Sacramento Kings Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pistons Committed To Keeping Caldwell-Pope

April 16th, 2017 at 11:57am CST by Arthur Hill

The Pistons plan to match any offer that restricted free agent Kentavious Caldwell-Pope receives, according to Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press.

The organization is prepared to give the fourth-year shooting guard a maximum deal if that’s what it takes to keep him in Detroit, Ellis adds, with several sources saying he is an important part of the team’s future.

Caldwell-Pope averaged 13.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game this season, but his numbers declined after the All-Star break. Ellis states that the Pistons may have viewed the situation differently if they were confident that Stanley Johnson was ready to become a starter, but they believe keeping Caldwell-Pope is vital and they wouldn’t be able to get an adequate replacement because of their cap situation.

Ellis touches on several other Pistons-related matters:

Trade talks involving Andre Drummond and Reggie Jackson will continue this offseason. Ellis states that the organization is becoming impatient with Drummond, with coach/executive Stan Van Gundy saying in Friday’s press conference that he needs a “sense of urgency to elevate his game.” Jackson’s drop in production stemmed from left knee tendinitis that plagued him throughout the season, and Ellis claims the only available replacement who might be an upgrade is the Suns’ Eric Bledsoe.
The Pistons believe they have enough young players and future first-rounders to acquire a star this offseason. There were rumors that Drummond was offered to the Kings for DeMarcus Cousins before he was sent to New Orleans, and a source told Ellis the Pistons contacted the Pacers about Paul George but never got close to a deal. George has another season left before he can opt out, and Detroit might be interested in taking the chance that it can re-sign him, but only if the price in a trade comes down. Other targets could include Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony.
Although the Pistons might benefit from a franchise-altering move, Van Gundy said smaller deals are more realistic. “There’s a couple things we’d like to do and make us a little bit better, but I don’t think we’re broken” he said. “Getting our point guard situation back to where it was or even better is more than feasible and corrects a great deal of the problems we’re talking about. Our roster is pretty good from there.”

Kings Notes: Point Guards, Bogdanovic, Gay

April 15th, 2017 at 3:10pm CST by ChrisCrouse

GM Vlade Divac said it’s “too early to say” whether or not the Kings will try to bring back Darren Collison or Ty Lawson next year, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee writes. Jones adds that the team is stocked at many positions, but point guard is not of them.

Lawson had an uninspiring season in Sacramento, scoring 9.9 points per game while dishing out 4.9 assists per night. He made 24 starts for the club. Collison was suspended for the first eight games of the season because of domestic battery charges. He ended up playing in 68 contests for the Kings, averaging 13.2 points, 4.6 assists, and a steal per game. Both veterans will be unrestricted free agents this summer.

Here’s more from Sacramento:

Divac said Bogdan Bogdanovic, whose rights were acquired by the Kings in a 2016 draft night trade, is a “natural shooting guard” and added that the team wants him to come stateside, Jones relays in the same piece. “We would love to have him here. We have his rights, and this summer we’ll talk about it,” Divac said.
The Kings added an assistant GM last offseason and they remain open to expanding the front office even further, Jones adds in the same piece. “We’re open, always, to improve,” Divac said. “The team, the front office, everything is always open for improvement. I’m very happy and confident in what we have right now, but we should be open if something can make you better.”
Both Divac and coach Dave Joerger would like Rudy Gay to return to the Kings next season, Sean Cunningham of ABC10 tweets. Gay can become a free agent this summer by turning down a player option in his contract, but he remains undecided on whether or not he will do so.

2017 NBA Draft Lottery Odds

April 13th, 2017 at 8:37am CST by Luke Adams

With the NBA’s 2016/17 regular season now in the books, the odds for this year’s draft lottery have been set. With the help of our Reverse Standings, as well as information from LotteryBucket.com, here is the 2017 lottery order, along with each team’s chances of landing a top pick:

Boston Celtics (via Brooklyn Nets)
- No. 1: 25.0%
- Top-3: 64.3%
- Lowest pick: No. 4
- Note: Celtics acquire pick due to ability to swap first-round picks with Nets.
Phoenix Suns
- No. 1: 19.9%
- Top-3: 55.8%
- Lowest pick: No. 5
Los Angeles Lakers
- No. 1: 15.6%
- Top-3: 46.9%
- Lowest pick: No. 6
- Note: Pick will be sent to Sixers if not in top 3 (odds: 53.1%).
Philadelphia 76ers
- No. 1: 14.7%
- Top-3: 45.3%
- Lowest pick: No. 7
- Note: Sixers have right to swap picks with Kings, so their No. 1 and top-3 odds are a little higher than they otherwise would be. No. 1 and top-3 odds for Sixers’ own pick are 11.9% and 37.8%, respectively.
Orlando Magic
- No. 1: 8.8%
- Top-3: 29.12%
- Lowest pick: No. 8
Minnesota Timberwolves
- No. 1: 5.3%
- Top-3: 18.3%
- Lowest pick: No. 9
- Note: Timberwolves won tiebreaker with Knicks.
New York Knicks
- No. 1: 5.3%
- Top-3: 18.2%
- Lowest pick: No. 10
- Note: Knicks lost tiebreaker with Timberwolves.
Sacramento Kings
- No. 1: N/A
- Top-3: 2.5%
- Lowest pick: No. 11
- Note: Sixers have right to swap picks with Kings, rendering No. 1 pick impossible and greatly reducing odds of top-3 pick.
- Note: Pick will be sent to Bulls if not in top 10 (odds: 0.01%).
Dallas Mavericks
- No. 1: 1.7%
- Top-3: 6.1%
- Lowest pick: No. 12
New Orleans Pelicans
- No. 1: 1.1%
- Top-3: 4.0%
- Lowest pick: No. 13
- Note: Pick will be sent to Kings if not in top 3 (odds: 96.0%).
Charlotte Hornets
- No. 1: 0.8%
- Top-3: 2.9%
- Lowest pick: No. 14
Detroit Pistons
- No. 1: 0.7%
- Top-3: 2.5%
- Lowest pick: No. 14
Denver Nuggets
- No. 1: 0.6%
- Top-3: 2.2%
- Lowest pick: No. 14
Miami Heat
- No. 1: 0.5%
- Top-3: 1.8%
- Lowest pick: No. 14

Kings Notes: Gay, McLemore, Cauley-Stein

April 12th, 2017 at 3:58pm CST by Luke Adams

It will be an unusual offseason for Kings head coach Dave Joerger, who grew accustomed to relative roster stability during his years in Memphis. While the Grizzlies never made many major changes to their core, Sacramento’s roster heading into next season is in flux.

The team could have two lottery picks and draft-and-stash prospect Bogdan Bogdanovic entering the mix — it also remains to be seen how trades and free agency will affect the roster. For Joerger, who will have an extra-long offseason to consider the next moves for his club, that uncertainty will complicate matters, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee details.

“I’m going to go crazy thinking, man, ‘I want to run this, work on this, and this is going to be great next year,'” Joerger said. “But you really don’t know how it looks until all those things come together.”

Here are a few more notes out of Sacramento:

Rudy Gay said on Tuesday night that he remains undecided about whether or not he’ll exercise his player option to remain with the Kings this summer. Per Jason Jones (Twitter link), Gay says he’ll take it “one day at a time” as he continues to recover from an Achilles tear.
Ben McLemore, who will be a restricted free agent this offseason, said he can see a bright future for the Kings, and can imagine being a part of it (Twitter link via Sean Cunningham of ABC10). We’ll see this summer if Sacramento feels the same way about the RFA guard.
Speaking of McLemore, he failed to meet the starter criteria, meaning he’ll receive a slightly lower qualifying offer if the Kings make him a restricted free agent. For a full explanation of the starter criteria and how it affects QOs for potential RFAs, check out our breakdown from last week.
Kings center Willie Cauley-Stein said on Tuesday that he’s looking forward to asking management what they want of him going forward, tweets Cunningham. Cauley-Stein saw his minutes fluctuate throughout the 2016/17 season, and suggests he wants to have a clearer picture of his role heading into next year.

Labissiere Making Strides In Rookie Year

April 9th, 2017 at 7:15pm CST by Austin Kent

The Kings have done a fine job giving their young big men an opportunity to develop this season, as Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee recounts. For 2016 28th overall pick Skal Labissiere, the opportunities let him show all the teams that passed on him what they’re missing.

Sparsely used in the first three months of the season as the Kings flirted with the idea of the competing for the postseason, Labissiere has seen more time on the court as the year has progressed. In three April games, the 21-year-old has played 29.0 minutes per.

“I’m feeling a little more comfortable out there,” the Kings center said. “It’s me learning at my own pace, not getting rushed, learning how to see things on the court. […] I’m nowhere near [physically] where I want to be. But this should be a fun summer. Lots of time with the weights, and working on all aspects of my game.”

