- Harry Giles still hasn’t seen any NBA action, but he has been the most intriguing Kings story of the summer, notes Noel Harris of The Sacramento Bee. The Kings were extremely cautious with Giles after making him the 20th pick in the 2017 draft, sitting him out the entire season to make sure his knees were fully recovered from a series of surgeries that date back to high school. Giles was impressive in Summer League action and was picked as the Rookie of the Year favorite by ESPN’s Kevin Pelton.
- Yogi Ferrell may have a prominent role off the bench in the Kings‘ backcourt, writes James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area in an examination of the team’s potential guard rotation. Sacramento was able to land Farrell in free agency after he pulled out of an agreement with the Mavericks in search of more guaranteed money. Ham expects newly acquired Ben McLemore to be bought out or traded and notes that the team would like to move Iman Shumpert, but is having trouble finding a taker for his $11.4MM salary.
The Kings have officially hired Ty Ellis as head coach of their G League affiliate, the Stockton Kings, according to a team press release. Ellis was head coach of the Suns’ G League team in 2016 before being elevated to an assistant coaching position with Phoenix last season. Ellis replaces Darrick Martin, Sacramento’s G League coach the last two seasons.
The Kings added to their glut of big men when they drafted power forward Marvin Bagley with the second pick of the 2018 draft. Now, James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area writes, head coach Dave Joerger will have to figure out how to juggle the frontcourt rotation.
Given his stature as one of the top picks in the summer draft, Bagley is a lock to play significant minutes for the Kings. He could see time at both the four and the five.
Ham writes that Harry Giles, a first-rounder in 2017, could see major minutes in his first taste of NBA action as well. The big man may have to shake off rust after sitting out last year to fully recover from knee injuries, but could be part of the Kings’ starting frontcourt of the future.
- Kings big man Skal Labissiere is looking to improve his durability during his offseason workouts, Jason Wise of the team’s website relays. Memphis-area trainer Raheem Shabazz has made Instagram posts showing the work Labissiere is putting in as he prepares for his third NBA season.
Mavericks guard Luka Doncic has the best chance to win the Rookie of the Year award, according to an ESPN panel. Doncic will fill up the stat sheet and might wind up with the ball more often than second-year guard Dennis Smith Jr., according to Mike Schmitz. Top overall pick Deandre Ayton ranks second on the poll, with Schmitz noting that the Suns big man likely to get more playing time than any other rookie. Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr., Cavaliers point guard Collin Sexton and Bulls center Wendell Carter Jr. round out the top five.
We have more from around the league:
- Retaining Paul George in free agency and dumping Carmelo Anthony‘s contract while receiving projected sixth man Dennis Schroder in return earned the Thunder the top spot on NBA.com’s David Aldridge’s offseason rankings. The rankings are based upon what teams have done during the offseason. The Lakers ranked No. 2 by virtue of signing LeBron James and handing out one-year contracts to other players, thus allowing them to be a force again in next year’s free agent market. The Nuggets gained the No. 3 spot by locking up Nikola Jokic and making trades that cleared roster spots and eased their luxury-tax situation.
- Forwards DJ Hogg (Texas A&M) and Malik Pope (San Diego State) and swingman BJ Johnson (LaSalle) are among the top 10 prospects at the G League Invitational, according to Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype. The invitational takes place Sunday in Chicago and over a dozen of last year’s prospects received training camp invites afterward.
- The Warriors’ over-under odds for wins next season is 62.5, according to Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook. The Celtics ranked second overall with a 57.5 over-under win total with the Rockets third at 54.5. The Hawks have the lowest projected win total at 23.5. The odds for each NBA team were passed along by ESPN’s Ben Fawkes.
- 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.