[Rumor] Russell Westbrook Expected To Sign With The Sacramento Kings

[Fadeaway World]

Russell Westbrook is expected to see his tenure as a free agent come to an end as reports suggest that the guard will be joining the Sacramento Kings for the 2025-26 season.

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[kingsboi]

well Vivek must be elated with this move

 

[MizzouKing]

Why on earth would we want this? Unless Malik is on the move and we need a backup PG? Not sure how this is better than giving Nique some playing time at the position.

 

[Folsomkingsfan]

Why is it just so hard for us to be a normal basketball organization?

 

[Section 101]

I don't see any other person saying this.

 

[The_Jamal]

Why is it just so hard for us to be a normal basketball organization?

We tried that for about 2 years and fired the 2 adults in the room.

Funny how we go straight back to incompetence, literally immediately once they're out of the building

 

[TaxMan]

We sign Westbrook for one year for a min contract, ok whatever. But if we actually make roster moves and dump salaries to make it happen I just might finally give up on this team.

 

[TheMobb]

I would think there is another move(s) pending which is why this hasn’t been made official yet.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I don't see any other person saying this.

Matt George (apparently, per reddit, I didn't see a post on bluesky, maybe he tweeted it I think the sub bans twitter posts) said it would only happen if other players were traded. I assume we won't be trading those guys to acquire Russ but as part of any Kuminga deal. So I will reserve judgement until at least the pre-season, though I suspect Perry is going to be very active this year all the way up until the trade deadline.

I'm not a fan of bringing Russ in but I would like it if we can't hate on this org for moves they haven't even made yet until they actually get made.

 

[coolhandluke]

We tried that for about 2 years and fired the 2 adults in the room.

Funny how we go straight back to incompetence, literally immediately once they're out of the building

It’s almost as if Vivek is allergic to any sort of basketball competence. Anjali, you’re our only hope.

 

[MizzouKing]

Matt George (apparently, per reddit, I didn't see a post on bluesky, maybe he tweeted it I think the sub bans twitter posts) said it would only happen if other players were traded. I assume we won't be trading those guys to acquire Russ but as part of any Kuminga deal. So I will reserve judgement until at least the pre-season, though I suspect Perry is going to be very active this year all the way up until the trade deadline.

I'm not a fan of bringing Russ in but I would like it if we can't hate on this org for moves they haven't even made yet until they actually get made.

Good point... I can see this making sense if it allows for creating the salary dump we need to bring in Kuminga outright without having to go through the Dubs.

 

[Folsomkingsfan]

We tried that for about 2 years and fired the 2 adults in the room.

Funny how we go straight back to incompetence, literally immediately once they're out of the building

This should be easy for me as a fan of this team for like 30 years, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around how we are even at this point. It was only three seasons back that we made the playoffs as the 3rd seed and were a team on the rise. Now we are staring down the (rumored) possibility of one of the most poorly constructed teams in NBA history whose goal is to actually win games. It makes me dizzy thinking about what this team looks like if we sign Westbrook and no other moves are made.

 

[SacTownKid]

Good point... I can see this making sense if it allows for creating the salary dump we need to bring in Kuminga outright without having to go through the Dubs.

At this point it's not even possible. The Kings are staring at the apron as it is. Once they signed and traded for Shroder the Kuminga thing should have flown out the window.

 

[SacTownKid]

We sign Westbrook for one year for a min contract, ok whatever. But if we actually make roster moves and dump salaries to make it happen I just might finally give up on this team.

That's the thing. Moving anyone doesn't need to happen to sign him. Watch Westbrook get a deal way beyond the minimum, lol.

 

[SacTownKid]

Matt George (apparently, per reddit, I didn't see a post on bluesky, maybe he tweeted it I think the sub bans twitter posts) said it would only happen if other players were traded. I assume we won't be trading those guys to acquire Russ but as part of any Kuminga deal. So I will reserve judgement until at least the pre-season, though I suspect Perry is going to be very active this year all the way up until the trade deadline.

I'm not a fan of bringing Russ in but I would like it if we can't hate on this org for moves they haven't even made yet until they actually get made.

One thing it does is cast a huge shadow of doubt on common sense. Paying 40+ million to a 32 year old Schroder. Trading for LaVine. Signing 37 year old Westbrook and potentially having Fox, Hali, Davion, and maybe Carter not on the team? This is already tilting towards WTF. This would send it over the edge. Even if the team made it into the playoffs on the backs of these guys, with such a shallow pool of young talent to fall back on this is a very, very short window at best.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Matt George ... said it would only happen if other players were traded. I assume we won't be trading those guys to acquire Russ but as part of any Kuminga deal. So I will reserve judgement until at least the pre-season, though I suspect Perry is going to be very active this year all the way up until the trade deadline.

