Sacramento Kings Rumors

Kings, Head Coach Doug Christie Finalizing Multiyear Deal

April 29th, 2025 at 11:13am CST by Luke Adams

The Kings will remove the interim tag from Doug Christie and make him their permanent head coach, according to Shams Charania of ESPN, who reports that the two sides are finalizing the details of a multiyear contract.

Formerly an assistant coach under Mike Brown, Christie was elevated to head coach in December following Brown’s dismissal and led Sacramento to a 27-24 record following a 13-18 start.

As Charania notes, the Kings went 13-10 in clutch-time games under Christie after posting a 6-13 mark in those contests under Brown early in the season.

A former NBA shooting guard, Christie spent five of his 15 seasons as a player in Sacramento and was employed as a color commentator for Kings games before being hired by the franchise as an assistant during the 2021 offseason.

Christie, who initially served under Luke Walton, remained in his role as an assistant when the club parted ways with Walton and promoted Alvin Gentry to replace him during the 2021/22 season, and again when the Kings hired Brown in 2022.

This is Christie’s first stint as an NBA head coach, though he had previously gained a little experience in that role as a Kings assistant — he coached the team in December 2021 when Gentry missed time due to COVID-19 and later coached Sacramento’s Summer League team in July 2024.

After winning 20 of their first 31 games under Christie, the Kings lost 13 of their last 20 and were eliminated in the play-in tournament by a depleted Mavericks team, costing them a shot at a playoff berth.

That underwhelming finish to the season led to some speculation that the team might launch a full-fledged coaching search, but team owner Vivek Ranadive is said to be a fan of Christie, and reporting in the wake of Scott Perry‘s hiring as Sacramento’s new general manager indicated that the interim coach was well-positioned to hang onto the job.

According to Charania, Christie is expected to revamp his coaching staff this offseason after having inherited Brown’s assistants in the winter.

Stein/Fischer’s Latest: Perry, LaVine, Young, Jones, Dumars, Graham, Horst

April 27th, 2025 at 7:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

New Kings general manager Scott Perry won’t engage an offseason teardown even though De’Aaron Fox was dealt at the trade deadline this season, Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line report in their latest newsletter.

While the roster is lacking a true starting point guard and requires more length and athleticism, as he told the media in a recent press conference, Perry isn’t looking to hit the reset button.

However, there is speculation that Zach LaVine could be on the move again. Perry questioned LaVine’s ability to elevate his teammates a couple of years ago in a podcast. LaVine has two years and approximately $96.5MM remaining on his contract and becomes eligible for an extension on July 7.

Here are several more tidbits from Stein and Fischer:

Trae Young‘s name has been bandied about in trade rumors in recent years but it appears unlikely Atlanta will look to deal its franchise player this summer. Former Hawks GM Landry Fields broke up the backcourt duo of Young and Dejounte Murray last offseason and one of the players acquired in return, defensive ace Dyson Daniels, meshed well with Young. Moreover, Hawks personnel members have spoken often about Young’s growth as a leader and being a more willing passer. Coach Quin Snyder’s praise regarding Young’s improved effort and defensive commitment also speaks to the likelihood of the Hawks continuing to build around him.
While there has been speculation regarding James Jones‘ status as the Suns GM, given that his contract expires in June, he’s been tasked with leading the search for a new head coach. Phoenix would ideally determine its new front office structure before hiring a head coach but Jones could be asked to remain in the front office in a different role.
New Pelicans executive VP of basketball operations Joe Dumars has already made several front office changes, including the addition of former Pistons GM Troy Weaver as senior VP. However, Dumars has decided to retain GM Bryson Graham. The latter has been credited with unearthing underrated talent in the draft, such as Trey Murphy and Herbert Jones.
The Bucks’ decision to give GM Jon Horst an extension had been in the works for weeks. Front office openings in Atlanta, Denver and Phoenix further pushed the negotiations to fruition. However, Horst’s new deal won’t quell the hope of rival executives that another early playoff exit could lead to a trade request from superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Kings’ Perry Plans To Make Decision On Coach Within Next Week

April 23rd, 2025 at 1:49pm CST by Luke Adams

New Kings general manager Scott Perry told reporters during his introductory press conference on Wednesday that he intends to make a decision on the team’s head coaching situation within the next week, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link).

Perry will have to determine whether he wants to retain interim head coach Doug Christie for the 2025/26 season or launch a search for a new coach.

