Sacramento Kings Rumors

Odds & Ends: Lakers, Pierce, Austin

December 12 at 11:00pm CST By Ryan Raroque

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak directly addressed questions about the team’s point guard situation and didn’t seem too confident about finding anyone on the free agent market who could play big rotation minutes immediately (Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles):

“I think for the time being we’re going to roll with what we’ve got…To find a player that doesn’t belong to somebody right now that can come in and play in front of (Kobe Bryant), in front of Xavier Henry), in front of (Jodie Meeks), it’s unlikely…But maybe there’s a player out there that we can take a look at…It’s a good time to perhaps look at a player, but I don’t think there’s somebody that we’re going to bring in and we’re going to start or is going to play big minutes.”

As it stands, the team doesn’t appear to have any immediate plans to add a point guard via trade, free agency, or D-League call up. Here’s more of tonight’s miscellaneous news and notes, including more from McMenamin’s piece:

  • Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee reports that mayor Kevin Johnson has launched a political campaign aimed at defeating a June ballot measure in Sacramento that would require voter approval of subsidies to sports arenas. The Kings are expected to play a role in the effort along with Johnson, although team president Chris Granger said the role hasn’t been decided yet.
  • When specifically asked about Leandro Barbosa, as well as former Lakers Darius Morris and Chris Duhon, Kupchak said that they’re “all on the list” of players being considered.
  • Whether or not the Lakers decide to make a move to address their backcourt issues, ESPN LA’s Ramona Shelburne gets the sense that they’ll look for the best available point guard and not necessarily put a priority on those with past familiarity of Mike D’Antoni’s system. She also makes note that the team still has luxury tax considerations to factor into their decision-making (All Twitter links).
  • Clippers coach Doc Rivers weighed in on the Nets, saying he was disappointed in how the situation between Jason Kidd and Lawrence Frank developed, endorsed the idea that Paul Pierce would be willing to come off the bench, and suggested that Pierce still has plenty of basketball left in the tank beyond this season (All Twitter links).
  • RealGM’s Jonathan Tjarks examines how Baylor center Isaiah Austin helped his draft stock after his 13-point/5-block performance against a highly touted Kentucky frontline that included Julius Randle, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Alex Poythress last week.
  • ESPN’s J.A. Adande and Israel Gutierrez discuss ideas on how to correct competitive imbalance in the NBA.

Western Notes: Gay, Corbin, Aldridge, Jackson

December 11 at 7:51pm CST By Charlie Adams

The heavily discussed Kings/Raptors swap has spurred a discussion on advanced basketball metrics, mostly due to Rudy Gay. Some statheads have suggested Gay’s presence in Sacramento might stand to hurt Isaiah Thomas and DeMarcus Cousins‘ chemistry on the floor, but the latest piece from Alex Kennedy at HoopsWorld examines why numbers might not tell the whole story for Gay. Here are some tidbits on Gay and the Western Conference as a whole:

  • In his piece, Kennedy suggests it’s not unthinkable that Gay might turn his efficiency numbers around, pointing to Monta Ellis as an example of a player who didn’t reach his full potential until a later stage of his career than most players.
  • Conversely, Mark Deeks of ShamSports breaks down the reasons why he believes the Kings spent too much to acquire Gay in his piece at SB Nation. Among his list of reasons, Deeks believes Gay’s presence will add nothing to Sacramento that they didn’t already have besides another expensive contract.
  • Richard Jefferson doesn’t blame the Jazz‘s lack of success on Tyrone Corbin, reports Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. The forward recently blasted critics who have tried to fault his coach for the team’s struggles : “As far as lashing out and putting pressure on a coach, that’s unfair… Everybody’s an armchair quarterback.”
  • Jeff Zillgitt of USA TODAY Sports speculates that LaMarcus Aldridge probably won’t participate in the 2014 FIBA World Cup, based on his lack of history in international competition.
  • The Clippers’ recent signing of Stephen Jackson will help bolster a squad that’s recently been bit by the injury bug. Losing J.J. Redick, Matt Barnes, and Reggie Bullock will be a challenging hurdle for Los Angeles to overcome, and Jovan Buha from ESPNLosAngeles.com examines how Jackson might fit in and help ease the club’s pain.

Kings/Raptors Notes: Gay, Acy, Arena

December 11 at 12:33pm CST By Chuck Myron

The Kings and Raptors hooked up on a seven-player deal this week, and neither club appears ready to stop trading. Every game is an audition of sorts for the players on the Raptors in the wake of this week’s trade, observes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys sitting in that room who have to take this opportunity and take their chance when their name is called to not only show us, but to show 29 other teams what they can do,” coach Dwane Casey said.

