The Kings are “closely monitoring” the Wizards with an eye toward potentially making a play for forward Otto Porter Jr., league sources tell Jason Jones of The Athletic.
Sacramento has long been fond of Porter, pursuing him when he reached restricted free agency in 2017. Although the Kings made Porter a maximum-salary contract offer at that point, he ultimately decided to sign a similar offer sheet with the Nets, which was subsequently matched by Washington.
Now, with the Wizards reportedly willing to listen to inquiries on any of their players and the Kings still seeking a long-term answer at small forward, the time might be right for Sacramento to go after the 25-year-old once again.
Porter’s contract, which features a $26MM cap hit for 2018/19 and is worth $55.7MM over the following two seasons, is considered onerous, but the Kings’ books are clear of significant long-term commitments. They’re about $11MM under the cap right now, and project to have a ton of cap room in 2019. With Sacramento not viewed as a realistic player for 2019’s star free agents, it makes sense that the team would be open to the idea of sacrificing some of that potential cap space by acquiring a possible core piece in a trade.
The Kings also have several veterans on expiring contracts who could be used for salary-matching purposes, including Zach Randolph ($11.69MM), Kosta Koufos ($8.74MM), and Ben McLemore ($5.46MM).
It remains to be seen what approach the Wizards will take to in-season trade negotiations, since they’re still very much in the mix for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, despite their slow start. If they do decide to shake things up, Porter appears to be the likeliest trade candidate of the Wizards’ “Big Three.” He’d have more trade value than John Wall, and Washington would be more inclined to move him than Bradley Beal.
Kings have been a pleasant surprise so far this season
Don’t even think about it kings. What is the last thing this team needs? Bloated contracts. Teams that succeed do so because they refuse to overpay guys. Spurs, warriors, Denver, 76ers, these teams are good now because they didn’t chase mediocre players that were overpaid. Rather developed what they had and made smarter cost effective moves.
Otto is good. Not his fault some teams were willing to over pay him. But he will be a burden to any team that wants to take itself seriously. Not nearly as bad a player/contract as C Parsons, but in a similar ways will handcuff a team and keep them from making big moves.
He sucks lmao…. kings gonna king
Younger Kris Middleton. But you could probably just sign Middleton next year for more years and less per year.
Getting Middleton– or anyone– to sign with Sacto probably takes an overpay. For them, he’s a max player. Trade for Porter & he has no choice!
This is a good trade for them. They can easily afford him.
No one is offering Middleton max though, they do be crazy. They see Porters contract and sky from that, and they are legit comps. They would only have Porter for 2 years guaranteed though. SF is their biggest need next to Center beyond this year. They look poised to overpay WCS, though and Giles isnt getting much action.
This might make sense. Porter’s a better player than some think; the salary is a big issue only because of the others they have and they’re a losing team scheduled to pay luxury tax. Doing this in season only makes sense if the trade will get Wiz out of the luxury tax this year. Kings may be the only team that can do that simply.
Porter fits there timeline. He’s 25 and gives them a wing scorer. I think if they can send out only a get expiring or 2 it’s worth it. How well they r playing they will b in the middle of a very top heavy draft anyways