Perry praised Christie on Wednesday, noting that he has known the former NBA guard since he was a player in Toronto and has spoken to him since being hired by the Kings on Monday. However, Sacramento’s new head of basketball operations also said he has been receiving calls from potential coaching candidates who are interested in the job and that he still needs to consider his options.

Christie, who had been an assistant under head coach Mike Brown, was promoted in December when the Kings parted ways with Brown following a 13-18 start to the season. Sacramento’s performance was up and down the rest of the way and the team was unable to secure a playoff spot through the play-in tournament, but Christie did post a winning record of 27-24.

Anderson has reported that Christie has a good chance to hang onto the job, but has stressed that nothing’s official yet.

Here are a few other notes from Perry’s first media session upon returning to the Kings:

Perry, who briefly served as Sacramento’s VP of basketball operations in 2017, said he and Kings owner Vivek Ranadive have kept in touch since then, so when Ranadive decided to revamp the team’s front office, he and Perry had an easy conversation that developed quickly, according to James Ham of The Kings Beat (Twitter link).
Addressing the point guard position and adding length and athleticism to the roster will be some of the top offseason priorities for the front office, Perry told reporters (Twitter link via Ham).
According to Perry, Ranadive has “pledged his support and his resources” and empowered the new GM to make the personnel decisions necessary to build a sustainable winner in Sacramento (Twitter links via Ham).
Asked about comments he made during a 2023 podcast appearance questioning whether Zach LaVine is a winning basketball player, Perry responded that he’s “not worrying about it haunting me,” adding that has already spoken to LaVine and that his job will be to build around the guard’s strengths (Twitter link via Ham).
Sean Cunningham of FOX 40 in Sacramento has uploaded the full half-hour video of Perry’s Wednesday media session to Twitter. It can be viewed in full right here.

Pacific Notes: Leonard, Bol, Kings, Murray, Ellis

April 22nd, 2025 at 2:29pm CST by Luke Adams

Limited by injuries, veteran forward Kawhi Leonard appeared in just four playoff games for the Clippers from 2022-24 and wasn’t himself last spring, scoring just 24 total points in the two postseason appearances he was able to make. So it was a welcome sight to see a healthy Leonard in peak form on Monday in Denver, writes Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.

Leonard was dominant on both ends of the court, scoring 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting and holding Nuggets players to five points on 2-of-12 shooting when he was the primary defender, per Shelburne. Led by their star forward, the Clippers pulled out a 105-102 win to even the series at one game apiece.

“I’m just happy that I’m able to move,” Leonard said after the game. “That’s what I’m taking pride in is just being healthy. I sat and watched these playoff games and series the past two years. So being able to be front-line out there, it just feels good for me no matter which way the game goes.”

While Leonard has faced criticism over the years due to a perception that he requires constant “load management,” teammate James Harden made it clear that Leonard has worked incredibly hard behind the scenes to get back to 100% and to turn in performances like Monday’s.

“It’s every single day. It’s the preparation. It’s like the treatment, it’s strengthening, you know what I mean, of body, it’s correctives and then it’s going on court and putting it all together,” Harden said. “Luck hasn’t been on his side or whatever case you might call it. But he loves to hoop. And as you see, when he’s on the court, he’s a killer. So I’m glad he’s in a good space right now.”

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

Suns forward Bol Bol played relatively well as a regular part of the rotation for about a month after the trade deadline, then logged just 29 total minutes across six outings in Phoenix’s final 16 games. According to NBA insider Chris Haynes (YouTube link; Twitter video link), the decision to remove Bol from the rotation stemmed from an incident during a March 12 game vs. Houston. Former head coach Mike Budenholzer was “irate” over the fact that Bol made no effort to come to his teammate’s defense during an altercation between Mason Plumlee and Steven Adams, shooting layups away from the crowd as other players converged on the scrum (Twitter video link).
In a YouTube video and an Insider-only ESPN.com article, Bobby Marks of ESPN explores what’s on tap for the Kings this summer after a disappointing 2024/25 season that resulted in a change atop their front office. While much of the focus in Sacramento will be on Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan, and Zach LaVine, who have earned a combined 11 All-Star nods, Marks points out that the team will also face decisions on Keegan Murray, who is eligible for a rookie scale extension, and Keon Ellis, who could be made a restricted free agent if his team option is declined.
Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee also considers the next steps for the Kings, noting that new general manager Scott Perry will have to “reestablish a sense of direction and trust” within the organization and will have to make several major decisions, starting with whether or not to retain head coach Doug Christie.