Here’s more on two teams that figure to be surrounded by rumors in advance of the February 20th trade deadline:

  • Casey believes the trade was the right move, but says it shouldn’t been seen as an indictment of Rudy Gay‘s talent or Toronto’s decision to acquire him last season, Wolstat notes in a roundup from last night’s game.
  • The Kings are enthusiastic about Gay’s game, and he’s excited to be with a team that believes in him, as Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee details.
  • Jones, in a separate piece, looks at how the Kings are dismissing Gay’s shortcomings in advanced metrics, and Jeff Caplan of NBA.com crunches the numbers for a similar story.
  • Quincy Acy tells Eric Koreen of the National Post that he was “kind of stunned” when he found out he was being traded, and the power forward fondly reflects on his time in Toronto.
  • The Bee’s Dale Kasler has the latest on Sacramento’s efforts to build a new arena, noting that it will take weeks to determine whether opponents of the project have enough signatures to force a referendum.

West Notes: Augustin, Freeland, Asik, Kings

December 10 at 6:16pm CST By Alex Lee

There are 16 teams in action tonight in what is largely an East Coast-based slate. We do have five Western Conference teams playing, however, including the Suns and Lakers later tonight. Let’s take a look at what else is going on out West on Tuesday night:

  • The Timberwolves don’t appear to be targeting D.J. Augustin, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. The Raptors waived Augustin to make way for yesterday’s trade, and the Bulls are the front runners to land him.
  • Joel Freeland looks much tougher than he did last year, and Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com wonders if it stems from a fight he and Luke Babbitt had during practice late last season. For what it’s worth, Freeland has become a mainstay in the Blazers‘ rotation, and Babbitt is out of the league.
  • The Rockets are targeting a proven veteran small forward in an Omer Asik trade, one of the many kinds of assets the team is looking for as it seeks to deal its backup center, as HoopsWorld’s Steve Kyler notes. Kyler also examines the Thunder’s approach to player development.
  • Speaking of Asik, the Rockets center is changing agents, switching from Andy Miller to the high-powered Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media Group, reports Ken Berger of CBS Sports. As Berger details, Tellem must wait 10 days before his representation of Asik becomes official. Assuming the proper paperwork is submitted today, Tellem can take over for Asik on December 20th, which is a day after Houston’s original target trade date of the 19th. It is also worth noting that Miller has taken legal action in the past when his clients have been poached.
  • Responding to news that the campaign for a vote on the Kings‘ arena subsidy has turned in up to 40,000 signatures for their cause, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson cautioned the public that the group is “not folks who have Sacramento’s best interests in mind,” reports Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee.

Poll: What Will Rudy Gay Make On His Next Deal?

December 10 at 3:14pm CST By Chuck Myron

Rudy Gay is in Sacramento after yesterday’s trade, the second swap he’s been a part of in an 11-month span. He’s the anti-hero of basketball analytics, a player with a 7’3″ wingspan who fits the classic profile of an elite small forward but doesn’t look quite so appealing under the bright glare of advanced statistics. Traditional numbers show averages of 19.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game since 2007/08, but they belie the lack of a consistent outside shot. Gay seems to attempt to make up for that by simply shooting more often, and his field goal attempts this season are at a career high just as his field goal percentage is at a career low.

The Kings nonetheless believe in him. Owner Vivek Ranadive reportedly coveted him for months. GM Pete D’Alessandro thinks Gay’s shooting will at least return to the level he displayed in Memphis now that he’s again playing with a first-rate inside force in DeMarcus Cousins. Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee suggests that the team might be planning to offer Gay an extension if he performs well this season. It’s not clear if the team is truly considering that, and even if the Kings are, an extension wouldn’t have to include salaries resembling Gay’s nearly $17.9MM payday for this season, or his $19.3MM player option for 2014/15.

Still, it’s clear the Kings value him more highly than the executives from other teams who recently told Grantland’s Zach Lowe that they wouldn’t sign Gay to a deal for as much as the mid-level exception if he were a free agent. Gay sparks much debate, with front offices across the league seemingly assigning him drastically different valuations. Let us know what you think Gay will wind up with, and feel free to be more specific in the comments. Bear in mind that this poll asks what you think Gay will receive on his next deal, not what he should get.

