Free Agency

[The Truth Hurts]

What about Lance Stephenson? He sort of resurrected his career in Memphis under DJ last year. We could probably get him on a reasonable contract. Personally, I would much rather have him than Waiters. Thoughts?

 

[Kingfanpaul]

I dont doubt there is interest there. But I have to doubt that $18M price tag that Jason Jones speculated on earlier. Let's hope we can swoop in on Crabbe before Waiters gets a serious look.

I don't want him for any price though.

We can still make some good moves this off-season, but I'll be very disappointed if we can't get Crabbe. He's the #1 player I want this free agency. I think he's going to turn into a fabulous starter.

 

[twslam07]

Damn shame we missed out on Solomon, but $13 mil is a lot to stake on his potential right now. Even worse that he went to play with the Pelicans (a team we'll likely be competing with for a playoff spot). A guard/wing rotation of Holiday, Evans, Hill, Pondexter & Hield is pretty balanced & dynamic.

 

[Kingfanpaul]

Dang.. These people are paying just to overpay. I would hold off on signing anyone this year. It's not worth it. A 4ppg scorer getting 10mil a year? wth..

So you'd hold off on signing anyone this year and wait until next year when the cap goes up again?

 

[steelevt]

David Aldridge ‏@daldridgetnt
Confirming Matthew Dellavedova four-year, $38.4M deal with Bucks, per source

Best part in bold

 

[peacelate]

So you'd hold off on signing anyone this year and wait until next year when the cap goes up again?

If it means not signing Waiters, yes.

 

[Mike]

I understand that is the market and they didn't really have much of a choice, but if they get Conley too at 30 million (or more) as a season, that is at minimum, 50% of the 107 million cap for NEXT year already spoken for. 50% for 2 players, one being a high end role-player (if playing) and the other a "maybe" star. Their bench is horrendous also.

I was unaware of their picks as I don't follow any other team besides the Kings, but that explains their actions even more so. Next year the cap goes up again and they can't afford another max contract at all. A pair of rookies stepping in to help is not a winning strategy either for such a veteran ball club, especially when one is the PG spot (the most difficult position) and a big man spot (some big men take years to develop). They have to stay injury free (a tougher task for an older team) and have their rookies really produce this season, not to mention they have a new coach with a new system. They may not be as good as they look on paper. If even 1 major player goes down, they are done for.

I don't normally keep track with teams other than the Kings, but a friend of mine is a Nuggets fan, and I remember seeing the Jeff Green to Memphis trade which netted the Celtics a future first round pick. At the time it looked to be a good trade for Memphis, but it didn't work out that way.

As for next year, they have the following under contract for 2017/18 and beyond:
- Gasol, Wright, Baldwin, Davis, Wang Zhelin (?), Parsons, and Conley (?)
- Team options: Adams, Martin

They might not be able to afford a max level contract, but theyy should have enough space to add a couple of mid tier starters and that could be enough if Conley is truly a borderline all star, Parsons becomes more of a scorer in an increased role, and Gasol returns to all star form. At that point a solid starter at SG and PF would be enough to remain competitive in the west. Not title competitive, but play off competitive. But hey, enough about the Grizzlies and back onto our Kings!

 

[Kingfanpaul]

If it means not signing Waiters, yes.

Now that I can agree with lol.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

whoah. happy for Sol Hill but damn.

 

[Sac.Kings]

Damn 18 million a year for Anderson doesn't even sound as ridiculous as it once did.

 

[Kingfanpaul]

Portland aggressively pursuing Pau Gasol.

If they are going after Pau and Howard after already signing Turner to that huge deal, that has to mean they are not even going to try and keep Crabbe, no? I'm not sure if their cap situation, but I know they have money to spend.

 

[Hoovtrain]

I may be wrong but Waiters seen awfully redundant with Ben already here. I thought the plan was to upgrade

 

[Kingfanpaul]

Just read that Crabbe changed agent representation today. That seems odd, no? Weird timing. Something must have happened that he didn't like.

 

[jaysutton2003]

Adrian Wojnarowski @WojVerticalNBA
Free agent forward Kenny Thomas has agreed to a five-year, $98M deal with Sacramento, league source tells @TheVertical.

Haha... Thank god this kind of money wasn't around back when Kenny Thomas was signed.

 

[Peter_Gibbons]

Let's think about this logically for a second. IF we really were that stupid to offer 18 million a year to Waiters, he would have signed at 12:01 this morning. Who else would offer him that?? Nobody. Think about it. The 18 million a year offer never happened, otherwise he would already be a King. As selfish as Waiters is, even HE wouldn't turn it down. 1 year ago 18 million a year was star/superstar money. He would be a colossal fool to turn that down. It's just agent "leaks." Bunch of bull and we have to read between the lines.

Notice I said "supposedly". And I read $14 mil last night, who threw the $18mil rumor out there?

 

[Mike]

So you'd hold off on signing anyone this year and wait until next year when the cap goes up again?

It depends who is available and what they want to get paid. We are unlikely to attract top tier guys, so we are left looking at mid-tier guys who we end up paying big dollars to. How many people on here have looked at the Dellavadova contract with the Bucks, Parsons to Memphis, or Turner to Portland and breathed a sigh of relief?

