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Domantas Sabonis Has Not Undergone Thumb Surgery

July 12th, 2023 at 2:33pm CST by Luke Adams

2:33pm: Sabonis did not undergo surgery on his thumb, a league source tells James Ham of The Kings Beat (Twitter link). It seems that Maksvytis was misinformed or something was lost in translation.

The Kings’ big man continues to follow a “strict rehab protocol,” Ham adds.

12:57pm: Kings center Domantas Sabonis, who suffered an avulsion fracture in his right thumb last season, underwent a surgical procedure to address the injury, according to Lithuanian national team head coach Kazys Maksvytis.

The Kings have been cagey about providing updates on Sabonis’ thumb during the offseason, with general manager Monte McNair declining to comment in his post-draft press conference on whether or not the star center went under the knife.

However, as BasketNews.com relays, in discussing the anticipated absence of Sabonis for the 2023 World Cup, Maksvytis confirmed in a presser of his own that the big man underwent surgery.

“He tried to recover without the surgery, but it didn’t work, and he lost time,” Maksvytis said. “After the surgery, everything takes longer.”

Sabonis, who broke his thumb in December, only missed a single game before returning to action. The injury didn’t slow him down much, as he averaged 19.1 points, a league-leading 12.3 rebounds, and 7.3 assists in 79 games (34.6 MPG) during his first full season in Sacramento, earning his third All-Star berth and his first All-NBA nod. Sabonis cashed in this offseason when he signed a four-year extension that includes a renegotiated salary for 2023/24.

Without a formal update from the Kings, it’s unclear what sort of recovery timeline Sabonis might be looking at or whether he’ll be available when training camp begins in September. However, McNair did say last month that the team’s expectation is that the 27-year-old will be “good to go” for the regular season this fall.

As for Lithuania’s national team, Maksvytis said during his press conference that Sabonis “apologized for not coming and promised to be available next summer” for the 2024 Olympics.

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Contract Details: Sabonis, Middleton, VanVleet, Russell, Clark

July 10th, 2023 at 10:59pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Kings’ renegotiation and extension of Domantas Sabonis‘ contract includes $203.6MM in guaranteed money, Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype tweets. The five-year deal also includes $13MM in incentives, raising its potential value to $216.6MM.

Sacramento used $8.6MM in cap room to give Sabonis a raise on next season’s salary – from $22MM to $30.6MM — then added four more years via the extension.

We have more contract-related notes:

  • Khris Middleton has a player option in the final season of his new three-year deal with the Bucks, Scotto tweets. As previously reported, his contract includes $93MM in guaranteed money and another $9MM in bonus incentives.
  • Fred VanVleet‘s huge three-year contract with the Rockets includes a 15% trade kicker, according to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet (Twitter link). The previously reported team option for the third year is valued at $44.89MM.
  • D’Angelo Russell‘s two-year contract with the Lakers is guaranteed for $36MM, Spotrac contributor Keith Smith tweets. The second season is a player option and Russell has $700K in incentives for both seasons. Additionally, Russell has waived his implied no-trade clause.
  • Jaylen Clark‘s two-way contract with the Timberwolves is a two-year deal, Smith tweets.
  • Leonard Miller‘s four-year, $8.3MM contract with the Timberwolves is guaranteed for the first two years, Scotto tweets. The third year is 50% guaranteed, and the fourth year is a team option.
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Kings Renegotiate, Extend Domantas Sabonis’ Contract

July 7th, 2023 at 11:23am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 7: The Kings have officially renegotiated and extended Sabonis’ contract, the team confirmed in a press release.

JULY 1: The Kings are renegotiating Domantas Sabonis‘ 2023/24 salary and signing him to a long-term contract extension, agents Greg Lawrence and Jason Ranne tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Sacramento will use $8.6MM in cap room to give Sabonis a raise on this year’s salary – from $22MM to $30.6MM – and will tack on four new years to his expiring contract. According to Wojnarowski, the deal will be worth $217MM over five total seasons, including $195MM in new money.

There won’t be any team or player options in the new contract, tweets Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee.

After being acquired in a blockbuster trade involving Tyrese Haliburton at the 2022 deadline, Sabonis thrived in his first full season in Sacramento, averaging 19.1 points, 7.3 assists, and a league-leading 12.3 rebounds in 34.6 minutes per game across 79 contests despite sustaining an avulsion fracture to his thumb in December.