California Rumors: Gay, Kings, Clippers, Warriors

December 10 at 12:58pm CST By Chuck Myron

Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee suggests the Kings will engage in extension talks with Rudy Gay if he’s productive and fills the team’s longstanding void at small forward. That’s similar to the stance former Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo took after he acquired him last season, and Colangelo tells Voisin that he thinks Sacramento’s Gay trade signifies the Kings’ clear intention to increase their talent-level, rather than sell off assets. It’s a bit surprising, considering some GMs feel Gay wouldn’t be worthy of even the midlevel exception, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe wrote Monday. There’s more from Voisin’s piece among our glance at California’s teams:

  • Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro suggests that his team is indeed lacking enough talent, Voisin notes. “We’re not kidding anybody,” D’Alessandro said before Monday’s victory over the Mavs. “We’re a long way from being a completed product. We have five wins. We need players here.”
  • The NBA probably would have allowed the Clippers to acquire Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett as well as Doc Rivers this summer if they hadn’t been so transparent in their attempts to obtain all three at once, several sources tell Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck. Rivers says his job this year would be easier if Pierce and Garnett were around, and Beck hears that Rivers “absolutely” wanted to bring the two former Celtics with him to L.A.
  • Rivers explained why the Clippers are ready to add Stephen Jackson and offered a strong hint that the pact will be non-guaranteed, as Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times passes along. “He’s had his issues. There’s no doubt about it,” Rivers said. “He’s breathing and living and I think if that’s true, you should always give a guy another chance.…The good news is contractually, if it doesn’t work, we’ll walk.”
  • Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group bats around a few possible upgrades to the Warriors bench, surmising that GM Bob Myers and company are more likely to look for cheaper options than ones that push them into tax territory.

How Raptors/Kings Trade Works Financially

December 10 at 10:58am CST By Chuck Myron

NBA trades are rarely simple exchanges of players. Teams exercise flexibility when they swap their players for another team’s, as the Kings and Raptors did Monday, and they also often gain even more flexibility as a result. That’s indeed the case for Toronto and Sacramento, as their seven-player trade allowed both teams to acquire trade exceptions. Raptors can create an exception worth $4,583,432, while the Kings can make one for $2,316,429. The teams can use these exceptions in later trades to take on players in transactions that wouldn’t otherwise work, since they’re both above the salary cap.

Toronto can accomplish this by structuring the swap as two separate trades. The first would be Patrick Patterson ($3,105,301) and Greivis Vasquez ($2,150,188) for Aaron Gray ($2,690,875) and Quincy Acy ($788,872). The Raptors don’t get an exception from this part of the deal, since only non-simultaneous trades bear exceptions, and teams can’t surrender more than one player in a non-simultaneous trade. This four-player swap just barely fits within the the salary-matching framework for simultaneous deals involving less than $9.8MM in outgoing money. A team’s incoming salary must be no more than 150%, plus $100K, greater than what the other team gives up. Toronto’s incoming salary comes to $5,255,489. That’s above 150% more than Sacramento’s side, but within that $100K cushion.

Placing those four players in a simultaneous trade allows the Raptors to put together the part of the deal that yields the exception. Rudy Gay and his $17,888,932 salary would go in a single, non-simultaneous transaction in exchange for John Salmons ($7,583,000) and Chuck Hayes ($5,722,500). The difference between Gay’s salary and the combined pay for Salmons and Hayes is $4,583,432, which is the amount of Toronto’s exception.

Sacramento’s best strategy appears to involve breaking the deal into three parts. The Kings could make the same exchange of Gay for Salmons and Hayes, though from Sacramento’s perspective, that’s a simultaneous trade, since the Kings are giving up more than one player. It fits the salary-matching requirements for a simultaneous trade in which a club gives up between $9.8MM and $19.6MM in salary, since Gay’s salary is less than $5MM more than what Salmons and Hayes make.

The Kings can also line up Vasquez and Gray as a single, simultaneous transaction. Sacramento is giving up only one player, but the Kings would take back slightly more money, so there wouldn’t be an exception for them if it were a non-simultaneous trade. Their salaries are within the salary-matching framework of 150% plus $100K for deals of this size. That wouldn’t be the case if the Kings made Acy a part of this swap. Usually, players on minimum-salary contracts, like Acy, wouldn’t count toward incoming salary in a simultaneous trade, but Acy’s on a three-year deal. That means he wasn’t signed using the minimum-salary exception, and therefore, he can’t be acquired using the minimum-salary exception. In other words, his salary needs to be taken into account, pushing a theoretical three-player deal involving him, Gray and Vasquez over the salary-matching limit.

