RealGM

17 April, 2025

Our Playoff field is closer to being set with last night's conclusion of the Western Play-in 9/10 game, and our TWELFTH team eliminated, the Sacramento Kings after losing to the Mavericks.


Previous Threads:


Time of death: April 16, 2025
Record at elimination: 40-42 (0-1 in play-in)
Head coach: Doug Christie (interim), Mike Brown (former, fired mid-season)

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/sacramento-kings/yearly

Contract summary:
LaVine – extension eligible, or 2/98M remain, final year 49M PO
Sabonis – 3/140M remain
DeRozan – 1yr at 24M remains, extension eligible next offseason and a non-guaranteed amount in the final year
Monk – 3/60M remain final year is 21M PO
Valanciunas – 2/20M remain, final year is non-guaranteed amount
Trey Lyles – UFA
Doug McDermott – UFA
Jae Crowder – UFA
Markelle Fultz - UFA


Rookie Scale/minimums (varies on 2-4 years remaining):
Keegan Murray – extension eligible or 11M QO
Devin Carter – 2yrs remain before extension
Jake LaRavia – UFA
Keon Ellis – 1-yr, 2.3M TO
Isaac Jones – 2M TO


TW
Isaiah Crawford
Mason Jones


Dead-cap – 1.3M off the books this season, NONE retained next season.

25-26 Capspace – 1st apron, hard-capped. Will have about 25M until 2nd apron


PICKS for 2025 draft: *
CHI 2nd
*CHA 1st will not convey



A SMALL SEASON REVIEW:

https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/sac/sacramento-kings

The Kings have had a tumultuous year not unlike many other mid-table teams in the NBA. The roster has undergone changes to say the least [6-trades since June 28, 2024]. Acquiring Derozan for Harrison Barnes in the offseason. Swapping Fox (who had some huge games for the Kings this year) for Lavine in another Bulls/Spurs/Kings trade. Two of the stalwarts on Sacramento are now Spurs [Barnes, Fox]. Derozan and Lavine, former Bulls teammates together, are now Kings. Both Kings and Bulls were eliminated on the same day.

Mike Brown was also fired after a 13-19 start to the year. I’m not entirely sure how the players and Brown disagreed, leading to his departure, but they have played better after he was shown the door. Former Kings player Doug Christie is now the HC and has helped Sacramento stay in the play-in zone, ultimately losing to Dallas last night. They were thoroughly beaten by a vastly different Mavericks team that started the season. The Kings held on to a plus .500 record much of the season, but only just, and have leveled off with a final record of just below even at 40-42.

There’s a lot of money on the books for 4 players and Murray is up for an extension. However also a handful of players heading to UFA. I think some players will not return, like Trey Lyles. There’s not a 2025 1st Rd selection for the Kings because the Charlotte pick acquired with Fox’s trade won’t convey, and all the other picks are future ones. So, the Kings get a Chicago 2nd rounder currently unless other trades occur.

I don’t know how this team will look next season because I’m really not sure Lavine or Derozan are long-term players in Sac-town. Monk and Devin Carter seem to be the best players on the roster to keep and they need a PG, and they need a defensive C. How do you rate the Kings season and what's on tap for them in the future ?

Also shoutout to Sacramento, I went to only one NBA game in-stadium this season, and it was Indiana @ Sacramento. A very fun night and the scene around Sac-town is excellent. May you light many beams next year.


BONUS: Stockton Kings won the GL Title, and Mason Jones (TW player) won GL MVP.

Sacramento Bulls, who could have seen this coming?

I'd love to see this amazing crowd have a great team again. Last time I saw it was 2004. Sacramento is an underrated basketball city. They love their kings which is amazing given what they've had for decades.

It's the Kings so a front office change is needed by default. I actually say keep the coach just for continuity's sake, I'm not even sure who the coach is now because they change their coaches so frequently but I have roasted them in the past for firing the Mikes way too soon, Mike Malone and Mike Brown. I guess this season was a minor disappointment although I don't think they were ever considered real contenders. I am envious that the Kings actually control some picks before the 2031 season but this is the Kings we're talking about so they'll probably botch that too, hopefully not though, the Kings not being a joke at some point would be good for the NBA. They ended their outrageous non playoff streak with the Haliburton for Sabonis trade but at what cost? Time to blow it up

Boy, ugly, ugly year for the Kings. They've now completely divorced themselves from their promising young core in favor of a futureless core, fired the best coach they've had in years, and led the GM to leave the franchise.

Clearly the right move here is to get rid of Vivek, but we should expect Vivek doesn't realize this. I can't help but curious what things are wrong and toxic in his successful business ventures because he's been so bad as an NBA for so long now that there's no way to simply blame this on basketball. Sure he's bound to be better in topics he has a background in, but this micromanaging of executives who know more than he does is a more general character trait.