It seems pretty obvious that this roster has little room for Westbrook as it is currently constructed. Even if we accept the departure of TD and his unguaranteed contract as fait accompli and we call DDR a SF, there's still a ton of guard depth on the current roster, even if PG isn't exactly over-represented.

Schroder/Monk/Carter
LaVine/Ellis/Clifford

There's just not a lot of room for Russ in there. You can't just bump LaVine to the 3 to make some room because DDR is already camped out there.

So, for fun, let's look at the roster as I think it "really" stands in terms of "true" positions, with players that have to be in the rotation in CAPS, possible rotation players in lower case, and deep bench in gray:

SCHRODER
LAVINE/DEROZAN/MONK/ELLIS/CARTER/clifford/[davis]
[...]/mcdermott
MURRAY/jones/saric
SABONIS/raynaud/eubanks

If that's not imbalanced to the point that bringing in another combo guard is ludicrous, I don't know what is. Which is why we should step back and consider that maybe there are some moves (possibly the recently widely speculated moves, possibly something else) that would need to be made to balance this roster out before bringing in another combo guard. Maybe Monk or DDR or both are as good as gone with us getting some size back. Maybe this move is never going to happen. Maybe that one reporter doesn't know what he's talking about. Maybe it's all agent spin to get Russ a bigger deal elsewhere.

Look, Perry hasn't done much to convince me he's a good GM yet, but I'm not going to assume he's an absolute moron based on something that hasn't even happened.

I'm not a fan of bringing Russ in but I would like it if we can't hate on this org for moves they haven't even made yet until they actually get made.

Yes, please and thank you.

 

[iowamcnabb]

Westbrook WILL entertain. If Perry doesn’t see a path to clear contracts and is going to give it a go for one year, fine. If you surprise, cool. If not, he needs to make the hard decisions at the deadline and move 2-3 guys out. Doug is also going to have to make the the tough decisions. If the new identity of this franchise is tough, competitive, blah blah blah then let the best players play regardless of contract or status. I consider this a transitional year. Best foot forward to start and the commitment to pivot if things go south. If the team is treading water or trending down at the deadline, Scott knows what he has to do.

 

[dude12]

There has been a commitment to making the roster older for some reason and if we get Westbrook, then Perry is just doubling down on this.

Wasn’t it said this was going to be a gap year? So why get older vets? Very confusing

 

[sono]

It’s almost as if Vivek is allergic to any sort of basketball competence. Anjali, you’re our only hope.

Perhaps, bringing up those shells of old star players has to do with their ticket sales?

 

[NewArena]

Westbook's work ethic, competitiveness and relentless nature is something i don't mind being around our young guys at ALL and i rank that a lot higher than his entertainment value. Will he frustrate the hell out of us a few times a week? I'm sure he will or would, but, i do think there will be quite a few benefits that outweigh all of that, so long as we aren't giving up anything of value to get him here. I don't think we need our rookies to be thrown into the fire for 30-35 minutes in order for them to develop.

 

[hrdboild]

Salary dumping former lotto picks, signing veterans nobody else wants to substantial multi-year contracts, taking the few promising young guys we do have and burying them in the depth chart, remaining just good enough to draft in the late lottery year after year. These are all favorite plays in the Sacramento Kings front office playbook and they have been since long before Vivek got here.

They treat us fans like fools who will show up and cheer regardless of how bad the product is. And because we're basketball junkies, we mostly do exactly that -- or enough of us do anyway that the playback doesn't ever get changed. I still love this team as do the rest of you but I wish we could all somehow pretend that we don't just long enough for them to wake the hell up and change the way they manage the roster.

 

[Joshyjosh31]

Westbook's work ethic, competitiveness and relentless nature is something i don't mind being around our young guys at ALL and i rank that a lot higher than his entertainment value. Will he frustrate the hell out of us a few times a week? I'm sure he will or would, but, i do think there will be quite a few benefits that outweigh all of that, so long as we aren't giving up anything of value to get him here. I don't think we need our rookies to be thrown into the fire for 30-35 minutes in order for them to develop.

If you made it in the nba your work ethic and competitiveness is already elite I don’t care what talking heads say to disrespect some players about it. Signing Westbrook for that while decreasing our young guys minutes is pure insanity