Contract Details: Lawson, Castleton, Williams, Davis, Davison, Payton

April 22nd, 2025 at 7:27am CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors dipped into their mid-level exception to give A.J. Lawson and Colin Castleton rest-of-season salaries of $100K apiece when they signed standard multiyear contracts during the final week of the regular season, Hoops Rumors has confirmed.

Had Toronto simply signed the duo to minimum-salary deals, Lawson would’ve received about $24K at the end of this season, while Castleton would’ve earned less than $11K.

In exchange for those end-of-season raises, Lawson and Castleton each gave the Raptors favorable terms for the 2025/26 season. Both players have fully non-guaranteed minimum salaries ($2,270,735 for Lawson; $2,191,897 for Castleton) and don’t have offseason trigger dates, so Toronto could hang onto them all the way through training camp and the preseason without owing them any guaranteed money beyond this season’s $100K.

We have details on a few more of the contracts signed during the final days of the regular season:

The two-year, minimum-salary deal that point guard Brandon Williams signed with the Mavericks on April 10 includes a non-guaranteed $2,270,735 salary for 2025/26. Williams would lock in a partial guarantee of $200K if he remains under contract through July 7 and that partial guarantee would increase to $850K if he’s still on the roster at the start of next season. If Williams plays out the full contract, he’d have four years of NBA experience when he reaches free agency in 2026, so Dallas wouldn’t have the ability to make him a restricted free agent.
Veteran guard Terence Davis signed a two-year contract worth the veteran’s minimum with the Kings. His $2,546,675 salary for next season is non-guaranteed, but he would earn a partial guarantee worth $250K if he remains under contract for the team’s first regular season game of 2025/26.
The Celtics‘ new two-year deal with G League MVP JD Davison is a minimum-salary agreement that includes a non-guaranteed team option worth $2,270,735 for the 2025/26 season.
The two-year, minimum-salary contract that Elfrid Payton signed with the Pelicans also features a non-guaranteed team option for ’25/26. That option would be worth $3,153,598 if exercised.

Kings Hire Scott Perry As General Manager

April 21st, 2025 at 8:42pm CST by Rory Maher

APRIL 21: The Kings have officially named Perry their general manager, according to a team press release.

“Scott brings a wealth of experience, a sharp basketball mind, and a strong track record of building talented rosters,” Ranadive said in a statement. “He shares our commitment to developing and sustaining a winning culture, and I am excited to welcome him back to Sacramento.”

“I appreciate the opportunity to rejoin the Kings organization and help build a successful team that competes at a high level,” Perry said in a statement of his own. “I’m eager to get to work with the players and staff to continue moving the organization forward.”

APRIL 17: The Kings are finalizing a contract with veteran NBA executive Scott Perry to be their new general manager, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.

Charania’s report has been confirmed by several other outlets, including The Athletic, Yahoo Sports, Fox 40 Sacramento, and TheKingsBeat.com (all Twitter links here).

Sacramento and former GM Monte McNair mutually agreed to part ways after the team was eliminated from the play-in tournament on Wednesday night.

The Athletic reported overnight that Perry was the frontrunner to replace McNair. Mere hours later, he will be rejoining the Kings, having previously served as the team’s VP of basketball operations from April-June 2017.

Perry’s first stint with Sacramento was brief because he was hired away by New York to be the Knicks’ GM, but he reportedly had a strong working relationship with owner Vivek Ranadive. That connection undoubtedly helped him land his new position.

Perry, 61, played college basketball in the 1980s and then transitioned to coaching, primarily working in his home state of Michigan. The Detroit native got his first NBA job back in 2000 as an executive with the Pistons.

He had two separate stints in Detroit’s front office and also worked for Seattle and Orlando. Perry was the Knicks’ GM from 2017-23.

The Kings haven’t even conducted their exit interviews, tweets Sam Amick of The Athletic, yet they’ve already found a new head of basketball operations. Perhaps the impetus for hiring Perry so quickly is that he was rumored to be a candidate to join the Pelicans’ front office under Joe Dumars, his former boss and longtime colleague in Detroit.

Perry, who has also worked as an ESPN analyst, was reportedly one of four candidates who received serious consideration to become the Pistons’ head of basketball operations last year. Trajan Langdon was ultimately hired for the job.