In addition to earning the third All-Star nod of his career, the 27-year-old made an All-NBA squad for the first time, claiming the center spot on the Third Team. Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox led the Kings to a 48-win season and their first playoff berth since 2006.

Contract renegotiations are rare in the NBA and can only be completed when a team has cap space and intends to increase a player’s salary rather than reducing it. The Kings created additional spending flexibility on draft night by agreeing to send Richaun Holmes to Dallas in a salary-dump trade.

There was some speculation that Sacramento may be preparing to make a run at a top-tier free agent with that extra cap space, but Sacramento has instead focused on its own players, extending Harrison Barnes earlier in the week and agreeing to new deals with Trey Lyles and now Sabonis.

The Kings’ one notable deal with a player who wasn’t on the 2022/23 roster is a three-year, $20MM commitment to EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov. Vezenkov, who is expected to slot into Sacramento’s room exception, wasn’t technically a free agent since the club held his draft rights.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), without a renegotiated 2023/24 salary, Sabonis would have been eligible for a maximum-salary extension of $138MM over four years. That may not have been enough to prevent him from testing the market in 2024, since he would’ve been eligible for a significantly higher salary – and an extra year – at that point.

Interestingly, the only other NBA player to get a renegotiation and extension since 2017 is Sabonis’ former frontcourt partner in Indiana, Myles Turner, Marks observes (via Twitter). Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson is also expected to join that group.

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Kings Rumors: Barnes, FA Targets, Kuzma, Lyles, Sabonis

June 27th, 2023 at 11:12am CST by Luke Adams

Harrison Barnes‘ departure from Sacramento this offseason appears increasingly likely, according to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, who identifies the Pacers as a “strong contender” to sign the Kings‘ free agent forward.

As previously reported, Barnes’ connections to Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton and head coach Rick Carlisle could make Indiana an appealing landing spot for him. Fischer says Barnes is close with Haliburton, who played with him in Sacramento, and has support from Carlisle, who coached him in Dallas.

Here’s more on the Kings:

  • Sacramento’s decision to trade Richaun Holmes and the No. 24 pick in Thursday’s draft to Dallas in order to generate additional cap room has rival executives speculating that the Kings have a specific move in mind for free agency, says Fischer. While Khris Middleton and Draymond Green have been floated as possible targets, those veterans are considered likely to remain with the Bucks and Warriors, respectively, according to Fischer, who hears that the Trail Blazers and Pistons may nonetheless make a run at Green.
  • The name gaining the most traction as a possible Kings free agent target is Kyle Kuzma, according to Fischer. The Jazz‘s trade for John Collins should take a rival suitor for Kuzma off the market, Fischer explains, since Utah is unlikely to pursue another significant frontcourt piece in free agency after adding Collins.
  • Besides using their $33MM+ in cap room to pursue Kuzma, the Kings will also likely look to bring back free agent forward Trey Lyles and renegotiate and extend Domantas Sabonis‘ contract, Fischer reports, estimating that a new deal for Sabonis could be worth in the neighborhood of $120MM over four years.
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Kings Notes: Sabonis, Cap Space, Flexibility, Green

June 23rd, 2023 at 9:45pm CST by Rory Maher

The Kings made a salary-dump trade on Thursday, agreeing to send the No. 24 pick (Olivier-Maxence Prosper was selected) and reserve center Richaun Holmes to the Mavericks. Holmes is owed $24.9MM over the next two seasons, including a player option in 2024/25.

The move could give Sacramento about $33MM in cap room this summer if they renounce most of their cap holds. A league source tells James Ham of TheKingsBeat.com that one option the team has considered with that financial leeway is renegotiating Domantas Sabonis‘ $22MM expiring contract in ’23/24 in order to give him an immediate raise and thus a larger extension offer.

As Ham details, if the Kings were to increase Sabonis’ deal to $30MM, they could offer him a four-year extension worth about $189MM (with a starting salary of $42MM in ’24/25, which is close to his projected maximum), plus the $8MM increase to his ’23/24 salary.

