Reports over the past month have indicated that the Kings are determined to bring Sasha Vezenkov stateside and would renew contract talks with the EuroLeague MVP once they were permitted to following the draft.
According to Harry Stavrou of Greek outlet Sport24.gr, now that the draft has come and gone, the Kings have offered Vezenkov a contract worth part of the full mid-level exception — “slightly lower” than the $8.4MM Keegan Murray will make in 2023/24 (hat tip to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee).
Sacramento acquired Vezenkov’s draft rights from the Cavaliers in exchange for the 49th overall pick in the 2022 draft. He was originally selected 57th in 2017. The Kings negotiated with him last summer but couldn’t reach an agreement.
While I have no doubt that the Kings want to sign the Olympiacos star, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they have indeed offered him a new deal, I’m a little skeptical that they’ll operate as an over-the-cap team and have access to the full mid-level exception. That would require the Kings to re-sign Harrison Barnes and at least one more of the team’s free agents, and would rule out some other interesting possibilities.
However, they could offer Vezenkov a contract in the range of the figure cited ($7.6MM+) using the room exception, which would see the Kings operating with cap room. That may seem like semantics, but it’s worth clarifying that they don’t necessarily have to use the MLE (or their cap room) to sign Vezenkov.
Vezenkov, 27, is under contract with Olympiacos through ’24/25, but has a buyout clause believed to be worth approximately 1.5 million Euros. He talked about being “ready for new challenges” after his Greek club lost in the EuroLeague final.
Anderson previously wrote that an offer for Vezenkov was expected to start in the $3-4MM range annually, so the reported figure would obviously be a significant increase over that. The 6’9″ Bulgarian forward averaged 17.6 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists on a sparkling .546/.398/.857 shooting slash line in 33 EuroLeague games this past season (28.7 MPG).
Now sign Kuzma, Barnes if he wants and a back defensive center, Lyles, player option on Edwards, Mitchell and Queta. Look at a different SG/PG on two way as well
He used to be a Nets’ stash, but I’d like to see the Nets bring over another of their stashes – Nikola Milutinov. His contract with CSKA Moscow is done, but he’s likely to sign elsewhere in Europe. He could take Vezenkov’s roster spot with Olympiacos.
Queta