Kings Notes: DeRozan, LaVine, Sabonis, Westbrook, Achiuwa
Waiving DeMar DeRozan was a smart financial move, but that didn’t make it any easier for the Kings to let him go, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (subscription required). General manager Scott Perry addressed that decision and several other topics during a press conference on Wednesday, calling DeRozan “one of my favorite players to work with.”
“I’ve worked with some great players, some Hall of Fame players, in my career,” Perry said. “His professionalism, his leadership, the way he went about preparing for his job each and every day was exemplary, and how he poured into our young players last year was very important and very much appreciated.”
DeRozan only had a $10MM guarantee on his $25.74MM salary for the upcoming season, and the team can create even more immediate cap savings by using the stretch provision to spread that $10MM across the next three years. That would reduce his cap charge for 2026/27 by over $22MM, taking the Kings out of apron territory and below the luxury tax line.
While the benefits of parting ways with DeRozan were obvious, Perry told reporters that he searched for other alternatives to reduce payroll.
“We were trying to figure out ways we could keep him, but as we all know there is a financial component to this job,” Perry said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to figure out anything that would allow us to keep him, but I’m going to miss him. I’ll be honest with you.”
There’s more on the Kings, all from Anderson:
- Perry is focused on the upcoming season with Zach LaVine, who will reportedly exercise his $49MM player option. LaVine has been the subject of trade speculation, but Perry hasn’t heard any offers that he likes. “Zach and I have been in communication since the season has been over,” Perry said. “… Zach is still an excellent basketball player. He knows what’s expected of him coming back here this year. I’m very clear with him on that. He’ll be the first to tell you that, and I think he’s ready to come back, embrace that and perform to the best of his abilities this year.”
- Perry sounded a similar tone regarding Domantas Sabonis, who has also been the subject of trade rumors involving several teams. The three-time All-Star will be trying to bounce back after injuries limited him to 19 games last season. “Obviously, he missed a lot of last year, but he’s always played hard,” Perry said. “I expect him to do that, provide some veteran presence for this team, really have a tremendous rebounding year and help us build some winning habits.”
- Reporters brought up the possibility of re-signing Russell Westbrook to serve as a mentor to first-round pick Darius Acuff Jr. Perry said Westbrook “has always been a favorite of mine,” but added that the Kings currently can’t offer more than the veteran’s minimum deal that he played on last season. Sacramento technically holds Westbrook’s Non-Bird rights, allowing the team to go 20% above his minimum, but it sounds like non-minimum deals for any free agent are unlikely as long as the team is flirting with the luxury tax line and first-apron hard cap.
- Perry is happy that Sacramento was able to keep Precious Achiuwa on a new two-year contract when he had other options in free agency. “He could have gone elsewhere, but he wanted to be here,” Perry said. “I think he came here last year searching for a place he could call home. He quickly established himself, the way he competed each and every night at both ends of the floor. He’s a versatile athlete, and I can’t say it enough: I love having guys who want to be here and are invested in something they can build into something bigger than just themselves, and Precious embodies that.”
Free Agent Rumors: Simons, Mavs, Heat, Vincent, Reddish, More
The Mavericks are eyeing Anfernee Simons, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link), who hears from league sources that Dallas has emerged as a possible landing spot for the free agent guard.
Simons took on a lesser role in Boston last season following several years as a starter in Portland, then appeared in just six games for the Bulls following a trade-deadline deal before being sidelined with a wrist injury. He averaged 14.3 points per game on .440/.385/.896 shooting in 55 total appearances last season, but put up 20.7 PPG over the three years prior to that.
The Warriors and the Heat have also been linked to Simons, Stein notes, but the Mavericks are in position to outbid those teams if they decided to zero in on the 27-year-old. According to Yossi Gozlan’s data at CapSheets.com, Dallas is operating more than $24MM under the tax line – with 13 players tentatively under contract – and still has access to the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($15MM).
We have more free agent rumors and notes from around the NBA:
- Although veteran guard Gabe Vincent would be interested in a return to Miami and has some support within the organization, the Heat aren’t pursuing him at this point, according to Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald, who hear from a source that the team would like to add a guard with more size. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who is expected to split with Memphis soon, is among the potential targets on the Heat’s radar, per the Herald, along with Simons and Bradley Beal. Zach LaVine would also be an option if he were to be bought out by the Kings, Jackson and Chiang add.
