- The Kings agreed to sign Jamel Artis to a training-camp deal because small forward is a position of need, according to Noel Harris of the Sacramento Bee. Sacramento also has Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nemanja Bjelica and Justin Jackson at that spot. Artis played for the Cavs summer-league team against the Kings and posted 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a steal. He saw action in 15 games with the Magic last season.
- Suns assistant Ty Ellis is expected to be named the head coach of the G League’s Stockton Kings, Adam Johnson of 2 Ways & 10 Days reports. Ellis was the former head coach of the G League’s Northern Arizona Suns before joining Phoenix’s staff after Earl Watson was fired last season. Ellis will replace Darrick Martin, Sacramento’s G League coach the last two seasons.
Forward Jamel Artis has agreed to a two-year contract with the Kings, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. The signing is official, per RealGM’s transactions log.
Artis played 15 games, including one start, with the Magic last season. Artis, 25, posted averages of 5.1 PPG, 2.5 RPG and 1.2 APG in 18.6 MPG.
The contract is a training-camp deal, as Sacramento already has 16 players with guaranteed contracts on the roster. Both Wojnarowski and James Ham of NBC Bay Area Sports (Twitter link) note that Artis will be competing for a spot on the 15-man roster during camp.
The Kings do have a two-way contract slot available.
The 6’7” Artis went undrafted in 2017 after playing college ball at Pittsburgh. He was released by the Knicks during training camp, then signed a two-way deal with Orlando.
The Magic declined to give him a qualifying offer this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent. Artis hooked on with the Cavs’ summer league squad and averaged 11.8 PPG, 6.6 RPG and 1.8 APG in 31.4 MPG while playing five games in Las Vegas.
JULY 31: The Kings have officially signed Gabriel to a two-way contract, the club confirmed today in a press release.
JULY 28: According to James Ham of NBC Sports California, the Kings are signing undrafted rookie Wenyen Gabriel to a two-way contract. David Aldridge of TNT first reported that the Kentucky product and Sacramento were close to a deal.
Gabriel, 21, averaged 6.8 PPG and 5.4 RPG as a sophomore last season at Kentucky, but showed the ability to protect the rim (1.1 BPG) and hit outside shots (.396 3PT%).
Gabriel, who figures to spend most of his time with the Kings’ G League affiliate, the Stockton Kings, also performed relatively well during the NBA Summer League, appearing in all five games for the Kings in Las Vegas and averaging a similar stat line of 6.8 PPG and 5.6 RPG during 16.4 minutes per game.
The Kings don’t currently have any two-way players on their roster for the 2018/19 season, so another spot remains open after the Gabriel signing.
It might be fair to say that not many people back out of deals with Mark Cuban, but over the last four years, he’s had two NBA contracts disintegrate from his hands. DeAndre Jordan backed out of an agreement with the Mavericks during the 2015 offseason – an event that caused a Twitter-Emoji party – and this offseason, Yogi Ferrell had a change of heart after initially making an agreement.
“I decided I needed the chance in my career. With my style of play, I feel like it fits better with the Kings than the Mavericks,” Ferrell said on The Jim Rome Show (h/t SportsDay).
Dallas had reportedly told Ferrell that he’d occupy the backup shooting guard spot when he made the verbal agreement to re-sign with the club. It’s unclear the exact role the Ferrell will now play in Sacramento.
The combo guard will get a bump in salary on the Kings compared to what he would have received in the Mavs’ deal. Sacramento is paying him $6.2MM over two seasons, though the second year is not guaranteed. Dallas’ contract would have paid him $5.3MM over two years with the same stipulation on the second year of the deal.
“Cuban, he was the one that gave me my first opportunity in the league,” Ferrell said. “Coach [Rick] Carlisle is a great coach. When he first put me in, I’ll never forget my first practice he told me I was gonna start. The next day we were playing the Spurs, so everything was coming pretty quickly.
“I was fortunate they were able to put me in the position that they were in. There were no hard feelings.”
11:02pm: The signing is official, per team press release.
JULY 23, 7:11pm: The second year of the contract is not guaranteed, Tim McMahon of ESPN tweets.
JULY 20, 3:04pm: The Kings and free agent guard Yogi Ferrell have reached an agreement on a deal, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Ferrell had initially agreed to a two-year contract with the Mavericks, but backed out of that agreement earlier today.
“We felt uncomfortable and will weigh our options,” Ferrell’s agent Cervando Tejeda told Charania at the time.
Sacramento’s deal with Ferrell will be worth $6.2MM over two years, according to Charania (Twitter link). His initial two-year pact with Dallas was said to be worth $5.3MM, with only the first season guaranteed.
While it’s not clear whether Ferrell’s new deal with the Kings will be fully guaranteed, it passes an important threshold — the 25-year-old received a $2.9MM qualifying offer last month, which made him a restricted free agent until the Mavericks withdrew it. His contract with the Kings will allow him to exceed that figure in 2018/19, whereas his initial deal with Dallas wouldn’t have.
Ferrell, a former Indiana standout, appeared in all 82 games for the Mavs last season, averaging 10.2 PPG, 3.0 RPG, and 2.5 APG with a .426/.373/.796 shooting line. In Sacramento, he figures to slot into a backcourt that features De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Frank Mason, and Ben McLemore. Bogdan Bogdanovic may also see time at the two.
