Potential Free Agent/Trade/Sign Tracker, '25-'26 Season

When MB was forced to insert Keon in the starting lineup, after Kevin's injury, the Kings rose to Top 10 in defense. We had the right balance but the next season he went back to what didn't work. And, this is the guy that started K Z Okpala, JTA, Jae Crowder without any practice! Can't let personal feelings overshadow what's good for the team.
do be fair Doug only started Keon when he had to
 
Yeah, while I'm not quite as low on Schroder, I do not like him as a full MLE signing at all. That's just not a good use of cap space, even as a stop-gap. Start Carter at 25-30 mpg and bring Schroder off the bench cheaply for when Carter inevitably ****s up in the spirit of youth/inexperience, but don't sign him to be an MLE-level starter.🤦
Or sign Chris Paul as a player coach
 
Monk + JVal = okay
Monk for Kuminga = decent
Demar for Kuminga = Yes please

Kuminga would probably lose his mind playing next to LaVine/Demar, so I have a hard time seeing him pick us over Miami where he has a much clearer path to touches, sunshine, and south beach.

Sac only happens imo if GS doesnt want what Miami has to offer, and Kuminga wants out at any costs.
 
Schroeder/carter/keon
Lavine/keon/demar/ Clifford
Murray/demar/laravia
Kuminga/murray/jones/raynaud
Sabonis/raynaud/cardwell

I assume we get a cheap cheap way back up C maybe bol bol and I also think demar is gone maybe for a better point guard than Schroeder
 
I would be shocked if this isn't the Warriors just forcing Kuminga to play out that contract. The Nets are the only team out there that can realistically be a legit suitor and that has to be their target otherwise what are they doing? Credit to Perry for going after the one major name out there I guess. If Perry trades for him though it's going to cost a lot more than DeMar and JV I'd bet. They'd definitely ask for Keegan and maybe even Keon.
 
I would be shocked if this isn't the Warriors just forcing Kuminga to play out that contract. The Nets are the only team out there that can realistically be a legit suitor and that has to be their target otherwise what are they doing? Credit to Perry for going after the one major name out there I guess. If Perry trades for him though it's going to cost a lot more than DeMar and JV I'd bet. They'd definitely ask for Keegan and maybe even Keon.

How could they even ask for Keon they’re not gonna pay him and he doesn’t wanna be there
 
I would be shocked if this isn't the Warriors just forcing Kuminga to play out that contract. The Nets are the only team out there that can realistically be a legit suitor and that has to be their target otherwise what are they doing? Credit to Perry for going after the one major name out there I guess. If Perry trades for him though it's going to cost a lot more than DeMar and JV I'd bet. They'd definitely ask for Keegan and maybe even Keon.

Eh, doubtful. They dont like Kuminga at all, they're for sure exploring s&t for him.
 
How could they even ask for Keon they’re not gonna pay him and he doesn’t wanna be there

Because they can still match regardless and there are very few teams with space to get him outright. This is a zero market for Kuminga if he wants legit money and the Nets aren't interested. Hopefully the Warriors would be all over DeMar straight across but after hearing his market it's a tough call.
 
I would be shocked if this isn't the Warriors just forcing Kuminga to play out that contract. The Nets are the only team out there that can realistically be a legit suitor and that has to be their target otherwise what are they doing? Credit to Perry for going after the one major name out there I guess. If Perry trades for him though it's going to cost a lot more than DeMar and JV I'd bet. They'd definitely ask for Keegan and maybe even Keon.
Kinda hard to ask a lot when you didn’t have faith in him enough to ever play any kind of role and only spot starts and you don’t want to resign him. Cant ask for much given those credentials GS is putting out there. I would say monk is more valuable to the kings than kuminga was to the warriors. Murray or Keon are a no go for me
 
Eh, doubtful. They dont like Kuminga at all, they're for sure exploring s&t for him.

Maybe, but then Dunleavy Jr. is blowing smoke. They might just be playing hardball knowing there just aren't many teams out there able to pay him. They did offer him an extension prior to the season so I don't think that indicates that they don't like him at all. Maybe that changed since Butler, I guess we'll find out.
 
Kinda hard to ask a lot when you didn’t have faith in him enough to ever play any kind of role and only spot starts and you don’t want to resign him. Cant ask for much given those credentials GS is putting out there. I would say monk is more valuable to the kings than kuminga was to the warriors. Murray or Keon are a no go for me

Yeah, but you know they'll ask. Now where that goes from there is anyones guess. When it comes to sign and trades there may very well be a decent market for Kuminga but that will probably take a while before that gets sorted out. The fact is the Kings really have no leverage. This isn't even like with LaVine back in the day because the Kings can't offer more than the MLE.
 
Would almost have to be Lavine right? If he or Demar aren’t included what would the starting lineup look like? No way they trade Keegan for JK
 
Good list. I'd probably put them in order by Aldama, Jerome, LaRavia and Alexander Walker. I think Aldama is more of a proven player and fills a huge need. Jerome fills just as big a need but is much less proven. LaRavia is the weakest player of the bunch but he fills a need more than Alexander Walker who is a solid player no doubt, but would just be fighting for playing time with the 15 other players we need to see get playing time at the 2.

What are your thoughts on the Jerome late breakout? Because he was very good with the Warriors, but then lost his first season with them due to injury before exploding with crazy production last year? This is a guy with pedigree as a former FRP, which does help.