- The Magic‘s Summer League roster for Las Vegas includes a pair of former NBA first-round picks who are now free agents. Forward Cam Reddish, who last played in the league in 2025 for the Lakers, and guard TyTy Washington Jr., who finished this past season on a two-way deal with the Clippers, will suit up for Orlando later this month.
- Mitchell Robinson is leaving New York for Boston, but an Instagram reply to former teammate OG Anunoby suggests that leaving the Knicks wasn’t his first choice (Twitter link). “I tried, brother, I didn’t want this to happen,” Robinson wrote. “Hopeully the truth comes out at some point.” The Knicks were widely known to be avoiding the second tax apron, and signing the free agent center to the same deal he got from the Celtics – worth $47MM+ over three years – would have pushed New York’s salary way beyond that threshold.
Zach LaVine To Exercise $49MM Player Option
Kings guard Zach LaVine will pick up his $49MM player option for the 2026/27 season, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul tells ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
LaVine’s decision leaves Sacramento about $16MM above the tax line, $13MM over the first tax apron and just about at the second apron, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link). A recent report stated that the Kings may end up using the stretch provision to waive DeMar DeRozan, who only has a $10MM guarantee on his $25.7MM salary for next season.
At age 31, LaVine no longer fits into the long-term plans for the rebuilding Kings, and he and his representatives were reportedly given the chance to explore possible sign-and-trade opportunities before making his option decision.
Injuries continue to plague LaVine, who underwent season-ending hand surgery in mid-February. The injury was to his right fifth finger tendon.
LaVine was only available for 39 games this season and averaged 19.2 PPG, his lowest scoring rate since 2017/18. He also posted career lows in assists (2.3) and rebounds (2.8).
The Kings decided to gamble on LaVine, acquiring him from Chicago in a three-team deal at the 2025 trade deadline. It hasn’t worked out like they hoped, and they’ll likely try to find a taker for him up to the 2027 deadline, although his salary will make that difficult unless he has a significant improvement in health and production. LaVine could emerge as a buyout candidate once the deadline passes.
Pistons A Potential Third Team In Heat/Giannis Trade?
The Pistons should be “monitored” as a possible third team if the Bucks make a trade sending star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link), who reports that Heat guard Tyler Herro could end up in Detroit in that scenario.
The idea of the Bucks flipping Herro to the Pistons in a potential Giannis trade has been the subject of some speculation as of late, but as far as I know, Stein’s report represents the first confirmation that Detroit is considering such a move. If the Bucks do trade Antetokounmpo, the expectation is that they’ll take a step back and enter a rebuilding phase, so Herro – a Wisconsin native who will soon be due for a lucrative new extension – may not be in their long-term plans.
The Pistons are coming off a 60-win season, but a lack of shooting and secondary shot creation to complement Cade Cunningham limited their ceiling and hurt them in the playoffs. Improving in both areas will be a priority this offseason.
[RELATED: Pistons’ Langdon Talks Core, Offseason, Draft, More]
As we noted in our preview of the team’s offseason earlier this week, Detroit attempted the second-fewest three-pointers of any NBA team during the regular season and ranked in the bottom half of the league in three-point percentage, even with sharpshooter Duncan Robinson knocking down 41.0% of his 7.0 tries per game.
Herro, who will be on a $33MM expiring contract in 2026/27, is a solid scorer, shooter, and play-maker. He has averaged at least 20 points and four assists per game in each of the past five years and hasn’t shot below 37.5% on three-pointers in any season during that stretch.
While Stein doesn’t go into any detail on what the Pistons would offer for Herro, Caris LeVert ($14.8MM), Ron Holland ($9.1MM), and Marcus Sasser ($5.2MM) are a few possible trade candidates on the roster who will be on expiring or pseudo-expiring contracts (Holland’s deal includes a rookie scale team option for 2027/28). Detroit also controls all of its own future first-round picks in addition to the No. 21 pick in this year’s draft.
According to Stein, Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving and Pelicans wing Trey Murphy III are two potential trade targets being frequently linked to the Pistons, but the cost for those players figures to be higher than what it would take to land Herro. Hornets guard Coby White, Thunder swingman Isaiah Joe, and Kings guard Zach LaVine are among the other options said to interest Detroit, Stein reports.
Charlotte wants to re-sign White, but there’s a sense that he could be “gettable” in free agency, says Stein. The Pistons could offer the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception (roughly $15MM) or potentially more than that in a sign-and-trade deal. Joe, a career 40.6% three-point shooter, could emerge as a trade candidate for a Thunder team facing a salary cap crunch. He’ll earn $11.3MM next season, with a matching team option for 2027/28.
