might and yes, right now the issue is all that other money on the cap sheet that might not be movable. Keon is not a truly wise investment depending on the dollar amount at this point unfortunately mostly because the Kings cap is a mess and the Kings are THIS bad. And Kuminga to me is a perfect example of what could go wrong. The Warriors might have overpaid him as well. They did that however to get him to settle on a TO. That might payoff for them, it might not.
The Monk situation was clouded by a couple of factors... Was he still the sixth man at that point or had he replaced K'Von as the starter? Both were coming back from injuries. Also, that team was still trying to improve from a first round playoff series loss into a hopeful contender. To do that you need the good starter and the good sixth man. And re-signing a player with proven chemistry with our two All-Stars and head coach added additional value which I think justified the slightly elevated cost.
For Kuminga, that's just a case of a team trying to game the system by hanging onto an asset they were unable to trade and then shooting themselves in the foot because their head coach is an ego maniac who thinks he's the star of the team. I don't see any applicable conclusions which can be applied to our situation (unless you want to retroactively argue that Mike Brown was a similar breed of ego maniac but he's already gone and isn't coming back so also irrelevant).
But where I ultimately land on this is more about team culture. Even with a dozen top 5 picks we're not going to transform into a winning team without changing the team culture. There are plenty of very talented NBA players who don't really contribute to winning because they either don't want to or don't know how to conform to a team concept. I want Keon Ellis around because he gets it -- he digs in on defense and he only takes high percentage shots on offense. He does appear to have a curious inability to make good decisions on the fast break which is unfortunate, but likely not game breaking. When we come out the other side of this rebuild are we just going to have a roster of younger shot chuckers who live to shoot but can't manage a defensive stop if their lives depended on it? If we're in the business of trading away players like Keon Ellis I'm not so sure we're even heading in the right direction to begin with. Maybe we spend another 10 years wandering in the desert of middling success for all of our future lottery flirtations and we'll be right back in the same place in 2036 wondering why nobody good wants to come play for our team.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
True, but Monte spent money to keep the extra pieces on a capped out team that was never a contender to justify doing so in the first place. Lyles was as egregious in his own way. Much like with Keon, you let those players find the money in the marketplace, don't just hand it over. But again, this team also did what with the space created? Paid more to a player already under contract, lol. That in a nutshell is what has kept the Kings where they are for so long. No vision. Even when they scored with a Fox or Cuz they couldn't just let it ride for a bit, they had to go out and try and win in the interim and it was a mistake every single time without fail and it's those things that keeps teams from being able to augment going forward. It's always been this way but with the aprons now once a team is cemented it's cemented. It would be great to see Keon back but let him at the very least find that money, don't just hand it over. The Kings have a very slim window because the last 3 years ended up the way they did. Keegan is paid now. Even that bit of money changes the dynamic moving forward.
ShastaKingsFan
Hall of Famer
Ironically, they had it right all of that preseason leading up to the day or two before game 1 of last season. Keon was going to be the starter and Monk would remain in his 6th man role. They over analyzed it and defaulted back to the premise that a player (Huerter) can never lose a starting spot because of injury.
Nothing should be set in stone like that. Do what's best for the team. Keon had become a higher % shooter than Huerter and obviously was a much more impactful defender.
Probably also came down to money again, where they couldn't get themselves to start a 2.3 million dollar undrafted player over the guy they traded assets for and were paying much more. Hate when that happens