Again, like last night’s diatribe, this was SUPPOSED to be a post about the 49ers post-draft team, but again, like last night, I am swept up in Kings fever. Now that the Maloofs are out and our team retained, my embargo on the club can end. Granted, it wasn’t a full embargo, it was more like how there are definitely no Cuban cigars on American soil and no Americans travel to Cuba for pleasure. That sort of embargo… an “I couldn’t help myself” embargo.
Unlike last night’s diatribe, this one isn’t really going to fall apart into ecstatic rambling. This one will have a bit more focus.
According to this article, the NBA revenue is expected to increase dramatically. This means a significant increase in the salary cap; considering that the salary cap is tied to profit, the cap should raise to $69.65 million dollars per team next season. The Kings, as currently constructed, have roughly $40.71 in obligations for next season. This gives them a massive amount of salary cap room to work with, and given that in 2013/14, teams are obliged to spend 90% of the cap, that means that the Kings have to spend at least $62.69 million dollars next year. Given that the Kings can, at worst, pick 9th, that means they will have committed approximately between $4.4 and $2.1 million to their pick next year, according to Hoops Hype.
According to PBT, the Kings are likely picking 6th next year, given how the ping-pong balls tumble. For the sake of sanity, I’m going to say that the Kings will commit $2.6 million to their draft acquisition next year, whoever it may be. Again, for sanity’s sake, I’m going to assume the Kings handle this as a hard cap, even though it is a soft cap. Going into next year, that means that the Kings have between $19.38 and $26.34 million to spend next year. Well that’s a ton of cash!
From that jumping-off point, I will mind game some ideas for the inbound Ranadive-Mastrov ownership group. First, let’s take a look at how the roster looks now, assuming qualifying offers are made:
John Salmons, Marcus Thornton, Chuck Hayes, Tyreke Evans, Jason Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins, Travis Outlaw, James Johnson, Jimmer Fredette, Patrick Patterson, Toney Douglas, Isaiah Thomas. This is 12 out of the 15 roster spots for next year, 13 occupied if you consider the first round pick the Kings will have next year. This means they have to average between $8.5 and $13 million dollars a years (thereabout) per player for next year. This is money generally reserved for the upper-tier support players, not the players a team builds themselves around. Let’s start looking at suggestions for next year.
1) Amnesty John Salmons
This is the last offseason where a team can use the amnesty clause in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. If I were the incoming ownership group, I would take a long, hard look at the amnesty eligible players on the Kings. The amnesty clause allows a team to write a contract off their books. Given that Salmons is paid far, far more than he is owed, amnestying him makes the most sense in this situation. This updates the eligible cap and roster space to $34.42 million and 3 roster spots. Given that Salmons has been whatever the opposite of a fan favorite is after the Kings traded for him, and given that he gums up the rotation with his contract necessitating his playing, it is a slam-dunk. It also gives the Kings the benefit of dumping their highest-salaried contract.
2) Do Not Provide Qualifying Offers
Noted fan favorites and annual all-stars James Johnson and Toney Douglas, who amount to a whole lot of nothing and $7 million in salary are the next shoo-ins for being off the roster. For the record, Tyreke Evans is due a $6.9 million qualifying offer for next season. I am of the opinion that the Kings should keep Evans, but instead sign him to a 4 year contract, starting with $7 million first offer, escalating to a $9 million contract in the 2016-17 season, averaging $8.5 million a year. This is in line with what Tyreke is owed for his contributions, and provides a fair contract to both parties. After losing Douglas and Johnson, and offering $7 million to Tyreke Evans, this leaves the Kings with 5 roster spots and $41.35 million on the cap.
3) Extend Isaiah Thomas
Thomas has a team option, and is obviously the starting PG in a non-Keith Smart offense. Smart used Thomas haphazardly, often benching him while he was the best player the Kings had to offer. The Kings would be much better off signing Thomas to an extension, say 3-years, $4 million starting with $5 AAV. This puts the roster at 5 spots available and $44.49 million available to sign free agents.
Now that the hypothetical Kings have trimmed the fat monetarily and in roster slots, and offered extensions to two of their players, they have some moves to make.
4) Sign a Big Man
In this case, I think that it would be a perfect fit for the Kings to complement DeMarcus Cousins’ high-post threat with a true banger in Al Jefferson. Jefferson Made $15 million last year, and that would be an accurate starting point for his services. Jefferson will provide defense, rebounding and scoring and suddenly shores up their front line that has contributed DeMarcus Cousins and various nonsense (nonsense includes incredible front-court play with questionable lapses in judgement). This here gives the Kings 4 spots to fill and $29.49 with which to fill those slots.
5) Sign a Veteran Point Guard
The Kings are essentially set at starting PG with Isaiah Thomas (nobody tell Keith Smart), so the smartest thing for them to do is get a smart, great veteran locker room presence to spell IT. The only problem is that the Kings will likely end up overpaying this guy to be IT’s backup. The player that will benefit the team most is someone like Jeff Teague or DJ Augustin. Either way, this should run the Kings about $5 million next year. This gives them $24.49 million and 3 roster spots to fill.
6) Fill Out the Roster
Upon showing interest in the Kings, new owner Vivek Ranadive stated that he wished to put more money into the bench. He said that his analytics show that the bench plays 40% of the minutes, but is criminally underpaid for what they contribute. I firmly hope that this money goes to a bunch of amazing players at approximately $8 million a year. This will cause an influx of talent onto the roster in these last three spots. These spots may or may not go to recently non-tendered players James Johnson and Toney Douglas.
7) Draft the Best Player Available
I’m a huge proponent of drafting the best player available, regardless of position. This is doubly true in the NBA, where positions are mostly nonsense given that the players move fluidly on the court and there isn’t really an ability for one player to “block” another player. This means that it would be silly to not make a move on the best player available for the Kings at #6 overall. This would be an obvious improvement over what the 2012 Kings rookies are going to contribute next season. Pause for you to check the roster… The Maloofs, everybody! Made a salary-dump move without regards to the future of the franchise on the way out.
Well, there you have it; my stupid sports opinions on the Kings situation for now and into the future. It’s a shifty draft class for picking up a free agent. We’ll see how the Kings fare, but these were some ideas on how I believe they should coduct themselves.
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