Nemanja Bjelica, the only other free agent to back out a verbal agreement this offseason, as far as we know, was also said to be discussing a possible deal with the Kings. It’s probably no coincidence that both Ferrell and Bjelica gravitated to Sacramento as they sought larger paydays — as we outlined earlier this afternoon, the Kings have much more cap flexibility for 2018/19 than any other team. Ferrell’s new deal will only use up a small amount of their $20.5MM in cap space.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
- The Kings finalized a three-year, $20.5MM contract with Nemanja Bjelica on Saturday, but not an expected deal with Yogi Ferrell, notes salary cap expert Albert Nahmad (Twitter link). He speculates that Sacramento could be examining its options with $14MM in remaining cap space and may use the room mid-level exception to sign Ferrell to a two-year, $6.2MM deal at a later date.
JULY 21, 1:57pm: The deal is official, per a media release from the Kings.
JULY 20, 9:08pm: The Kings have reached a three-year, $20.5MM agreement with free agent forward Nemanja Bjelica, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports tweets. The third year will not be guaranteed, Charania adds.
This completes Bjelica’s unusual odyssey in free agency. The former Timberwolves reserve originally agreed to a one-year, $4.45MM deal with the Sixers early in free agency, then backed out of that agreement on Tuesday. He stated publicly he would likely head back to Europe, explaining that he wanted to create “some kind of stability” for his family.
Kings general manager Vlade Divac and other teams then reached out to Bjelica, trying to convince him to remain in the NBA. Sacramento’s offer won him over.
“The organization’s belief in and commitment to me overwhelmed me and my family,” he told Charania. “I am ready to do everything I can to help the Kings and be a part of the Sacramento community.”
It helped the Kings’ cause that EuroLeague powerhouses like Fenerbahce and CSKA Moscow reportedly were not interested in him at this time.
Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor noted in a conversation last week with Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500 that Bjelica entered the offseason seeking a multiyear NBA contract. The stretch four has been a rotation player with Minnesota the past three seasons. He averaged 6.8 PPG and 4.1 RPG in 67 games last season, including 21 starts.
Where Bjelica fits in with the Kings is a mystery. Sacramento already has No. 2 overall pick Marvin Bagley III, Zach Randolph and Harry Giles at the power forward spot. His path to playing time may be at small forward.
- Ever since Zach LaVine‘s offer sheet was matched by the Bulls, the Kings have not made any major additions to the team this offseason. Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee writes that the Kings’ low-key approach thus far is okay and helps the team in the future.
- The Grizzlies sent $1.5MM to the Kings as part of the trade for Garrett Temple , tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. That figure is the equivalent of Deyonta Davis‘ salary, which would therefore be covered by Memphis if the Kings choose to waive him.
The three-team trade that will send Carmelo Anthony to the Hawks (briefly), Dennis Schroder to the Thunder, and Mike Muscala to the Sixers may not be officially completed for several days, according to reports from Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter links).
As Vivlamore notes, the Hawks will almost certainly waive Antonius Cleveland and his non-guaranteed salary in order to create the cap room necessary to make the deal work, but that shouldn’t hold things up much. Pompey hears from one source that the delay may be the result of the 76ers working on another move.
While it’s not clear what that Sixers move might be, the club does have a tiny sliver of cap room still available. It’s not enough space to be useful at this point, but perhaps Philadelphia wants to explore all its options before officially going over the cap and closing certain doors.
Whether the trade is ultimately finalized today, this weekend, or next week sometime, Anthony looks like a strong bet to eventually land in Houston once he’s acquired and then waived by Atlanta. Anthony has reportedly considered both the Rockets and Heat, but Houston has been viewed as the strong frontrunner for the last week or two.
David Aldridge of TNT provides more evidence in favor of Anthony joining up with James Harden and Chris Paul in Houston, citing a source who says that Carmelo has been telling people for over a week that he’ll wind up with the Rockets (Twitter link).
When the deal becomes official, the Hawks will use up their remaining cap room, leaving the Kings as the only NBA team with any meaningful space available. Sacramento still has more than $20MM in open cap room.
JULY 19, 8:54am: The Kings and Bjelica are discussing a two-year contract worth about $13MM with roughly $2MM guaranteed for 2019/20, sources tell international writer David Pick (Twitter link).
JULY 18, 2:57pm: Kings general manager Vlade Divac reached out directly to Bjelica to explain his value, tweets Charania. Krawczynski expands on that point, tweeting that the Kings and other teams have expressed to Bjelica that he’s “too good to go back to Europe.”
Meanwhile, international basketball reporter David Pick tweets that Bjelica felt “devalued” in his agreement with the Sixers. With EuroLeague powerhouses like Fenerbahce and CSKA Moscow not interested in him at this time, Sacramento may represent his best bet for a big payday, Pick adds.
2:36pm: The Kings and free agent forward Nemanja Bjelica intend to discuss a potential contract, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
Bjelica, who initially agreed to a one-year, $4.45MM deal with the Sixers early in free agency, backed out of that agreement on Tuesday. Reports at the time indicated that the former EuroLeague MVP would likely head back to Europe, with Bjelica explaining that he wanted to create “some kind of stability” for his family.
However, as Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor noted in a conversation last week with Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500, Bjelica entered the offseason seeking a multiyear NBA contract. His interest in remaining in the NBA seemingly waned when he was only able to secure a one-year deal, as he suggested in his interview with Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.
If the Kings are willing to give him two or three guaranteed years, that may prompt the 30-year-old to reconsider his plan to head back overseas, particularly since not many EuroLeague clubs are in position to make a competitive offer, per Sportando (Twitter link).
It’s not clear yet what sort of deal the Kings would be willing to do with Bjelica, but they have more than $20MM in cap room available with only two roster spots still open, so they’ll have plenty of flexibility if they decide they want to bring the stretch four aboard.
Meanwhile, the Sixers figure to be less than thrilled about Bjelica’s about-face if he ends up signing on with another NBA club rather than playing in Europe.