Many NBA observers expected the Kings to make a big move before the trade deadline. Instead, they basically stood pat, only accommodating a minor salary dump deal.
General manager Monte McNair explained that in a market with more buyers than sellers, the price tags for doing business were very high. Plus, the new CBA has made teams, including the Kings, more cautious about approaching tax aprons, according to Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee.
“We’re always active in trying to see what’s out there, but weighing that against what we already have here,” McNair said. “Obviously this year after exploring those opportunities, we ended up keeping this group together. We know the job is never done. We’ll continue to vet those opportunities to make our team better, but we’re excited for what we’ve got going forward.”
We have more from the Pacific Division:
- The Lakers added approximately $7MM to their luxury tax bill by signing free agent guard Spencer Dinwiddie, cap expert Yossi Gozlan tweets. The Lakers used around $1.5MM remaining from their prorated mid-level exception to add Dinwiddie. They could’ve potentially saved about $15MM by trading a player at the deadline to duck the tax. Instead, they chose to retain all their pieces and invest more into the roster.
- The Lakers came out winners at the trade deadline by being prudent and not overpaying for Hawks guard Dejounte Murray, Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times opines. They avoided giving up a first-round draft pick and Austin Reaves in a potential deal. It showed that general manager Rob Pelinka would no longer mortgage the future to appease LeBron James, who had been pushing for a major move.
- Paul George erupted for 33 points against Detroit on Saturday. Afterward, George reiterated that he’s hoping to sign an extension with the Clippers, Janis Carr of the Orange County Register reports. “That’s the goal,” George said. George holds a $48.8MM player option for 2024/25. In order to sign an extension, George would have to decline that option, at which point he would be eligible to receive up to approximately $220MM over four years on his new deal.
Lakers messed up financially at the deadline. Should have made a move.
The least they could do as the Los Angeles Lakers is pay a $15 million tax to sign a good player. It ain’t like it’s coming out of your pocket.
‘Erupted against Detroit’. Ok baller
Lakers are trade deadline winners?
The play in team does nothing to upgrade the roster
Losers
So other teams should be required to give their good players to the Lakers in exchange for some collection of scrubs?
Better than upgrading to a slightly better than play in team and still getting smacked around in the playoffs while being even more depleted in assets.
All the rhetoric to try to deflect from the fact that they tried to get Murray but couldn’t do it because the Hawks didn’t want DLo, and they couldn’t find a third team that would take DLo.
The Lakers don’t even want DLo…
and none of the other 29 teams want him either.
First bullet point should read “trade “not waive to duck the tax – they didn’t have any players w non guaranteed salaries to waive , hell their 3 vet mins all got 2 nd year guarantees since Phx made it en vouge
Saying all that I thought they would trade a 2nd or 2 w one of those min guys ( most likely Cr) into a trade exception team to get outta the repeater territory if they didn’t make an upswing trade
I would hope Money wouldn’t be a problem for this org but we did see the Caruso debacle unfold and that was solely about money
There weren’t any stars available this trade deadline… a few good starters and role players. Sellers wanted 1st round picks for them 2025 draft is gonna be loaded and teams wanted to hold onto those picks. Buyout market was decent this year so I don’t fault GMs for passing in trades and bolstering their rosters through buyouts.
They don’t need to be stars, just better than what we have now.
Yeah and he’s (McNothing Done) an idiot. Couldn’t make it out of the first round last year and we did absolutely nothing to improve this roster in the offseason or at the trade deadline. Only a fool would do the same thing over and over again with the same roster and expect to get a different outcome.
I told everyone in the off season the Kings got a F and nobody listened and now they say it…