So, Acy goes into the non-simultaneous trade from which Sacramento can draw its exception. The Kings net $2,316,429 by subtracting Acy’s salary from Patterson’s. Taking on Acy’s salary in another part of the trade would allow Sacramento to collect an exception worth Patterson’s entire salary, but there doesn’t appear to be a way to make that happen.

Teams aren’t obligated to structure their transactions in a way that creates the largest possible trade exceptions, but it’s usually to their advantage to do so. The exception the Raptors created via this summer’s Andrea Bargnani trade was too small to accommodate any of the players from this week’s deal. Teams have one year from the date of the trade to use the exceptions, and many times they simply expire. For now, the exceptions the Kings and Raptors created with their trade this week gives each team an additional weapon, with the trade deadline looming in a little more than two months.

ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.

Odds & Ends: Trades, Bucks, Pelicans, Grizzlies, Kings

December 9 at 10:17pm CST By Jonathan Nehring

With the young NBA season already containing two trades; it appears many more will be on the way in the near future. A few notes regarding potential trades and other league notes:

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Pierce, Raptors, Chandler

December 9 at 8:57pm CST By Jonathan Nehring

Today, Adam Silver stated (Twitter link) he would be willing to consider removing divisions from the NBA. If the NBA does so we will no longer be able to claim the Atlantic Division as the most talked about division in the NBA. Until then, the Atlantic Division has made headlines all season with the Nets and Knicks struggles. Those headlines have increased of late with the Raptors and Sixers being active in the early trade market. Looking further into these rumors:

  • Thaddeus Young‘s name has once more emerged in trade talk, this time in reference to an Omer Asik deal, but the Sixers forward continues to pay little attention to the chatter, as he tells Christopher A. Vito of the Delaware County Daily Times. John Finger of CSNPhilly.com explains how this trade would work.
  • Sixers offseason acquisition Tony Wroten has played well in place of Michael Carter-Williams, but he seems interested in retaining a starting role long term, which could pose a dilemma for Philadelphia, as Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News explains.
  • Paul Pierce thinks he could return from his broken hand for Tuesday’s match up with the Celtics, and today he addressed the emotions of perhaps facing his former team as well as his continued faith in the Nets. The 36-year-old also dismissed talk of retiring in the near future. Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com has the details.
  • Following the blockbuster Rudy Gay trade, Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun explains what the road ahead looks like for GM Masai Ujiri and the Raptors. Wolstat adds the Raptors may be realizing how important it is to get in the top of the lottery for next year’s draft especially with fellow Canadian Andrew Wiggens atop that draft.
  • Projecting the next few years for Rudy Gay, Tom Ziller of SBNation compares what the Raptors gave up to acquire Gay versus what the Kings gave up to acquire Gay ten months later. Ziller points out that although the Kings gave up much less than the Raptors did, they will be the loser in this trade in the coming years.
  • With the 4-6 week timetable approaching for Knicks‘ center Tyson Chandler to return from his fractured leg, Chandler told reporters this morning he expects to be in the lineup before New Year’s Day. Royce Young of CBSSports.com describes what his return will mean for the Knicks’ rotation.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Raptors Notes: Gay, Valanciunas, DeRozan

December 9 at 5:25pm CST By Chuck Myron

Kings owner Vivek Ranadive was the catalyst behind Sacramento’s trade for Rudy Gay, and he’s wanted the 6’9″ forward for months, regardless of the advanced metrics that suggest Gay is no star, a source tells TNT’s David Aldridge. His enthusiasm allowed the Raptors to unload a player that GM Masai Ujiri clearly wasn’t as high on. Here’s more on the swap along with other news from Toronto:

  • Jonas Valanciunas is the Raptor least likely to be traded, but even he isn’t entirely off-limits as Ujiri attempts to overhaul the team, according to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. A desire to sell tickets and the expectation that Gay would raise his trade value helped keep the Raptors from trading Gay before the season, Wolstat suggests.
  • Wolstat adds more thoughts on the trade in a separate piece, passing along word from a source who says it’s likely the Raptors trade one or both of DeMar DeRozan and Amir Johnson.
  • It’s clear that Ujiri is rebuilding the Raptors, but it’s not as easy to see what he’s building toward, writes Matt Moore of CBSSports.com.
  • Andrew Wiggins isn’t the lock for the No. 1 overall pick he once appeared to be, but there’s no way the Raptors would pass him up if they won the draft lottery, writes Chad Ford of ESPN.com, who looks at what several teams would do with the top pick (Insider only).