- After initially reaching a free agent agreement with Philadelphia, Nemanja Bjelica changed course and inked a three-year deal with the Kings. Now, he’s showing off his ability to open up the floor for his new team, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee details.
The Kings worked out free agent small forward Jarell Eddie over the weekend and may sign him, Michael Scotto of The Athletic tweets.
Eddie has appeared in 34 NBA games with four organizations. Eddie played two games for the Celtics last season after signing a 10-day contract. He didn’t receive another 10-day deal from them. He then played a game for the Bulls on a 10-day contract.
He saw action in 26 games with the Wizards in 2015/16 and five more with the Suns the following season.
Eddie, who played his college ball at Virginia Tech, went undrafted in 2014 and spent time in camps with the Hawks, Celtics, and Warriors before eventually hooking on with the Wizards.
OCTOBER 8: The Kings officially cut Artis on Sunday, confirming the move in a press release.
OCTOBER 7: The Kings will waive shooting guard Jamel Artis, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Artis signed a two-year, non-guaranteed deal with Sacramento in July. He would have earned $1,349,383 this season and $1,588,231 in 2019/20 if he had stayed on the roster.
Artis has gotten opportunities with several organizations since graduating from Pitt in 2017, but his only time in the NBA came in 15 games as a two-way player with the Magic last season. He posted a 5.1/2.3/2.5 line in 18.6 minutes per night.
The move leaves the Kings with 18 players in camp, with 15 of them having guaranteed contracts.
The Kings have waived Gabe Vincent after signing him to an Exhibit 10 contract earlier in the week, according to the NBA’s Transactions Page.
Vincent, a 6’3″ guard out of UC Santa Barbara, went unselected in the 2018 Draft. In his four collegiate seasons, he held per-game averages of 12.4 points, 1.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 29.1 minutes. He holds the school record for most three-pointers made in his career.
Vincent will likely play for Sacramento’s G League team, the Stockton Kings. The Kings also signed and quickly waived Taren Sullivan and Brandon Austin this past week, with the team once again holding one open roster spot.
After opening up a spot on their roster by waiving Taren Sullivan, the Kings have signed undrafted rookie guard Gabe Vincent to an Exhibit 10 contract, tweets James Ham of CSN Bay Area.
Sullivan, who played his college ball at UC-Santa Barbara, went undrafted earlier this year after averaging 12.4 PPG and 3.3 APG with a .450/.377/.805 shooting line in his senior season.
As they did with Sullivan, the Kings are likely just adding Vincent to their 20-man roster briefly in order to secure his G League rights for the upcoming season. Vincent is a particularly good fit for Sacramento’s G League affiliate, the Stockton Kings, since he’s a native of Stockton.
Sacramento is back up to 20 players as a result of the signing.
Shortly after signing him to an Exhibit 10 contract, the Kings have waived undrafted swingman Taren Sullivan, according to NBA.com’s log of official transactions.
Sullivan played all four of his collegiate seasons at Division II school Findlay, averaging 17.2 PPG, 6.0 RPG, and 3.2 APG in 28.9 MPG as a senior. He made a strong impression during the G League Player Invitational in August, leading the event with 18.5 PPG on 63.6% shooting.
While that GLPI showing helped him earn a deal with the Kings, Sullivan’s stint on the roster was brief. Still, Sacramento has now secured the NBAGL rights for the 6’6″ wing, and he looks like a good candidate to join the Stockton Kings in the G League this season.
With Sullivan no longer under contract, Sacramento now once again has an opening on its 20-man preseason roster.
OCTOBER 2: The Kings have officially signed Sullivan to an Exhibit 10 contract, tweets Jason Jones of The Athletic. The young forward looks like a candidate to end up with the Stockton Kings, Sacramento’s G League affiliate.
OCTOBER 1: The Kings have agreed to a camp deal with Taren Sullivan, Jeremy Woo of Sports Illustrated tweets.
The undrafted 6’6” wing player attended Findlay, a Division II school in Ohio, and was the leading scorer at the G League player invitational.