As for LaVine, while Stein doesn’t clarify one way or the other, he may only be a legitimate target for the Pistons in a buyout or opt-out scenario, since it would be difficult for the team to accommodate his $49MM player option for ’26/27 if he picks it up.
Finally, with the caveat that Stein doesn’t mention him at all in his report and this is just my speculation, I wonder if acquiring Bobby Portis from Milwaukee is an option that might appeal to the Pistons at all in the event they get involved in a three-team Antetokounmpo blockbuster. Portis is a career 39.3% three-point shooter whose $14.5MM salary would fit into the mid-level exception, and multiple reports have indicated the Bucks have interest in sending him out in any Giannis deal.
Kings Notes: LaVine, Achiuwa, Offseason, More
Zach LaVine is coming off a down season and holds a $49MM player option for 2026/27. The Kings guard won’t opt out of that contract just to leave Sacramento, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic, who discussed LaVine’s situation on Sactown Sports 1140’s Carmichael Dave Show with Jason Ross (Twitter video link).
“[Zach LaVine and his agency] are not leaving that money on the table,” Amick said. “So, he’s not opting out. The only question was … they essentially were green-lighted to explore other scenarios, where if Zach and his camp could find a team that was interested enough to do a sign-and-trade, then you opt out, presumably [sign] at a lower number … and do a deal that way.
“That scenario, the Kings have been amenable to,” Amick continued. “I just haven’t heard of LaVine’s camp having any luck with those scenarios. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist. But that, from a process standpoint, is how Zach and his people have been attacking this.
“But he’s absolutely not just choosing to get his freedom and then opting out and jumping into free agency.”
We have more on the Kings:
- ESPN 1320 insider James Ham, who also covers the team at The Kings Beat and Locked on Kings, said during a radio appearance (Twitter video link) that free agent big man Precious Achiuwa is likely to remain in Sacramento. “The word I’m hearing is it’s very, very likely that Precious Achiuwa will be back next season,” Ham said. While Achiuwa impressed the Kings last season, which is why they want to bring him back, Ham suggested the 26-year-old forward/center probably won’t get a major pay increase, perhaps returning on another minimum-salary contract or maybe getting a small raise, given the team’s financial situation. Sacramento will have Achiuwa’s Non-Bird rights, limiting what the team can offer unless it sheds salary to use another cap exception. For his part, Achiuwa expressed a desire to re-sign with the Kings in March.
- Sacramento’s projected payroll for 2026/27 will have a major impact on the team’s moves this summer, Yossi Gozlan of Third Apron (Substack link) writes in his Kings offseason preview. Trading some high-priced veterans or agreeing to buyouts could be in the works, since there’s no reason for the Kings to be a taxpayer (they currently project to be over the first apron) after being one of the NBA’s worst teams in ’25/26, Gozlan notes. They’ll also be looking to add a long-term cornerstone with the seventh pick in next week’s draft.
- In case you missed it, the Kings reportedly hosted Darius Acuff and Kingston Flemings for private workouts last week. Both point guards are considered top options for Sacramento at No. 7.
Doug Christie Expected To Remain Kings’ Head Coach
It has been a disappointing season for the Kings, who take a 22-59 record – tied for the fourth-worst mark in the league – into the final day of the regular season. However, despite some speculation about his job status, Sacramento plans to keep head coach Doug Christie through the offseason, team sources tell Sam Amick of The Athletic.
As Amick writes, Christie took over as interim coach of the Kings in December 2024, when the team fired Mike Brown. Christie, a former NBA guard, was promoted to the full-time position last summer, signing a three-year deal which features two guaranteed seasons.
The Kings feel like they didn’t have a great way to evaluate Christie’s performance in his first full season as head coach, according to Amick, since the roster had issues entering 2025/26 and several key players sustained significant injuries throughout the season.
Anthony Slater of ESPN confirms the news (via Twitter), adding that the team liked how some of its young players developed under Christie this season.
The Kings are expected to resume trade talks involving veterans like Zach LaVine, Domantas Sabonis, Malik Monk and DeMar DeRozan this summer, Amick reports. Sacramento had “extensive” discussions with the Raptors about Sabonis ahead of the February deadline, but the Kings were unwilling to take on the salary of Jakob Poeltl at the time, per Amick.