It’s harder to deny the appeal of tanking when your draft picks are tied up in previously negotiated trades. Such was the case when the Lakers and Kings met Friday, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee reports. The Lakers had incentive to lose in order to keep their top-3 protected pick. The Kings had incentive to lose to keep their top-10 protected pick. (The Lakers won).

Joerger Dislikes Tanking; Cauley-Stein Plans Navy SEAL Training

April 8th, 2017 at 5:14pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kings coach Dave Joerger doesn’t like suggestions that the Kings have been tanking since trading DeMarcus Cousins, relays Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. Sacramento quickly dropped out of the playoff race after that deal at the All-Star break as the team devoted more playing time to younger players. However, Joerger insists the Kings are building for the future, not maximizing their draft pick. “I think what we’ve already done is establish what we want to be about,” he said. “There’s no tanking going on here. We’re playing hard, guys that are in the rotation are playing hard and they’re getting better.”
One of the beneficiaries of the Cousins trade has been Willie Cauley-Stein, who has become the Kings‘ starting center. In an interview posted on the Sacramento Bee website, Cauley-Stein told reporters after Friday’s game that he plans to do Navy SEAL training over the summer in preparation for next season.

Potential 2017 RFAs Whose Qualifying Offers Will Be Impacted By Starter Criteria

April 7th, 2017 at 11:22am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which will go into effect on July 1, 2017, includes a number of changes to the free agent process, including some that apply specifically to restricted free agents. However, one aspect of restricted free agency unaffected by the new CBA is what’s referred to as the “starter criteria,” which can affect how much an RFA’s qualifying offer will be worth.

Here’s how the starter criteria works: A player who is eligible for restricted free agency is considered to have met the starter criteria if he plays at least 2,000 minutes or starts 41 games in the season before he reaches free agency. A player can also meet the criteria if he averages either of those marks in the two seasons prior to his restricted free agency. For instance, if a player started 50 games in 2015/16 and 35 in 2016/17, he’d meet the starter criteria, since his average number of starts over the last two seasons exceeds 41.

A player’s ability or inability to meet the starter criteria can affect the value of the qualifying offer he receives as a restricted free agent, as follows:

A top-14 pick who does not meet the starter criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to the amount the 15th overall pick would receive if he signed for 120% of the rookie scale.
A player picked between 10th and 30th who meets the criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to the amount the ninth overall pick would receive if he signed for 120% of the rookie scale.
A second-round pick or undrafted player who meets the criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to the amount the 21st overall pick would receive if he signed for 100% of the rookie scale.
For all other RFAs, the standard criteria determine the amounts of their qualifying offers.

Extending a qualifying offer to a player ensures that a team has the right of first refusal if he signs an offer sheet, and gives the player the option of signing that one-year QO. Generally, the value of a restricted free agent’s qualifying offer isn’t hugely important, since very few RFAs accept those offers outright. Still, those QOs can have an impact on a team’s salary cap outlook during July’s free agent period, so it’s worth checking in to see which potential RFAs will be eligible for higher or lower qualifying offers this summer.

Listed below are the top-14 picks on track for restricted free agency who have not met the starter criteria. These players will be eligible for qualifying offers worth $4,187,598.

Alex Len (Suns)
Nerlens Noel (Mavericks)
Trey Burke (Wizards)
Michael Carter-Williams (Bulls)
Kelly Olynyk (Celtics)
Shabazz Muhammad (Timberwolves)

Len and Noel had the worst QO luck this season. As the fifth and sixth overall picks in 2013, they would have been in line for qualifying offers worth about $6.4MM and $5.85MM, respectively. Instead, their QOs will be worth less than $4.2MM. Both players were very close to meeting the starter criteria too — they’ve started 77 games apiece in the past two years, so they’ll fall just short of the 82 required.

The players listed below are non-lottery first-round picks who will meet the starter criteria. That will make each of them eligible for a qualifying offer worth $4,588,840.

Tony Snell (Bucks)
Mason Plumlee (Nuggets)
Tim Hardaway (Hawks)
Andre Roberson (Thunder)

All four of these players were selected in the 20-26 range in the 2013 draft, and their QOs would’ve ranged from about $3.39MM to $3.22MM if they hadn’t met the starter criteria.