Now that we know that McNair is moving on, obviously they have to change GMs, and I don't think it makes sense to move on to a different coach at least until they've done that.

A few days ago I said that because the Kings have already mortgaged their future they might as well just try to sell the decency they've achieved with their current core...but that home play-in loss was a killer. I don't know if the Kings can re-build right now, but I think it's basically going to be impossible to convince Kings fans that the Sabonis/DeRozan/LaVine core is one worth getting emotionally invested in.

To say that if I were the Kings, ALL of my players would be available for trade discussions, is a given.

I posted this entire thread already but wanted to comment that Monte McNair was fired after the play-in loss, so in the poll, the question with "Keep/Replace Front Office" should be.... well, I'm not sure, but there's no GM there anymore so by default they will need to be replaced.

Here's a list of other Sacramento Kings executives, one of which may be promoted to GM.
https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/teams/Sacramento-Kings/25/staff-members

Trade Sabonis . get rid of him.

Time to clean house. Everyone must go.

Clav wrote:I posted this entire thread already but wanted to comment that Monte McNair was fired after the play-in loss, so in the poll, the question with "Keep/Replace Front Office" should be.... well, I'm not sure, but there's no GM there anymore so by default they will need to be replaced.

Here's a list of other Sacramento Kings executives, one of which may be promoted to GM.
https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/teams/Sacramento-Kings/25/staff-members

Thanks for DusterBuster to posting this to a thread already but.... took them less than 12h to announce a replacement

Man the Kings were normal and competent for like 2 years and then went back to being the Kangz.

Their biggest mistake was not doing anything after their light the beam season. The team was high seed simply because they had really good injury luck. They used the capspace they had to extend Sabonis. They refused to trade for Siakam because they were really enamored with Keegan Murray (took a noticeable step back).
They ended up selling Fox for Lavine, a clearly inferior player.
Now they will be shopping Sabonis after he just embarrassed himself and his weaknesses were on full display.

I'm not sure where they go from here.

Drink the Beam.

Prepare for the pain (i.e. another decade of missed playoff appearances). The Western Conference is too hard when you're led by incompetence. This is why Minnesota had no intention of moving Gobert. At least, his defense pretty much guarantees you will be in contention for a playoff spot, year in and year out.

This season has really laid bare the core truth that the ownership - beyond anything else - is what matters to a team's success. Vivek with Sacramento, Ishbia with the Suns, the Adelsons with the Mavericks - all cases where a bad owner (in different ways) ultimately leads to a team failing. Vivek is probably the least objectionable of the three I mentioned, but all the way back to the Stauskas pick, he's been an iffy owner - either pushing for moves that aren't good, or having GMs who let him make bad moves.

Sacramento fans - is Vivek too involved in basketball operations? Or not involved enough?

jowglenn wrote:Sacramento fans - is Vivek too involved in basketball operations? Or not involved enough?

The former. A good example of this is Vlade Divac being back an ambassador and sitting with him, even after Vivek fired him before. Not sure who he would respect enough to not meddle. People like to blame James Dolan for meddling, but he has by and large been the complete opposite. He lets his basketball people do their jobs without much interference (until the media makes it too difficult for him to ignore).

Not sure Vivek will ever get it. Good luck to Scott Perry. He doesn't have a lot to work with, unless of course they have some lotto luck.

jowglenn wrote:This season has really laid bare the core truth that the ownership - beyond anything else - is what matters to a team's success. Vivek with Sacramento, Ishbia with the Suns, the Adelsons with the Mavericks - all cases where a bad owner (in different ways) ultimately leads to a team failing. Vivek is probably the least objectionable of the three I mentioned, but all the way back to the Stauskas pick, he's been an iffy owner - either pushing for moves that aren't good, or having GMs who let him make bad moves.

Sacramento fans - is Vivek too involved in basketball operations? Or not involved enough?

IS Vivek the least objectionable? It seems like him and Ishbia are the most hands on owners by far, but Ishbia at least understands basketball to a point. Ishbias problem is that he is inpatient and still thinks he will buy his way into success, he is doing exact same mistake Prokorov did/

Vivek tho, he does not have a clue what he sees on court, he is the guy who proposed cherry picked offense, drafted Stauskas after entire summer campaign of fans being involved with scouting, he was all in on Hield coming into the league. It seems like the guy only sees shooting, if you are shooting specialist, Vivek thinks you are NBA star. McNair just left and he basically said that most moves made this year weren't his moves, it was Vivek (i believe that). Vivek sees guy like Lavine score 20 a game and he thinks thats amazing, he has very very low understanding of the game but itsist on being an architect. I see no end for the Kings misery with Vivek being an owner. I mean sometimes you can luck in on something great even by mistake, so there is always hope, but from competency perspective, they very very low on the list and chances of them turning this around are small.

