OCTOBER 16, 7:09am: The Spurs and Kings officially completed their trade on Tuesday, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.
As outlined below, the deal sent McDaniels, cash, and the Kings’ unprotected 2031 second-round pick to San Antonio in exchange for the Bulls’ top-55 protected 2025 second-round pick. Sacramento also created a $4.74MM trade exception.
The Spurs, who cut Isaiah Miller in order to complete the trade, also intend to waive McDaniels but haven’t officially done so yet.
OCTOBER 14, 5:15pm: The Kings are sending their 2031 second-round pick to San Antonio along with McDaniels and cash, Charania writes in his full story at ESPN.com.
The Spurs will send Sacramento the Bulls’ top-55 protected 2025 second-rounder, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. If it lands in the top 55, which is highly likely, San Antonio will keep the pick.
OCTOBER 14, 3:02pm: The Kings and Spurs have agreed to a trade that will send forward Jalen McDaniels and a second-round pick to San Antonio, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter links).
It’s a salary-dump deal for Sacramento, while San Antonio will take on McDaniels’ $4.74MM expiring contract in order to acquire that second-round draft pick. According to Charania, the Spurs intend to waive McDaniels after the trade is official, so his salary will remain on their cap as dead money for the rest of 2024/25.
The 52nd overall pick in the 2019 draft, McDaniels showed some promise during the first four years of his career, which he spent primarily in Charlotte. His height (6’9″), wingspan (7’0″), and athleticism made him a versatile piece on defense, and he displayed a little outside shooting ability, making 34.2% of his three-point tries with the Hornets. The Sixers traded for him at the 2023 trade deadline.
However, McDaniels’ production and playing time cratered last season in Toronto after he signed a two-year, $9.26MM contract with the Raptors. He was sent to Sacramento in another Kings salary dump at the start of the 2024 offseason — in that trade, the Kings sent Sasha Vezenkov and Davion Mitchell to the Raptors, trimming over $8MM in salary by moving off two players who were each due salaries over $6MM.
The Kings still had financial constraints entering the preseason though, with a total team salary of about $169.7MM for 14 players. That gave them just over $1MM in breathing room below the luxury tax line, making it impossible to open the season with a full 15-man roster while staying out of tax territory. They also have some players who have unlikely incentives in their contracts, so their team salary could rise higher if those bonuses are earned.
Last month, when we identified five teams who could make cost-cutting moves, we mentioned the Kings, singling out McDaniels as a trade candidate, given his contract situation and his place on the team’s depth chart. At the time, we suggested it would likely take a second-round pick to move off his deal, which turned out to be the case.
Once the trade is official, the Kings will be carrying 13 players on standard contracts (11 fully guaranteed) and will have enough spending room below the tax line to fill out their 15-man regular season roster with minimum-salary players. Of course, they could still choose to open the season with fewer than 15 players in order to maximize their flexibility, if they so choose.
Sacramento will also create a trade exception worth McDaniels’ $4.74MM salary.
For their part, the Spurs can comfortably take on McDaniels’ contract using a portion of their $8MM room exception, so no outgoing matching salary is required. The Spurs have one of the lowest team salaries in the NBA and will still have plenty of room below the tax line after eating that contract.
For their troubles, they’ll add another second-round pick to their growing collection of draft assets. The incoming pick from the Kings will be unprotected, while the Spurs will send back a heavily protected future second-rounder to make the trade legal, tweets Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News.
San Antonio has a full 21-man roster, so a player will have to be waived in order to make room for McDaniels — one of the Spurs’ camp invitees on an Exhibit 10 deal figures to be the roster casualty.
Obviously not a needle mover as a player to the Spurs, but he is young enough that I thought they may want to take a chance on him in the early season.
Guess a second for taking on money that the league would have made them put in anyway is good business for San Antonio.
Spurs are waiving him.
That initial trade was an absolute heist by Masai.
How is it a heist when Sacramento wanted to get rid of those players because of their salaries?
I think they would have taken nothing back if they could have LOL. Turns out they have to throw in another second round pick just to be rid of McDaniels.
Lol. The only player who any team wanted to get rid of for nothing was McDaniels. Who the Kings gave up Mitchell and Shead for, while the Raptors also ended up paying Vezenkov ZERO and had the entire contract wiped (which the Kings could have done without giving up useful, cheap assets). Dumb move.
Okay I didn’t realize that about the second player. Good question why didn’t the Kings do that? They must have had a good reason?
They also got Porltand’s 2025 2nd, which is likely in the 31-35 range.
Not sure what makes you think that the Kings could’ve convinced Sasha to walk for free. If that were the case, it would have happened. Being shipped to your 3rd country in 3 years to ride the bench for a non competitive team while having a ridiculous deal lined up back home probably had more to do with his willingness to leave money on the table. I doubt Masai did some jedi mind trick that only he could’ve pulled off.
He would have had a clearer path to playing time with Toronto, and with even reasonable play would be looking at a windfall in NBA dollars. Saying it was a Jedi mind trick just proves my point that the deal was a heist
Playing time on a nothing team or playing time in an arena that loves you… hard choice.
Also he was not in line for significant NBA money. The guy is not an NBA player. You would know that if you watched him play.
Since when does anyone in the NBA NOT get meaningful money (compared to almost every sports league in the world) with even a moderate showing. If he was going to a “nothing” team, he presumably had a shot at playing time by your logic. That’s all it takes to earn a multiple of what you make in some 3rd rate euro league.
Agreed. Davion has struggled with his shot, but he’s a winning player.
For sure. Nobody is saying Davion is a starting caliber PG for a title contender, but having him on your roster when you’re trying to field a winner is a good thing. Sacramento got worse, plus had to give up another 2nd round pick just to dump McDaniels. Awful work by their GM IMO.
Davion Mitchell is definitely a player worthy of playing time. No one is arguing that. But Sacramento wanted to get rid of a couple of guys because of salary. It was a salary dump so that’s why I’m saying how could it be fleecing when it’s like you can just have these two guys. Take them please.
Unless you’re saying something that’s over my head and I’m missing it. Excuse me for that if that’s the case.
The trade also cleared some space to bring in DeRozan.
Is his defense bad? Why nobody want dude? Stats seem okay and he got wingspan.
Seattle , Mitchell is a plus, with the potential to be elite, defender, but his offense has not developed in the way expected of the 9th pick in the first round. Simple as that.
Appreciate the intel. Maybe a team in rebuild mode could use him or a team with a good offense coach.
Mitchell, by the numbers, is not a good defender. Plus he is small and can only guard 1 position.
He isn’t good at playing NBA level basketball.
Maybe g league then to improve.
He is talking about McDaniels Aristotle
Did the Spurs get any cash? How is a 2031 second round pick worth 4.7 mil? Isnt in a bit costly?
They’re getting cash. Not sure how much.
This McDaniels sucks, unlike the one on the wolves whom is a baller.
Charlotte?