Here are the rest of the RFAs whose qualifying offers won’t necessarily be determined by the standard criteria:

Undrafted power forward JaMychal Green (Grizzlies) has met the starter criteria, putting him in line for a QO worth $2,820,497 instead of the more modest amount he would’ve received as a minimum-salary player.
Two players – Joe Ingles (Jazz) and Ben McLemore (Kings) – still have a chance to meet the starter criteria depending on how the season’s last four days play out. Ingles has played 1,848 minutes this season, meaning he would have to average about 38 MPG in Utah’s last four contests to reach 2,000, which is a tall order. McLemore may fall just short as well, as he currently sits at 79 starts over the last two seasons. He’ll need to start three of the Kings’ last four games in order to average 41 starts per year, but he has only been in Sacramento’s starting lineup twice since the start of March. (End-of-season update: Neither Ingles nor McLemore met the starter criteria.)

Western Notes: Galloway, Carraro, Mavs, Gasol

April 6th, 2017 at 3:00pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Langston Galloway came to the Kings in the DeMarcus Cousins trade and didn’t get much playing time initially, but he’s finding the court now as the team begins to rest its veterans. Coach Dave Joerger credits the point guard for staying ready even though he wasn’t receiving consistent minutes, as Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee relays.

“I think he has a survivor mindset. … That mindset that, ‘you know what, when I get my opportunity I’m going to be ready’ and he’s done that,” Joerger said. “He’s practiced hard, he’s worked hard and he’s been ready, keeping himself ready for whatever minutes may come.”

Galloway is making $5.2MM this season and he can become a free agent during the summer if he turns down his $5.434MM player option for the 2017/18 campaign.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Lakers assistant GM Glenn Carraro has resigned, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link). Carraro has been with Los Angeles since 2000.
It would be shocking if the Mavericks don’t select a point guard in the upcoming draft, Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News writes. Dallas currently owns the ninth spot in our Reverse Standings and there should be several point guard prospects worthy of being selected at the top of the draft.
Offseason addition Pau Gasol added the 3-pointer to his game and Jeff McDonald of the Express News notes that the big man has made over 54% of his attempts from downtown. That figure, which isn’t likely to decrease severely over the next few games, is by far the best percentage for a 7-footer in NBA history. Gasol has fit in well since coming to the Spurs and he has one more season on his contract after this one.

Patrick Ewing Has Georgetown Meeting Today

April 3rd, 2017 at 11:27am CST by Arthur Hill

Hornets assistant Patrick Ewing will meet with Georgetown officials today to discuss their head coaching job, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.

Ewing has had several phone conversations with the school since John Thompson III was fired last month. Charlotte plays at Washington Tuesday night, making the visit more convenient for the former Hoyas star.

Ewing has been studying the intracacies of running a college programs, Wojnarowski reports, and has has started researching potential assistants. He has also been talking to college coaches who made the jump from the NBA. Sources who have spoken with Ewing believe he is ready for the recruiting challenge that the college game presents.

John Thompson Jr., who coached the center from 1982-85, is a strong supporter of Ewing and has expressed that sentiment to officials from the university. Georgetown was among the college basketball powers of the era while Ewing was there, winning the national championship in 1984 and losing in the 1985 finals.

Wojnarowski adds that Ewing has also received endorsements from the NBA coaches he has worked under, Jeff and Stan Van Gundy and Steve Clifford. They have all given positive reports to Georgetown and the Korn Ferry search group about Ewing’s coaching abilities.

An NBA assistant since 2003, Ewing was close to being hired as the Kings’ head coach last spring, according to Wojnarowski. The last-second availability of Dave Joerger, who was fired in Memphis, made Sacramento’s front office change its mind.

Pacific Notes: Kings’ Rookies, Booker, Nwaba, Ulis

March 31st, 2017 at 10:50pm CST by Milo Taibi

While the Kings have dropped out of playoff contention, Dave Joerger will still seek to build the talent and IQ of his younger players. As Joerger acknowledged in a recent post-game press conference, ensuring proper player development is a large part of his job.

“Having been there with those guys (in Memphis) I felt a great deal of responsibility to maximize every win that we could get,” Joerger told reporters, including Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. “That’s where are these gray hairs popped out. Now the gray hairs are (from) are you playing the right guys with the right group, developing guys, giving them the right experiences?”

Joerger has given valuable playing opportunities to rookies down the stretch; providing Skal Labissiere, Buddy Hield, and Georgios Papagiannis with multiple 20+ minute games over the past week.