Sacramento Kings Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Knicks To Hire Gerald Madkins as Assistant GM

July 23rd, 2017 at 12:14pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Knicks will hire Gerald Madkins as assistant GM, tweets Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times. The Kings and Bucks also expressed interest in him (Twitter link).

Madkins, 48, had been an assistant GM with the Clippers for the past two seasons. Since joining the organization in 2012, he also served as director of basketball operations and director of scouting.

Before joining the Clippers, Madkins held scouting positions with the SuperSonics and Rockets and was VP of player personnel for the Hornets.

A former NBA player, Madkins spent time with the Cavaliers and Warriors in the 1990s. He was named Continental Basketball Association Rookie of the Year in 1993.

Latest On Kyrie Irving

July 22nd, 2017 at 5:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kyrie Irving‘s request to be traded is the latest story to rock the league during an eventful offseason. The news broke Friday, but Irving’s meeting with Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert took place about two weeks ago, according to Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com.

The Cavs tried to keep it quiet so they could work on a deal without the distractions that are starting to happen now. Apparently some players learned about the news and started talking, which is how the trade request became public.

Pluto also speculates that Irving’s demand validates rumors last month that former Bulls star Jimmy Butler was warned by Cavaliers players not to push for a trade to Cleveland. They have a close friendship, so Irving may have told Butler that he was planning to leave the team. Butler was subsequently traded to the Timberwolves, one of the teams Irving included on his list of preferred destinations, along with the Spurs, Knicks and Heat.

There’s more today on the Irving trade front:

The Wolves have a strong interest in acquiring Irving, even though they just signed former Pacers point guard Jeff Teague, Pluto adds in the same story. Pluto believes the Cavs should ask for Andrew Wiggins, whom the Cavs made the overall No. 1 draft pick in 2014, as part of the deal. Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns are untouchable, but Wiggins will be a free agent next summer if he doesn’t sign an extension before the October deadline.
The Knicks have offered Carmelo Anthony and a parcel of draft picks, adds Pluto, who says Cleveland should insist on Kristaps Porzingis. Other teams that have expressed interest include Sacramento, with rookie De’Aaron Fox as part of the offer, and Phoenix, with a package centered around Eric Bledsoe.
Pluto also notes that a trade would take away Irving’s opportunity to sign a super-max extension like the one John Wall just agreed to with the Wizards. The move could cost Irving between $50MM and $70MM.
Butler and Towns have done some recruiting work with Irving and have made it clear to Wolves management they would like to acquire him, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who first broke the story of Irving’s trade request. Windhorst believes Teague would likely be included in any Minnesota-Cleveland deal and notes that as a newly signed free agent he can’t be traded until December 15th.
The Spurs would be Irving’s first choice if he could pick a team, writes Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.
The Cavaliers had a deal on the table involving Irving before the draft, according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. The trade was put together by former GM David Griffin, but the Cavaliers didn’t pull the trigger because they didn’t know that Irving wanted to leave.

Suns Expressed ‘Strong’ Interest In Andre Drummond In June

July 20th, 2017 at 2:48pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns were among the teams that expressed “strong” interest in Andre Drummond in June, reports Jake Fischer of Sports Illustrated. According to Fischer, Sacramento also showed significant interest in trading for Drummond — the Kings’ interest has been previously reported.

While Drummond remains in Detroit for now, Fischer is skeptical that he’ll finish his contract with the Pistons, noting that the club dangled its starting center in trade talks at the deadline and again leading up to the draft.

A report earlier this week suggested that Pistons owner Tom Gores is a big fan of Drummond, whereas head coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy isn’t quite as bullish on the young center. According to that report, the Pistons didn’t receive any trade offers this offseason that merited a serious conversation between management and ownership about the 23-year-old’s future in Detroit.

The Suns, meanwhile, entered the summer in the market for a major frontcourt upgrade, so their interest in Drummond doesn’t come as a real surprise. Phoenix reportedly went into free agency targeting Blake Griffin and Paul Millsap. However, after missing out on Griffin, the Suns pulled back on their pursuit of top free agents, opting instead to exercise a little more patience with their rebuilding process.

Of course, given Drummond’s age, he may still fit the timeline for a rebuilding team like the Suns or Kings, despite his massive contract. So those clubs shouldn’t necessarily be ruled out as suitors if the Pistons revisit trade possibilities for the former ninth overall pick later this offseason or at next year’s deadline.

Raptors' Valanciunas Talks With Kings, Others Didn't Get Far

July 17th, 2017 at 1:46pm CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors haven’t had much luck in their efforts to trade Jonas Valanciunas, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News details. According to Deveney, discussions with the Kings, Suns, Hornets, Trail Blazers, Hawks, and others “did not get very far.” Now that they’ve dumped some salary by moving DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph, it’s not clear if the Raptors are still attempting to move Valanciunas.

Pacific Notes: Rondo, Clark, Caldwell-Pope, Perry

July 16th, 2017 at 12:08pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Lakers will have to find another option at point guard now that Rajon Rondo has signed with the Pelicans, writes Mark Medina of The Orange County Register. L.A. had talked to Rondo about serving as a mentor to a young roster and especially to rookie Lonzo Ball. Attention may now turn to re-signing 22-year-old Tyler Ennis, who was obtained from Houston in a February trade. Ennis averaged 7.7 points and shot 45% from the field in 22 games with the Lakers.