Here’s more on the Kings:

  • At his post-draft press conference, GM Monte McNair declined to say whether or not Sabonis had thumb surgery, but suggested the expectation is he’ll be “good to go” for ’23/24, tweets Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Sabonis sustained an avulsion fracture to his thumb in December, but decided to play through the injury.
  • The flexibility the Holmes trade created was key for McNair, per Anderson. “I think, for us, we always value the optionality and flexibility when we can acquire it,” McNair said. “This was a great season for a lot of reasons and we want to have a long playoff run here and continue to compete. To do that in today’s NBA, you have to be able to build your team out, not just in the very near term, but over the course of many years. So, we’re always having that balance.”
  • Could the Kings pursue their playoff nemesis Draymond Green in free agency with their extra cap room? ESPN’s Brian Windhorst speculated on his Hoop Collective podcast that it shouldn’t be dismissed (YouTube link). “(Coach) Mike Brown is extraordinarily close to Draymond Green — extraordinarily close,” Windhorst said (hat tip to Anderson of The Sacramento Bee). “Mike Brown was the Draymond Green whisperer with the Warriors. Draymond Green is a free agent. They now have the money, if they want, to give him a premium over what he opted out of in Golden State. … The Kings can now go hunting for Draymond Green if they wish and that would be extraordinarily interesting because it is the exact — exact — type of player they need. … To be continued.” As Windhorst noted, owner Vivek Ranadive was a former part owner of the Warriors and has often tried to model the Kings after Golden State, as there are numerous ties between the organizations. Green recently declined his player option for 2023/24.
  • Windhorst isn’t the only reporter to take note of the trade. As John Hollinger writes for The Athletic, the Kings need a power forward and need to upgrade their defense, so Green is a logical fit in some ways. The move should have the Warriors “sweating,” says Hollinger, because the Kings are a “highly plausible rival Green bidder.” Sacramento could also potentially pursue a number of other power forward free agents, such as Jerami Grant, Kyle Kuzma, Grant Williams, Cameron Johnson or P.J. Washington, according to Hollinger, who notes that re-signing Harrison Barnes and Trey Lyles and operating as an over-the-cap team while creating a trade exception for Holmes and having access to the full mid-level exception is another option.
  • Yossi Gozland of HoopsHype examines options Sacramento could pursue after the trade.
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Pacific Notes: Sabonis, Beal, Murray, Lakers’ Workout, Hachimura

June 19th, 2023 at 9:11pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Kings big man Domantas Sabonis is unlikely to play in the FIBA World Cup, according to Lithuanian national team head coach Kazys Maksvytis. “We all hope that Domantas will play,” Maksvytis said in the Zalgiris on Air podcast, as relayed by BasketNews.com. “However, we all know the valid reasons [that could prevent him from playing]. If I had to say on his chances today, I’d say those chances are less than 50 percent.”

Sabonis said earlier this month he may need surgery on his right thumb. The Kings and Sabonis could also pursue an extension this offseason.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

  • The Kings were among the teams to inquire about a trade for Wizards wing Bradley Beal but — not surprisingly — Sacramento balked when Washington asked about last year’s lottery pick, Keegan Murray, according to David Aldridge of The Athletic. The Wizards were interested in drafting Murray and tried to move up from the No. 10 pick to select the versatile forward, Aldridge adds.
  • Gonzaga big man Drew Timme was among the draft prospects who worked out for the Lakers on Monday, Dave McMenamin of ESPN tweets. Damion Baugh (TCU), Alex Fudge (Florida), Colin Castleton (Florida), Sincere Carry (Kent State) and Hunter Tyson (Clemson) joined Timme at the workout.
  • Rui Hachimura‘s market value is projected to be in the $12-18MM starting range, multiple executives told Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. While a majority of teams won’t have more than the $12.2MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception to offer Hachimura, at least seven teams project to have the cap room to put together a substantial offer sheet. Since Hachimura is a restricted free agent, the Lakers can match any offer.
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Kings Notes: Sabonis, Mitchell, Vezenkov, Draft

June 3rd, 2023 at 7:57am CST by Luke Adams

Kings star Domantas Sabonis told Sean Cunningham of FOX 40 Sacramento (Twitter video link) on Thursday that he was about to get another scan on his right thumb to assess how his avulsion fracture has healed following treatment. While there’s hope that Sabonis will be able to avoid undergoing surgery on the thumb this offseason, that possibility hasn’t yet been ruled out, according to the big man.

Asked about whether or not he’ll be able to play for Lithuania in this year’s World Cup, Sabonis said it will depend on the results of his latest scan and the treatment plan for his thumb going forward.