Sullivan played all four of his collegiate seasons at Findlay and averaged 17.2 PPG, 6.0 RPG and 3.2 APG in 28.9 MPG as a senior. He also had workouts with the Cavaliers and Grizzlies, according to Woo.
Sacramento had an open spot on its 20-man camp roster after waiving Brandon Austin on Sunday.
The Kings have made two additions to their basketball operations staff, according to James Ham of NBC Sports.
Adam Filippi has joined the team as the Director of Pro Scouting. He most recently served as the Director of Global Scouting with the Hornets, and will be based out of Los Angeles covering the Southeast Region.
Sacramento also hired Anthony Darmiento as the Assistant Performance Coach. Darmiento will work alongside Head Performance & Strength Coach Ramsey Nijem this season, and holds experience in similar roles with USA Volleyball, USA Water Polo and the USA Olympic Committee.
There’s more out of the Pacific division:
- Kings third-year forward Skal Labissiere says he’s more explosive, quicker and faster after bulking up this offseason, as detailed by Noel Harris of The Sacramento Bee.
- Devin Booker has focused on improving his left-hand skills since undergoing surgery, writes Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic. Booker had the procedure in his right hand on September 10. “It’s a time I actually have to use it,” Booker said. “I never expected to actually have to use it.”
- The Lakers envision playing a brand of positionless basketball this season, Joey Ramirez of Lakers.com relays.“We want to be a positionless team,” LeBron James said. “There’s gonna be times when we’re all playing different positions. I think that’s going to be the benefit of our ball club.”
The Kings have waived training camp invitee Brandon Austin, tweets James Ham of NBC Sports. Austin signed with the team on Thursday after appearing in 15 games with the team’s G League affiliate Reno Bighorns last season.
Austin, who went undrafted out of Northwest Florida State in 2016, is a 6-foot-6 guard who’s shown flashes of potential on both ends of the floor. He’ll likely rejoin the Bighorns for the upcoming season, according to Sean Cunningham of ABC10.
Following the decision to waive Austin, the Kings now have 19 players on their active roster. This includes the two-way contract of Wenyen Gabriel, along with the non-guaranteed salaries of Cameron Reynolds, Jamel Artis and the recently added Kalin Lucas.
Shooting guard Ben McLemore has been among the pleasant surprises in Kings‘ training camp, relays Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. The Kings made McLemore the seventh pick in the 2013 draft and he spent the first four years of his NBA career in Sacramento before signing with the Grizzlies last year. The Kings brought him back in a trade this summer.
“My confidence is on high and I want to continue to get better each and every day, help my teammates … and do whatever they want me to do,” McLemore said. “That’s defensive, offensive, whatever the case might be. I’ve prepared myself all summer for this moment, so I’m ready.”
A knee injury to Bogdan Bogdanovic that required arthroscopic surgery could provide an early-season opportunity for McLemore. Bogdanovic is projected to miss four to six weeks, opening up some minutes in the backcourt. McLemore believes he can claim them and likes the up-tempo approach the Kings have adopted.
“The style of play they want to play, it fits me perfect, the way I play, the things I do,” he said. “I shoot the ball well, I run the floor, play defense, all those kinds of things.”
There’s more today from Sacramento:
- Frank Mason is counting on better judgment to help him win an expanded role this season, Anderson adds in the same story. A backup point guard, Mason excels at getting to the basket but his drives often resulted in turnovers or forced shots. “[Last] year, I got in there and made a couple of wrong decisions, and some games I made the right decisions,” Mason said. “It’s just watching film and making the right reads and the right plays.”
- Harry Giles is happy that his long wait to play in an NBA game is almost over, Anderson relays in a separate story. The 20th player drafted in 2017, Giles sat out all of last season as the Kings tried to protect his knees after a series of surgical procedures. He showed promise during summer league play and will make his debut in a Kings’ uniform tomorrow night in the preseason opener. “I love Harry’s game,” said teammate Willie Cauley-Stein. “He’s going to be a beast. Like most of us, coming into the league, you’ve got to find that pace, and once you find that pace it’s going to be scary.”
- Kings fans probably won’t see Giles and this year’s top pick, Marvin Bagley, in the lineup together for a while, Anderson writes in another piece.