2025 NBA Draft Tiebreaker Results

April 21st, 2025 at 4:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Tiebreakers among teams with identical regular-season records were broken on Monday through random drawings to determine the order for this year’s draft prior to the lottery.

The results are as follows, according to a press release from the league (Twitter link):

Phoenix Suns (No. 9) over Portland Trail Blazers (No. 10)
- The Suns will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Trail Blazers.
- The Suns’ pick will be sent to the Rockets.
Dallas Mavericks (No. 11) over Chicago Bulls (No. 12)
- The Mavericks will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Bulls.
Sacramento Kings (No. 13) over Atlanta Hawks (No. 14)
- The Kings will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Hawks.
- The Kings’ pick will be sent to the Hawks if it’s outside of the top 12.
- The Hawks’ pick will be sent to the Spurs.
Memphis Grizzlies (No. 18) over Milwaukee Bucks (No. 19) over Golden State Warriors (No. 20)
- The Grizzlies’ pick will be sent to the Wizards.
- The Bucks’ pick will be sent to the Nets.
- The Warriors’ pick will be sent to the Heat.
Los Angeles Lakers (No. 22) over Indiana Pacers (No. 23) over Los Angeles Clippers (No. 24) over Denver Nuggets (No. 25)
- The Lakers’ pick will be sent to the Hawks.
- The Clippers’ pick will be sent to the Thunder.
- The Nuggets’ pick will be sent to the Magic.

While the tiebreaker winner will pick ahead of the loser(s) in the first round, that order will be flipped in the second round.

For instance, the Warriors’ second-round pick (traded to the Grizzlies) will be at No. 48, followed by the Bucks’ pick (traded to Detroit) at No. 49, and the Grizzlies (traded to New York) at No. 50 — that’s the opposite of their order in the first round.

For lottery teams that finished with identical records, the second-round order is still to be determined depending on the lottery results.

For example, if Phoenix’s first-round pick (traded to Houston) stays at No. 9 and the Blazers’ first-rounder stays at No. 10, Portland’s second-round pick (traded to Toronto) would be at No. 39 and Phoenix’s (traded to Washington) would be No. 40. But if the Trail Blazers win the No. 1 overall pick on lottery night, moving ahead of Phoenix in the first round, then the Suns’ second-round pick would be No. 39, while Portland’s would be No. 40.

We’ll publish the full lottery odds and pre-lottery draft order for 2025 later tonight.

Stein/Fischer’s Latest: Kuminga, Suns, Jones, Williamson, Nowitzki

April 20th, 2025 at 9:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Jonathan Kuminga‘s role in the playoffs will be closely watched around the league as he heads into restricted free agency, Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line report (Substack link).

Kuminga never entered the game in the Warriors‘ play-in victory over Memphis on Tuesday. It’s expected that Kuminga will have at least a limited role in the first-round series against the Rockets as Golden State tries to combat Houston’s athleticism.

Coach Steve Kerr has stated publicly that the combination of Kuminga and Jimmy Butler at the forward spots hasn’t worked well due to spacing issues — both are subpar three-point shooters. The coaching staff had hoped that Kuminga might be further along in developing his play-making skills.

The front office and Kuminga couldn’t meet his asking price during rookie scale extension talks. He was seeking more than $30MM annually. The Nets are a potential suitor with enough cap space to give Kuminga a lucrative contract, but a sign-and-trade with another team could be a potential option this summer.

Here’s more from the latest Stein Line round-up from Stein and Fischer:

The Suns are unlikely to pursue another veteran coach after Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer lasted just one season apiece. However, Pelicans coach Willie Green is a potential candidate if new New Orleans president of basketball operations Joe Dumars doesn’t retain Green. Cavaliers associate head coach Johnnie Bryant, Rockets assistant coach Royal Ivey and Mavericks assistants Jared Dudley and Sean Sweeney could also be in the mix, Stein and Fischer confirm. Those names were all previously reported.
It’s not a certainty Suns top executive James Jones will hold onto his job. Owner Mat Ishbia could make a change in the front office before a new head coach is hired, Stein and Fischer note.
Dumars will take his time before deciding whether he’ll look to shop oft-injured franchise player Zion Williamson. There’s some skepticism around the NBA that the Pelicans will continue to ride with Williamson as their cornerstone piece.
The Pelicans‘ decision to hire Dumars a day after David Griffin was let go and the Kings’ same-day hiring of Scott Perry to replace Monte McNair have both faced scrutiny around the league, with sources wondering why the teams didn’t conduct more thorough searches, Stein and Fischer say. Dumars was also said to be high on Sacramento’s list.
Dirk Nowitzki has an office at the Mavericks‘ practice facility but he’s rarely there, which speaks to his distance from the Mavericks current ownership group and general manager Nico Harrison. Nowitzki was named a special advisor to former majority owner Mark Cuban, who no longer has much say in personnel decisions, including the blockbuster Luka Doncic deal.

