The Kings have tendered a qualifying offer to Willie Cauley-Stein, making the big man a restricted free agent, reports Sam Amick of The Athletic (via Twitter).
While the news was expected, it won’t thrill Cauley-Stein’s agent, Roger Montgomery, who said last weekend that his client needs a “fresh start” and would be better off with another team. Montgomery hoped that Sacramento would choose not to issue a qualifying offer to Cauley-Stein, allowing him to reach the open market as an unrestricted free agent.
The Kings have been linked to bigger-name free agent centers in recent weeks, and there’s a good chance they’ll let Cauley-Stein walk if they can land a player like Al Horford, Nikola Vucevic, or Brook Lopez. However, it wouldn’t have made sense for Sacramento not to give Cauley-Stein a qualifying offer — retaining the right of first refusal on WCS will give the Kings a solid fallback option if they strike out on other targets.
Cauley-Stein’s qualifying offer is worth $6,265,631, and he’ll have a cap hold of $14,090,625, per Basketball Insiders. That cap hold will cut into the Kings’ cap flexibility, but the team has the ability to renounce it and clear it from the books if it decides Cauley-Stein won’t be back.
In 81 games (27.3 MPG) for the Kings in 2018/19, Cauley-Stein – the sixth overall pick in the 2015 draft – averaged 11.9 PPG, 8.4 RPG, and 2.4 APG.
At some point the pro sports world is going to have to get away from this “ownership” of players. Sports are the only job in this country where despite being one of the best in the world at what you do you don’t get to decide where you work. It’s not right. Honestly, it’s not American.
Unions aren’t American? You do realize the players agreed to the system during collective bargaining right?
They sign contracts! If you do not like the terms so not sign. Simple as that. If Cauley Stein wants out he should accept the qualifying offer play out next year and become an unrestricted free agent.
NBA players are placed through the draft. The draft is absolutely necessary, as players would all choose the “big beautiful cities” to play in, if it were upto the. Like there would only be a few cities that could field competitive teams.
And teams like sacramento, who already have a difficult enough time luring free agents, would have an even more difficult time keeping the players they draft.
I think players who demand trades should be subject to some kind of significant
fine/penalty for pulling that crap. You sign a contract for big bucks, you better be ready to honor it from start to finish. You made a choice.
So the alternative is what – no draft, no union, players work wherever they want?
Sounds like a formula for big market team dominance to me. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to work in Utah, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Memphis, OKC, etc if they can make good money in LA or NYC. Those cities are incredibly fun if you’re rich.
Also, contracts that limit worker’s rights are 100% American.