Here’s more on the Kings:

  • Kings guard Davion Mitchell has new representation, having made the move from CAA to Octagon Basketball — Octagon posted a tweet welcoming Mitchell to the agency. The former lottery pick will be extension-eligible during the 2024 offseason and would become a restricted free agent in 2025 if he doesn’t sign an extension before then.
  • Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee takes a closer look at the Kings’ potential next steps with EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov, whose NBA rights are controlled by Sacramento. According to Anderson, the team’s offer for the 27-year-old will likely start in the neighborhood of $3-4MM. That would be roughly equivalent to the first-year salary for a player drafted between Nos. 15-21 in 2023.
  • In a separate story for The Sacramento Bee, Anderson examines a few prospects who could be targets for the Kings at No. 24 in this month’s draft. As Anderson notes, general manager Monte McNair has a track record of selecting older college players with Sacramento’s first-round picks, so forwards like Trayce Jackson-Davis and Kris Murray (Keegan Murray‘s twin brother) could be on the team’s radar.
  • In case you missed it, Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez is believed to be one of the finalists in the Raptors’ head coaching search. Toronto is expected to make a decision is relatively soon.
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Kings Notes: Sabonis, Brown, Vezenkov, Lyles, Offseason

May 10th, 2023 at 9:26pm CST by Rory Maher

Kings center Domantas Sabonis received a $1.3MM bonus for being named to the All-NBA Third Team on Wednesday, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.

The 27-year-old had a career year in his first full season with Sacramento, appearing in 79 games (34.6 MPG) while averaging 19.1 PPG and a league-leading 12.3 RPG. He also posted career highs in assists (7.3) and field goal percentage (61.5%) in helping lead the Kings to the No. 3 seed in the West, snapping their record-long playoff drought in the process.

Sabonis previously earned a $1.3MM bonus earlier in 2022/23 for making his third All-Star team. Both bonuses were considered unlikely this season, but that will change for next season — his cap hit for ’23/24 will now be $22MM instead of $19.4MM due to those bonuses being considered likely.

Here’s more out of Sacramento:

  • In an interview with Greek outlet Sportal.gr (YouTube link), head coach Mike Brown spoke glowingly about Olympiacos star Sasha Vezenkov, whose NBA rights are controlled by the Kings. Brown traveled overseas to watch Vezenkov — a favorite for EuroLeague MVP — compete in the playoffs. “The way we play, he fits in really good,” Brown said. “He shoots the three ball. He’s got size. He’s got toughness. He rebounds. All those things are exciting with the way we play the game of basketball, so we’ll let him finish out his season, and then we’ll make decisions from there.” Brown added that the Kings were “highly, highly intrigued” with the 27-year-old.
  • James Ham of TheKingsBeat.com explores Trey Lyles‘ impending free agency and how he might fit in long term with the Kings, noting that the reserve big man has been open about his desire to return to Sacramento.
  • Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee provides his offseason preview for the Kings. How they’ll use their three draft picks and if they’ll re-sign Harrison Barnes are among the big questions the team faces.
  • In case you missed it, point guard De’Aaron Fox also earned a spot on the All-NBA Third Team. If he makes another All-NBA team in ’23/24 or ’24/25, he’ll be eligible for a super-max extension in 2025.
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NBA Announces 2022/23 All-NBA Teams

May 10th, 2023 at 6:10pm CST by Rory Maher

The NBA has officially announced its All-NBA teams for the 2022/23 season.

A total of 100 media members vote on the All-NBA awards. Players received five points for a First Team vote, three points for Second Team, and one point for Third Team, for a maximum total of 500 points. This year’s three All-NBA teams are as follows:

First Team

Second Team

Third Team

A total of 37 players received at least one vote, per the NBA. The top vote-getters who wound up missing out on All-NBA spots were Lakers center Anthony Davis (65), Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen (49) and Grizzlies guard Ja Morant (44).

Morant had Rose Rule language in his rookie scale extension, meaning his five-year deal would have started at 30% of next season’s cap had he been voted in; instead, he’ll receive 25% of the cap, which is projected to be a difference of about $39MM across five seasons.

Other players receiving 20-plus points include Bucks guard Jrue Holiday (39), Suns forward Kevin Durant (35) and Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (23). The next three highest were Raptors forward Pascal Siakam (15), Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (15) and Anthony Edwards of the Timberwolves (14), who is listed under forward but spent most of the season at shooting guard.

As we noted earlier today, both of the Celtics’ top two players will now be eligible for Designated Veteran Extensions, also known as the super-max: Brown will be eligible to sign a five-year extension this offseason that starts at up to 35% of the 2024/25 salary cap, while Tatum will be eligible to sign a super-max extension in 2024 after earning All-NBA nods each of the past two seasons.

