Hoops Rumors is looking ahead at the 2020/21 salary cap situations for all 30 NBA teams. Due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the NBA, it’s impossible to know yet where the cap for 2020/21 will land. Given the league’s lost revenue, we’re assuming for now that it will stay the same as the ’19/20 cap, but it’s entirely possible it will end up higher or lower than that.
The Kings‘ 39-43 performance in 2018/19 qualified as a breakthrough. It was the team’s best record in 13 years, after all. Sacramento didn’t take another step forward in ’19/20, but hung around the outskirts of the playoff race even as former No. 2 overall pick Marvin Bagley III missed most of the season and other key contributors – like De’Aaron Fox and Richaun Holmes – were sidelined with injuries for extended stretches.
Continued development from young players like Fox and Bagley will be crucial as the Kings look to make the leap from frisky lottery team to solid playoff contender. However, the team’s young core will start getting more expensive going forward, beginning with Buddy Hield and Bogdan Bogdanovic in 2020/21.
Here’s where things stand for the Kings financially in 2020/21, as we continue our Salary Cap Preview series:
Guaranteed Salary
- Buddy Hield ($24,931,817)
- Harrison Barnes ($22,215,909)
- Cory Joseph ($12,600,000)
- Marvin Bagley III ($8,963,640)
- De’Aaron Fox ($8,099,627)
- Richaun Holmes ($5,005,350)
- Justin James ($1,517,981)
- Total: $83,334,324
Player Options
- Jabari Parker ($6,500,000)
- Total: $6,500,000
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Nemanja Bjelica ($7,150,000) 1
- Kyle Guy (two-way)
- Total: $7,150,000
Restricted Free Agents
- Bogdan Bogdanovic ($10,661,733 qualifying offer / $16,205,833 cap hold): Bird rights
- DaQuan Jeffries (two-way qualifying offer / $1,445,697 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Total (cap holds): $17,651,530
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- Kent Bazemore ($28,904,493): Bird rights
- Alex Len ($5,408,000): Early Bird rights
- Yogi Ferrell ($4,095,000): Early Bird rights
- Harry Giles ($3,976,510): Bird rights 2
- No. 12 overall pick ($3,831,840)
- Corey Brewer ($1,620,564): Non-Bird rights
- Total: $47,836,407
Offseason Cap Outlook
Parker will likely opt in, so adding his salary and the cap hold for Sacramento’s first-round pick increases the club’s guaranteed commitments to about $94MM for nine roster spots. It’s safe to assume the Kings will do all they can to re-sign Bogdanovic too, so they’ll operate as an over-the-cap team.
A deadline deal that sent Dewayne Dedmon to Atlanta ensured that the Kings should have the flexibility to negotiate a market-value deal – or match any reasonable offer sheet – for Bogdanovic without approaching the luxury tax line. As such, Sacramento should have the non-taxpayer mid-level and bi-annual exceptions at its disposal this offseason, though it might not make sense to use both exceptions in full — especially if the team wants to retain Bjelica, Bazemore, or any of its other free agents.
Cap Exceptions Available
- Mid-level exception: $9,258,000 3
- Bi-annual exception: $3,623,000 3
- Trade exception: $2,673,334 (expires 2/8/21)
Footnotes
- Bjelica’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after October 17.
- The Kings can’t offer Giles a starting salary worth more than his cap hold, since his rookie scale team option for 2020/21 was declined.
- These are projected values. If team salary gets high enough, it’s possible the Kings would instead be limited to the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5,718,000).
Note: Minimum-salary and rookie-scale cap holds are based on the salary cap and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Early Bird Rights was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
It is very likely Bjelica’s contract will guarantee. He established himself as a starter, and lesser players (Davis Bertans, Bobby Portis) will likely command greater salaries.
Replacing (or retaining) Kent Bazemore (backup SF) would appear to be the secondary off-season goal after Bogdanovic. Likely via the draft.
I think the smart move would just be to match Bogdan and guarantee Bjelica. I think they at least attempt to trade Hield and Barnes and pick up a couple 1sts. Fox, Bagley, Bogdan are probably the only players on this current roster still on the roster 3 years from now.
You forget Holmes, Holmes, presumably because signing Fox & Bogdan will take all the capspace. But I think they could sacrifice Bagley instead and keep a grateful Holmes.
I would call Holmes second-mist-likely to stay (unless Walton fouls things up). The thing about Bogdan is, he seems to have levelled off in stats and the team did not advance upon his starting, and that could restrict his offers. It might be a 4/70 (Hield is a 4/86, so… trouble?). Cory Joseph could almost do what Bogdan does for a year or two if he must depart.
He may be gone after next season tho, but I also don’t buy into this year’s stats. I expect Bagley to improve and Holmes to regress tbh. Hes just a rim runner. And they didnt spend to keep fellow rim runner WCS at a near minimum rate for 2 yrs.
If they did not keep WCS, and don’t care for Len, that improves Holmes’ chances. But it’s true that Bagley has more talent.
I have been waiting for Bagley to get to his potential– I thought taking him ahead of Doncic was a good move if ex-Yugoslavian Divac went that way, since I didn’t see him play. Ha. But 19/20 is trash for Bagley and if that happens again, I think they’ll bail on him if it means keeping a guy who improves the FO mood, Holmes.
Well they will have to ditch someone they should not by next offseason. I posted numerous times warning about coveting Barnes. He only has value as a 4, another shot for Holmes.
If MB3 gets his 3pt % to league avg of 35-36% watch out. His per 36 is already 20-10. If he can stay healthy, take off the training wheels and start the man.
If the Kings are dumb enough to get rid of him, they deserve to be bottom dwellers.
If they resign Bogdan, Hield is probably shipped out, if not Hield probably stays.
Run it back with the same team and hope these guys can stay healthy. I’d like to get rid of Bagley just because it makes me mad thinking he could be Doncic but he will still probably be a fine player. Will be sad to see Giles go but they should have a shot at keeping the rest of the guys. I would love to keep Bazemore and Len.
Vlade has dug himself in a hole and it’s going to be bigger after he overpays Bogi. I like Bogi, but they can’t afford to pay him, Buddy, and Barnes 60-66 mil while priority number 1 is re-signing Fox after next season. They are stuck with Barnes’ contract. I’d prefer to keep Buddy. His shooting and scoring is hard to replace and he’s durable. They also lessened his trade value this year. It’d be nice to keep Bazemore and/or Len at a good value. Unfortunately, Vlade really really screwed up with Giles. I can’t see him coming back and it could be a haunting Kangz move for years. They always seemed so concerned about being able to re-sign Bagley and appease him (cause they are really hoping he can make them not look so stupid for passing Doncic), but I don’t see greatness in him and he needs to show something before anyone should worry about it. He’s also a bad fit with Holmes who is a FA after next season. It’d be nice to pick up an athletic 3 that can handle the ball fairly well to move Barnes to the 4 some too. We’ll probably see Vlade do what he does: make a couple good moves and make a couple terrible mind boggling moves.