I think quite a lot of us are glad we haven't paid that much money to mid-tier players. But those are the guys we are looking at right now, and frankly there isn't really an appealing option at PG or SG that really makes me say: "Let's sign that guy!". There are some intriguing options left, but if we go after guys like Bazemore or Gordon, we are going to need to pay them hefty sums to come here and that may or may not be the best way forwards. For some fans, they don't want us to do that; other fans want us to do that.

 

[The_Jamal]

I've never wanted Stephenson in a Kings uniform from the moment it came out that he threw his pregnant girlfriend down a flight of stairs back before he was drafted. His actions &a attitude hasn't led me to soften that stance.

From a basketball perspective Collison would be a great fit at PG next to Stephenson but you'd likely want to move Gay to have a better shooter at SF.

And my pipe dream of Gay & Koufos going out and Bledsoe coming back would give two PGs that work well next to Stephenson. Sign Hill and Anderson and that's a solid squad.

Doesn't mean I want to have to root for Lance.

Ick, didn't know that

 

[roasthawg]

So you'd hold off on signing anyone this year and wait until next year when the cap goes up again?

Eventually these deals will bite some of these teams. These guys are being overpaid with respect to the new cap simply because everyone already on deals are being underpaid. Won't hurt them this year and probably not next but in year three some of these deals might really be hurting some teams.

 

[Mike]

I may be wrong but Waiters seen awfully redundant with Ben already here. I thought the plan was to upgrade

Perhaps, or Waiters is the future starting SG and Ben is a trade chip to be used with something else to upgrade the PG position?

Or we feel McLemore has the potential to be a good impact player off the bench, while Waiters is a starter.

Or our front office is getting desperate and throwing money at someone that isn't an upgrade, or they don't know what they are doing. It's the Kings, so anything is possible!

 

[chasen4r1]

Notice I said "supposedly". And I read $14 mil last night, who threw the $18mil rumor out there?

Jason Jones only mentioned earlier he can see Waiters ultimately getting a contract with $18M/year. Pure speculation, no real report.

 

[Bricklayer]

6 mins ago – via Twitter AlexKennedyNBA
Alex Kennedy: Sources: In addition to the Knicks and Kings, Courtney Lee has received interest from the Nets, Wolves and Hawks (if Kent Bazemore leaves).

 

[Bricklayer]

Something about us being willing to trade Gay too, which is no surprise at this point really.

 

[Padrino]

i've been saying for the past year that people shouldn't be surprised by the ridiculous money that will be thrown at free agents this offseason. every team needs to meet the new salary floor, and since existing salaries don't scale up with the rise of the salary cap, a rather large spike in the cap meant that a bunch of players from the nba's middle class were going to get MASSIVELY overpaid this offseason, and for no other reason than the fact they happen to be free agents in 2016. it's not great news for the kings' ability to fill roster holes inexpensively through free agency. however, it could be good news with respect to their trade bait; if they want to move gay or koufos, for example, those are two guys on very reasonable contracts who other teams might target for value per production alone...

 

[Iced Espresso]

I'm thinking wait it out too which was brought up last page.

Nothing here worth the farm, maybe we can maneuver with trades here soon or by the trade deadline. Got to be "real" talent out of place with the FA market somewhere where we can justify paying premium dollar, even if we have to wait until potentially the deadline.

This is multi year commitment, not worth all our chips right now.

 

[funkykingston]

Apparently the Kings are scheduled to meet with Dion Waiters this weekend.

That's less than awesome

 

[Peter_Gibbons]

Chandler Parsons got what? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah. Memphis will regret that move but I guess they do get to keep Mike Conley now.

LOL was my first reaction too at this craziness.

I wonder once these GMs use up the initial abundance of cap space in this year and next on mostly 2nd to 3rd tier players, how will they resign players currently on their own team?

I mean, every team has some players that are on rookie contracts or ones signed based on the pre-tv deal cap. What will these GMs tell the players that are actually better than the Parsons or Noahs of the world that they can only offer them less than someone less capable?

Based on performance, injury history and potential, Parsons should've got around $10-$12 mil/yr based on the PRE-tv deal cap. With the roughly 40% bump in cap space, he should get $14-$17 mil/yr tops. I understand everyone is going to get a big raise, but guys are getting paid 100% higher than what they should be getting. Some GMs are throwing all logic out the table.

The smart GM would actually sit out the first week or so of this craziness and then try to sign some bargain players to short contracts. When the next waive of free agents become available in a year or two, they will be able to sign away many good players from teams that foolishly spent all their cap space maxing out 2nd/3rd tier guys like Parsons.

 

[Livinthedream]

All the local journalist seem to be in agreement that Waiters is a top priority. That's disappointing.

 

[Bricklayer]

Apparently the Kings are scheduled to meet with Dion Waiters this weekend.

That's less than awesome

Dion loves you Funky. Just go with it.

 

[The_Jamal]

Adrian Wojnarowski: Free agent forward Solomon Hill has agreed to a four-year, $52M deal with New Orleans, league source tells @The Vertical.

Good freaking lord. There's like a 0% chance our phone isn't ringing off the hook for Gay right now. This deal likely KO's any Rudy Gay for Anderson or Reke possibilities too.

 

[funkykingston]

#KANGZ

I might hate the idea of Waiters but I've already decided that I'd give the Kings one more season to show me some improvement or direction before I take a break for a few years or give up on them entirely.