Like Brown, Siakam would have been eligible for a super-max extension this summer had he made an All-NBA team. He finished a distant ninth, so his maximum extension will now be worth a projected $192.2MM over four years, tweets Eric Koreen of The Athletic. As Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca observes (via Twitter), Siakam could still qualify for a super-max deal if he makes an All-NBA spot next season as an impending free agent.

This will be the last season under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. In the new CBA, All-NBA voting will be positionless and players will be required to play a minimum of 65 games to earn major regular season awards. Five of the players honored today — Antetokounmpo, Curry, Butler, Lillard and James — played fewer than 65 this season and would have been ineligible if the new requirements had been in effect, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).

LeBron extended his own NBA record with his selection, earning a spot on an All-NBA team for the 19th straight season, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (Twitter link). No other player has more than 15 total All-NBA awards (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan are tied for second at 15 apiece).

Giannis was a unanimous First Team selection for the fifth straight season, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic (Twitter link), and the only unanimous choice in 2022/23. Antetokounmpo now has more First Team berths than any European-born player, tweets HoopsHype, and only trails Hakeem Olajuwon among international players (six). The Bucks superstar finished third in MVP voting behind Embiid and Jokic, but Jokic received some First Team votes over the Sixers’ MVP winner, which is why Embiid wasn’t a unanimous pick.

According to HoopsHype (Twitter link), this is the first season in league history that only one American player (Tatum) was voted to the First Team. Doncic (Slovenia) and Antetokounmpo (Greece) are European, Embiid was born in Cameroon, and Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian.

Despite earning an All-NBA nod for the first time, Mitchell wasn’t happy that he didn’t make the First Team, sending out a tweet on the matter.

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Kings Notes: Defense, Sabonis, Barnes, Vezenkov, Murray

May 5th, 2023 at 9:13am CST by Luke Adams

The Kings‘ 118.6 offensive rating this season was easily the best mark in the NBA, but their 116.0 defensive rating was the worst of any of the 16 teams that made the playoffs. It’s no surprise then that general manager Monte McNair identified upgrading the defense as a top priority for Sacramento this offseason, per Eduardo Razo of NBC Sports Bay Area.

Still, McNair made it clear that he doesn’t want defensive upgrades to come at the expense of the Kings’ NBA-best offense, stressing that the front office will need to find a way to balance those efforts.

“You always want to continue to shore up your deficiencies, but you don’t want to pull on one string and you lose another,” McNair said. “So we’re going to have to do it in a way that we were able to put all the things we need on the floor for both offense and defense. So, yeah, I don’t know, delicate balance. Everybody has the same challenge, but yes, we need to maintain and improve. We can’t just make trade-offs that keep us in the same spot.”

Here’s more on the Kings:

  • Domantas Sabonis will be extension-eligible this summer and the new CBA will allow the Kings to give him a 40% raise (instead of 20%) in an extension offer. Still, that may not be enough to entice him to sign a deal, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. An extension for Sabonis could be worth up to $27.1MM in 2024/25, whereas his maximum salary as a free agent that summer may exceed $42MM. “Domas is a huge part of what we do,” McNair told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re going to do all we can to keep him here and build around him.”
  • Asked about Harrison Barnes‘ possible future in Sacramento, McNair referred to the free-agent-to-be as “a pretty fantastic part of our team,” per Slater, and suggested the Kings will have conversations in the coming weeks about retaining Barnes.
  • McNair praised the season that draft-and-stash prospect Sasha Vezenkov has had in Greece for Olympiacos and told reporters that a decision on the standout EuroLeague forward will be made later in the summer (Twitter video link via Deuce Mason). Vezenkov is under contract with Olympiacos through 2025, but could be bought out of that deal.
  • Keegan Murray didn’t come close to averaging 20 points per game in his first NBA season like Rookie of the Year winner Paolo Banchero, but McNair made the case this week that the Kings forward was the standout player in his draft class for another reason. “A rookie who started seven games in a playoff series, was, I believe, the most winning impact rookie on the court this year,” McNair said, per Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports Bay Area. “While we didn’t ask him to come in and shoot 30 shots, he certainly could have, he was the leading scorer in college basketball last year. But to come in and know what we need, which was to actually defend multiple positions, hit shots, cut to the basket, play off of our veterans, I thought it was a fantastic year for him.”
  • Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee explores whether it’s realistic for the Kings to attempt to emulate the Warriors’ championship blueprint.
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