Kings’ DeMar DeRozan Involved In Fight At Restaurant

April 19th, 2025 at 9:46pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kings forward DeMar DeRozan is the subject of an “ongoing and active investigation” following an incident Friday night, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee.

A 28-second video posted to TMZ shows DeRozan involved in a confrontation with another man at the Yume Sushi restaurant in Calabasas, California. DeRozan can be seen reaching for the other man’s legs while he’s on the floor, according to Anderson, while a woman yells to DeRozan to “let him go.” When the man gets to his feet, he tells DeRozan, “I’m a big fan” and says “give me my phone.” They are eventually broken up by other restaurant patrons.

A witness tells TMZ that the skirmish began when the man “shoved a phone with a bright light in DeMar’s face.” The witness adds that DeRozan knocked the phone away and claims the unidentified man suffered injuries in the fight that resulted in him leaving the restaurant in an ambulance.

Law enforcement authorities weren’t able to verify the witness’s version of events, according to Anderson, and the Kings didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

DeRozan just completed his first season with Sacramento after being acquired from Chicago in a sign-and-trade last summer. The team saw its season end Wednesday night with a home loss to Dallas in the play-in tournament.

Heat Become First No. 10 Seed To Win Two Play-In Games

April 18th, 2025 at 9:04pm CST by Luke Adams

For a third straight year, the Heat have earned the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot via the play-in tournament.

This time around, Miami made history by becoming the first No. 10 seed to make it through the play-in tournament since the event’s inception in 2021. After defeating the No. 9 Bulls in Chicago on Wednesday, the Heat registered their second consecutive road play-in win in Atlanta on Friday against the No. 8 Hawks.

The Heat led for most of the night until the Hawks made a fourth-quarter comeback and forced overtime. Trade-deadline acquisition and free-agent-to-be Davion Mitchell helped Miami secure the 123-114 win by knocking down a trio of three-pointers in the extra frame.

Tyler Herro (30 points), Bam Adebayo (17 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks), and Andrew Wiggins (20 points, eight rebounds, eight assists) also played key roles in the victory.

As a result of the win, the Heat have a first-round series on tap with the No. 1 Cavaliers. As the NBA announced this week (via Twitter), that series will get underway in Cleveland on Sunday evening. The Hawks’ season is over.

Friday’s game also had major draft-related implications. Because they made the playoffs, the Heat will no longer control their first-round pick, which will land at No. 15 overall and will be sent to the Thunder. Miami will still receive Golden State’s first-round pick, which will end up at No. 18, 19, or 20, depending on the outcome of a random tiebreaker on Monday.

If they’d missed the playoffs, the Heat would’ve hung onto their own 2025 pick and would’ve owed their unprotected 2026 first-rounder to Oklahoma City and their unprotected 2028 first-rounder to Charlotte. Instead, the Heat will keep their 2026 pick and will owe their lottery-protected 2027 first-rounder to the Hornets. That pick would become unprotected in 2028 if it lands in the top 14 in 2027.

The Spurs, meanwhile, control the Hawks’ first-round pick, which will now be No. 12, 13, or 14 in the lottery standings, depending on the outcome of Friday’s Grizzlies/Mavericks game and a Monday tiebreaker between Atlanta and Sacramento, both of whom finished with 40-42 regular season records.

If Dallas beats Memphis on Friday, that Hawks/Kings tiebreaker would be incredibly meaningful, since it would determine the 12th and 13th spots in the lottery — Sacramento owes its first-round pick to Atlanta if it lands outside the top 12, so the odds of the Kings keeping that pick would increase significantly if they move up to No. 12 in the lottery standings.

If the Grizzlies beat Dallas on Friday, that tiebreaker between Atlanta and Sacramento would be for the 13th and 14th spots in the lottery standings, putting the Hawks in position to claim the Kings’ pick regardless of the tiebreaker outcome (unless it jumps into the top four on lottery night).