The Kings haven’t decided what they’re going to do with DeRozan entering the offseason, team sources tell Amick. Only $10MM of the veteran wing’s $25.74MM salary for next season is guaranteed.
Bulls Rumors: Donovan, Front Office, Ownership, Ivey, More
The Bulls fired executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley on Monday, but Marc Stein reported on Sunday that the team hopes to retain head coach Billy Donovan and Shams Charania of ESPN has heard the same (Twitter video link).
“My understanding is the Bulls want to keep [Donovan] as long as he wants to be there, in Chicago,” Charania said on NBA Today.
Donovan, who signed a multiyear extension with the Bulls last summer, is expected to draw interest from rival NBA teams with head coaching vacancies this offseason, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link), who confirms Chicago would like to keep the 60-year-old.
As for potential front office replacements, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic suggests Timberwolves GM Matt Lloyd could be a name to watch (Twitter link). Lloyd is well regarded around the league and began his NBA career in Chicago, Krawczynski notes.
Here are some more rumors and notes on the Bulls:
- Team sources tell Jamal Collier of ESPN that ownership had been considering a front office overhaul “for weeks,” and the urgency to do so increased after the team traded for — and then waived — Jaden Ivey. While the front office defended the homework it did prior to acquiring Ivey, ownership had questions about the process involved and Karnisovas and Eversley had a “credibility problem” around the league and with the team’s fans, according to Collier.
- Collier hears there was a “growing disconnect” between the front office and several areas of the organization, not just ownership. Bulls employees were reportedly unsure of the team’s direction after it traded away several veterans ahead of the February deadline to add seven second-round picks. “People didn’t know the plan,” one team source told ESPN on Monday. “They didn’t know the process. We needed to move on — with a clean slate and start this thing over.”
- According to Collier’s sources, Karnisovas and Eversley long maintained they were “working under the constraints of ownership,” which was reluctant to embark on a rebuild. Donovan also isn’t a fan of rebuilds, Collier writes, even though the team was stuck in mediocrity for years.
- Collier suggests the front office’s relatively underwhelming trade returns also factored into the decision to let Karnisovas and Eversley go, pointing out that the team waited too long to break up the previous core roster of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic, Alex Caruso, Coby White and Lonzo Ball. “We took too long to pick a lane,” the team source told ESPN. “The Lonzo thing just really messed them up. We saw that success early on, and didn’t have the foresight to pivot early.” Ball missed two-plus years due to a knee injury which required multiple surgeries.
- While the Bulls want to retain Donovan, Collier hears it may not be as head coach, depending on what Donovan wants to do in the future. As Collier writes, Donovan’s father and mother-in-law both passed away within eight days of each other in February, and there has been previous speculation that the veteran coach might take a year off to reevaluate his options moving forward.
Bulls Notes: Tanking Decisions, Giddey, LaVine, DeRozan
The Bulls lost to the NBA’s worst team Sunday night in Sacramento, but it’s still not clear that they’re committed to a tanking strategy, writes Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune (subscription required). The team has gone 2-11 since shaking up its roster at the trade deadline and has plummeted to 12th place in the East. However, Poe points out that puzzling lineup decisions are still being made for a team with incentive to tank.
Jalen Smith returned to the court on Sunday after missing the previous five games with a calf strain. Poe notes that the Bulls refuse to shut down Smith even though he has been in and out of the lineup over the past month. Young guard Rob Dillingham, who was acquired from Minnesota at the deadline, only saw 15 minutes against the Kings, while 30-year-old Guerschon Yabusele, who will be a free agent when the season ends, remains in the starting lineup.
Poe blames executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas for getting “queasy” any time the organization faces a major decision. She states that just as Karnisovas is hesitant to pull the trigger on trading a player, he’s also reluctant to fully commit to a tanking strategy, even when it’s obviously in the team’s best interest.
“Everything I’ve gotten here from the front office, from ownership is that we need to do the best job you can to go out there and compete and to try to win,” coach Billy Donovan said last month. “I believe in that. … That’s kind of the mentality that we have here inside the organization. We’ve always tried to keep the integrity of that anytime we go out and compete.”