But I can't really think of many guys that sort of just "survive" around the league, has one decent back-up year before just showing "wow, this is an impact player" so late in his career. Usually, this is around the time guys like him just flame out of the league.

All of our past targets that we looked at were just clear young guys, that were very productive and just fully hadn't gotten the minutes role they deserve yet. Jerome is a lot older than them.

Interesting case study for sure. But if we insist on grabbing a PG this summer, he's so far ahead of everyone else on the list for me, it's not really close. He's the only guy with an actual chance to be a quality starter for 3+ more years.

Aldama is possibly a getable guy too. They're have the big JJJ extension looming, Edey is their starting C moving forward, Vince Williams, Wells and GG Jackson are likely going to fill a lot of their wing spots. Does Aldama fit into their long-term plans? Does Aldama want to be a bench player going forward? Maybe another potential S&T opportunity for him, who I think would be a quality talent add at a big position of need for us.
 
I feel like Vivek was pretty patient with Vlade, patient with Luke, honestly the only impatient thing he did was sack Brown and while I have no inside information I really do think it came down to him thinking that they had a deal for 4 years with an option after 3 years and Brown using the media to exercise his option a year early. I really think he felt done dirty by it, and people don't want to acknowledge that because it humanizes a guy the media has conditioned us to hate.

You might be able to pin Deebo on Vivek but that had to at least partially have something to do with the fear over Fox refusing to re-sign. Again someone that the org was more than patient with in promoting to be the face of the franchise.

Vivek doesn't need media narratives to make him look bad, he's done more than enough with his own words over the years to accomplish that. Although actually I don't hate him at all. His antics would be endearing and mostly harmless if he were the owner of someone's else's franchise. I genuinely like the guy for as much as I know about him (not much) and have no problem with him aiming to make this a family business. If I ever have the chance to meet him I'd be happy to shake his hand and wish him well. It's just that I do not care for his takes on the game of basketball on any level and I wish he could somehow keep those to himself.
 
You guys think we overvalue our players. These golden state fans are worse. Some think they should get Keegan and Malik for kuminga. I’d do monk but I’d rather keep him and send Derozen. I like monk at pg better than Schroeder. Am I crazy?
 
What are your thoughts on the Jerome late breakout? Because he was very good with the Warriors, but then lost his first season with them due to injury before exploding with crazy production last year? This is a guy with pedigree as a former FRP, which does help.

But I can't really think of many guys that sort of just "survive" around the league, has one decent back-up year before just showing "wow, this is an impact player" so late in his career. Usually, this is around the time guys like him just flame out of the league.

All of our past targets that we looked at were just clear young guys, that were very productive and just fully hadn't gotten the minutes role they deserve yet. Jerome is a lot older than them.

Interesting case study for sure. But if we insist on grabbing a PG this summer, he's so far ahead of everyone else on the list for me, it's not really close. He's the only guy with an actual chance to be a quality starter for 3+ more years.

Aldama is possibly a getable guy too. They're have the big JJJ extension looming, Edey is their starting C moving forward, Vince Williams, Wells and GG Jackson are likely going to fill a lot of their wing spots. Does Aldama fit into their long-term plans? Does Aldama want to be a bench player going forward? Maybe another potential S&T opportunity for him, who I think would be a quality talent add at a big position of need for us.

I can't think of anyone that's broken out like he has either. His per36 PPG just exploded this year while his efficiency went up. That screams lucky career year to me but he can basically be half of what he was last year and still be a top flight backup or at minimum better than Monk was for us last year. I think that 44% 3pt shooting will regress back down to 38% or so but you do run the risk of it completely falling apart since he does have two years of sub 30% shooting on his stat sheet.

If we sign him and he regresses, he's essentially Beno Udrih. If he stays around his current level for a few years, he would be extremely valuable to us and could potentially not be that far off from the impact that Fox gave us, without the massive contract.

I'd start Aldama from day one if we got him. We need size bad. Sorry DDR but you'd be coming off the bench. I haven't compared everything but the couple metrics I did see had Aldama as more valuable than DDR last year. We really need our guys guarding similar sized players for once.
 
I can't think of anyone that's broken out like he has either. His per36 PPG just exploded this year while his efficiency went up. That screams lucky career year to me but he can basically be half of what he was last year and still be a top flight backup or at minimum better than Monk was for us last year. I think that 44% 3pt shooting will regress back down to 38% or so but you do run the risk of it completely falling apart since he does have two years of sub 30% shooting on his stat sheet.

If we sign him and he regresses, he's essentially Beno Udrih. If he stays around his current level for a few years, he would be extremely valuable to us and could potentially not be that far off from the impact that Fox gave us, without the massive contract.

I'd start Aldama from day one if we got him. We need size bad. Sorry DDR but you'd be coming off the bench. I haven't compared everything but the couple metrics I did see had Aldama as more valuable than DDR last year. We really need our guys guarding similar sized players for once.
If I thought DeRozan would agree to come off the bench, or the Kings were willing to force him..I wouldn’t want to trade him at all. He would be an absolute beast off the bench.

I also think Aldama would be a great pick up and a good fit with Domas.
 
Sean Cunningham said he thinks the Durant deal is going to expand. He stopped short of saying the Kings are going to be involved but he brought it up when asked if the Kings would make trades. Something to monitor.
 
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