UcanUwill wrote:

jowglenn wrote:This season has really laid bare the core truth that the ownership - beyond anything else - is what matters to a team's success. Vivek with Sacramento, Ishbia with the Suns, the Adelsons with the Mavericks - all cases where a bad owner (in different ways) ultimately leads to a team failing. Vivek is probably the least objectionable of the three I mentioned, but all the way back to the Stauskas pick, he's been an iffy owner - either pushing for moves that aren't good, or having GMs who let him make bad moves.

Sacramento fans - is Vivek too involved in basketball operations? Or not involved enough?

IS Vivek the least objectionable? It seems like him and Ishbia are the most hands on owners by far, but Ishbia at least understands basketball to a point. Ishbias problem is that he is inpatient and still thinks he will buy his way into success, he is doing exact same mistake Prokorov did/

Vivek tho, he does not have a clue what he sees on court, he is the guy who proposed cherry picked offense, drafted Stauskas after entire summer campaign of fans being involved with scouting, he was all in on Hield coming into the league. It seems like the guy only sees shooting, if you are shooting specialist, Vivek thinks you are NBA star. McNair just left and he basically said that most moves made this year weren't his moves, it was Vivek (i believe that). Vivek sees guy like Lavine score 20 a game and he thinks thats amazing, he has very very low understanding of the game but itsist on being an architect. I see no end for the Kings misery with Vivek being an owner. I mean sometimes you can luck in on something great even by mistake, so there is always hope, but from competency perspective, they very very low on the list and chances of them turning this around are small.

Vivek is way worse than Ishbia. As you said both are too hands on but Ishbia at least has a basketball background. And Ishbia just started. Lots of owners are too hands on in this first couple of years before adjusting. Vivek has been at it for years, meddles constantly and doesn't really seem to understand anything about the sport.

sp6r=underrated wrote:

UcanUwill wrote:

jowglenn wrote:This season has really laid bare the core truth that the ownership - beyond anything else - is what matters to a team's success. Vivek with Sacramento, Ishbia with the Suns, the Adelsons with the Mavericks - all cases where a bad owner (in different ways) ultimately leads to a team failing. Vivek is probably the least objectionable of the three I mentioned, but all the way back to the Stauskas pick, he's been an iffy owner - either pushing for moves that aren't good, or having GMs who let him make bad moves.

Sacramento fans - is Vivek too involved in basketball operations? Or not involved enough?

IS Vivek the least objectionable? It seems like him and Ishbia are the most hands on owners by far, but Ishbia at least understands basketball to a point. Ishbias problem is that he is inpatient and still thinks he will buy his way into success, he is doing exact same mistake Prokorov did/

Vivek tho, he does not have a clue what he sees on court, he is the guy who proposed cherry picked offense, drafted Stauskas after entire summer campaign of fans being involved with scouting, he was all in on Hield coming into the league. It seems like the guy only sees shooting, if you are shooting specialist, Vivek thinks you are NBA star. McNair just left and he basically said that most moves made this year weren't his moves, it was Vivek (i believe that). Vivek sees guy like Lavine score 20 a game and he thinks thats amazing, he has very very low understanding of the game but itsist on being an architect. I see no end for the Kings misery with Vivek being an owner. I mean sometimes you can luck in on something great even by mistake, so there is always hope, but from competency perspective, they very very low on the list and chances of them turning this around are small.

Vivek is way worse than Ishbia. As you said both are too hands on but Ishbia at least has a basketball background. And Ishbia just started. Lots of owners are too hands on in this first couple of years before adjusting. Vivek has been at it for years, meddles constantly and doesn't really seem to understand anything about the sport.

I still remember the moment they Drafted Stauskas, remember they had that whole docu series. Vivek basically came into a draft room, said how he saw that video of Stauskas hitting 22 straight 3s in practice, and thats amazing, and we drafting him. That is literally what happened, its on film, produced by Kings marketing team.

Off to a decent restart with hiring Perry.

He worked here briefly with Vivek, and Vivek is going to do Vivek things. But Perry did do well working with Dolan and noting but good things have been said about his stint in New York.

But knowing Vivek's history, Perry will probably have to hire Christie as the new head coach.

Irritating that Vivek didn't even look around, but this seemed inevitable.

What they should do, but they won't.

Did a serious new general manager search. Offload just about everything on the roster for assets and completely rebuild. A Hinkie reincarnate.

Keep Ellis.

Debatable on keeping Murray & Carter, but I'd trade either if the incentive was reasonable. Hired a new coach that wouldn't mind years of rebuilding.

This is one of those teams that needs "Change the owner" more than anything, or nothing truly changes.

Really needs a true rebuild, but with Vivek we know that's not coming.