There’s more on the Bulls:
- In a separate story, Poe questions why the organization is so reckless with Josh Giddey after giving him a four-year extension last summer and making him part of the foundation for the future. She notes that Giddey was reinserted into Tuesday’s loss against Oklahoma City after limping off the court with a rolled ankle a few minutes earlier. He’s also dealing with a lingering hamstring issue that’s supposed to limit his playing time to about 30 minutes per night, but Donovan doesn’t always adhere to that. Poe questions why the Bulls are taking any chances with Giddey when there’s nothing left to play for.
- The new additions to the Bulls’ roster are still getting used to the extreme up-tempo pace that Donovan prefers, observes Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times (subscription required). It was effective in Thursday’s win at Phoenix, but didn’t work as well on Sunday. “The biggest issue I think was the fact that a lot of those guys were coming from situations where they were not playing at all,” Donovan said. “Like Yabusele wasn’t playing, Nick (Richards) wasn’t playing, Rob (Dillingham) wasn’t playing, so I think the pace has been a little different. We went through some of that with Tre (Jones), Zach (Collins) and Kevin Huerter last year.”
- Donovan has fond memories of former Bulls players Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, who both missed Sunday’s game in Sacramento, Cowley adds in another piece. “Listen, I love both those two guys. I think those guys know how I feel about them,” Donovan said. “They were totally professional, and listen when you’re dealing with high-level players like that you are not always going to see eye-to-eye on stuff, but I appreciated the conversation and the intent on their part was to really try and win. That was important to those two guys. I don’t know all the reasons it didn’t work out (here).”
Domantas Sabonis Undergoes Season-Ending Knee Surgery
The Kings will be without their starting center for the rest of the 2025/26 season, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, who reports (via Twitter) that Domantas Sabonis underwent surgery on Wednesday morning to repair the meniscus tear in his left knee.
Sabonis is one of two Kings stars to undergo season-ending surgery on Wednesday. As previously reported, guard Zach LaVine is going under the knife to repair a tendon tear in his right fifth finger. That procedure is happening right now, tweets James Ham of The Kings Beat.
Sabonis suffered that left meniscus tear back in November and originally opted for a non-surgical treatment plan, rehabbing the injury and returning to action a couple months later, in mid-January.
However, upon returning, Sabonis appeared in just eight of Sacramento’s 15 games heading into the All-Star break and played a relatively limited role (24.9 minutes per game). With the Kings well out of the playoff race and the big man seemingly not all the way back to 100%, he and the team apparently determined that it made sense to address the injury via surgery now in order to make sure he’s back to full health for 2026/27.
An All-NBA third-teamer in 2023 and 2024, Sabonis led the NBA in rebounds per game for three straight years from 2023-25. In 19 games (15 starts) this season, he averaged 15.8 points, 11.4 boards, and 4.1 assists in 29.7 minutes per night.
The Kings went just 3-16 in the games Sabonis played and haven’t been much better without him (9-28). Sacramento ranks dead last in the NBA with a 12-44 mark.
There are several more injury updates out of Sacramento ahead of the team’s matchup with Orlando on Thursday:
- Forward Keegan Murray, who has been out since January 4 due to a sprained ankle, said today that he’s ready to return, according to Ham (Twitter link). Murray, who signed a lucrative long-term extension with Sacramento last fall, has been limited to just 19 outings this season due to injuries.
- Shortly after being converted from his two-way deal to a standard contract, rookie big man Dylan Cardwell has been ruled out for at least four weeks due to a sprained left ankle, tweets Ham. Cardwell, who’s scheduled to be reevaluated in one month, sustained the injury at the team’s practice facility. With Sabonis and Cardwell unavailable, Maxime Raynaud, Precious Achiuwa, and Drew Eubanks figure to man the five for the Kings.
- After missing Sacramento’s last three games before the break due to left eye iritis, forward De’Andre Hunter was a full participant in Wednesday’s practice, tweets Ham. Hunter seems likely to be available on Thursday vs. Orlando.
Zach LaVine To Undergo Season-Ending Hand Surgery
Zach LaVine will undergo surgery on his right hand after the All-Star break and is expected to be sidelined for the rest of the Kings‘ season, reports league insider Chris Haynes (via Twitter).
LaVine has missed the last three games for the Kings with what was described as a right fifth finger tendon injury.
The 30-year-old guard is averaging 19.2 points per game this year, his lowest scoring rate since the 2017/18 season, and is also posting career lows in assists (2.3) and rebounds (2.8) per night. The Kings are currently tied for their longest losing streak in franchise history at 14 games and hold the worst record in the NBA.
LaVine holds a $48.9MM player option for next season, which he is expected to exercise.