Other options include Rodney Stuckey and Ian Clark, although L.A. has only the $4.3MM room exception to offer apart from veterans minimum deals. The Lakers currently have 12 players under contract for the upcoming season, along with Alex Caruso signed to a two-way deal.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

After struggling to make a roster in the early part of his NBA career, Clark is in position for a big payday, writes Joe Rexrode of The USA Today Network. The Lakers and Bucks are among the teams that have expressed interest in the free agent shooting guard, whose chance to return to the Warriors likely ended when Golden State signed Nick Young. “I can’t worry about this, I just have to let it fall into place,” Clark said. “At some point you stop worrying about surviving in this league and get determined to make your mark in it.”
The one-year, $18MM deal that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope signed with the Lakers includes a 15% trade kicker and a 50% advance, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.com.
Marcelo Huertas, who spent parts of the past two seasons with the Lakers, has signed with EuroCup champions Unicaja Malaga in Spain, tweets international basketball writer David Pick.
Scott Perry had a strong influence on the Kings during his three months as vice president of basketball operations, according to Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. Perry left this week to become GM of the Knicks, with Sacramento receiving a 2019 second-round pick and cash considerations in return. During Perry’s time with the Kings, Voison says he pushed for the free agency additions of veterans Zach Randolph, Vince Carter and George Hill and was a “strong advocate” for drafting De’Aaron Fox with the No. 5 pick. “This is a great opportunity for Scott professionally,” said GM Vlade Divac, “and it gets him back east, closer to his daughter. I was not going to stop him. The only thing I feel bad about is that we had everything in place in our front office. Our front office is strong. Now I have to find someone who can come in and do the things Scott did for us.”
The injury that forced Kings center Georgios Papagiannis to leave Friday’s summer league game has been diagnosed as just a bruise, according to a post on the team’s website.

Kings Sign Second-Rounder Frank Mason

July 15th, 2017 at 9:16am CST by ChrisCrouse

JULY 15: Mason signed a three-year deal with the Kings, according to Keith Smith of RealGM (via Twitter). Mason’s deal is believed to be fully guaranteed for 2017/18 and he will likely hit restricted free agency in 2020.

JULY 13: The Kings have signed Frank Mason, according to the team’s website. Sacramento has remaining cap room, so Mason may receive more than just a two-year deal, and it’s possible that it will be worth more than the minimum salary.

Mason spent four seasons at Kansas where he played in 145 games and averaged 13.0 points per contest. He was named the AP National Player of the Year during his senior season after leading his team to a 31-5 record while averaging 20.9 points and 5.2 assists per contest.

Sacramento selected the point guard with the No. 34 overall pick in the 2017 draft. He is one of four prospects drafted by the team.

Kings To Receive Second-Rounder, Cash For Perry

July 14th, 2017 at 12:03pm CST by Luke Adams

The Kings’ solid offseason continues, with the team poised to add an extra draft pick in exchange for an executive that has been with the franchise for less than three months. According to Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link), the Knicks and Kings have agreed on compensation for Scott Perry, who will be leaving Sacramento to become the general manager in New York.

The Kings will receive a 2019 second-round pick and cash as compensation for Perry’s departure, per Amick. The USA Today scribe adds (via Twitter) that the Knicks are currently slated to receive the worst two of the Orlando, Cleveland, and Houston second-rounders in 2019. Sacramento will receive the best of those two — the middle pick of the three, in other words.

Perry, who agreed on Thursday to join the Knicks, has had an eventful year so far. He had been working in the Magic’s front office under Rob Hennigan, but was dismissed along with Hennigan when Orlando cleaned house at season’s end. Perry quickly caught on in Sacramento as the executive VP of basketball operations, and helped guide the Kings to a series of offseason moves that included the additions of De’Aaron Fox, George Hill, Zach Randolph, Vince Carter, Justin Jackson, and Harry Giles.

Now, Perry will be headed to New York, where he’ll serve as the team’s general manager under Steve Mills, who will ascend to president. While Mills will have the final say, Perry will have “tremendous freedom” to operate and will be run the club’s day-to-day basketball operations, per Adrian Wojnarowski and Ian Begley of ESPN.com. Wojnarowski adds (via Twitter) that Perry will get a five-year contract from the Knicks.

While the Kings did well to turn Perry’s three-month stint into cash and draft compensation, the team may now be on the lookout for another veteran executive to help add stability to a front office that has made some questionable decisions in recent years.

Knicks To Hire Scott Perry As GM

July 14th, 2017 at 8:15am CST by ChrisCrouse

JULY 14, 8:15am: The Knicks and Kings will have to agree on compensation terms before New York can officially hire Perry, league sources tell Wojnarowski and Ian Begley of ESPN.com. Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets that cash and perhaps a second-round pick seems like fair compensation for Sacramento, but it’s not clear what sort of terms the two sides are discussing.

ESPN’s full report also confirms that Perry would report to Mills in the Knicks’ new-look front office, with Mills being promoted to president. While Mills would have the final say, Perry will have “tremendous freedom” to operate and will be the day-to-day voice running basketball operations, per ESPN.

JULY 13, 4:32pm: Perry has agreed to a deal to become the team’s new GM, sources tell Vincent Goodwill of Comcast Sportsnet (Twitter link).

3:32pm: The Knicks have met with Kings Vice President of Basketball Operations Scott Perry and the two sides are discussing the parameters of a deal to make him the team’s new GM, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com tweets.

Perry joined Sacramento’s front office at the end of the 2016/17 campaign. He previously served as the assistant GM of the Magic and he also worked in the Sonics/Thunder organization, as well as for the Pistons.

The Knicks were interested in adding David Griffin to the GM role before the former Cavs executive withdrew his name from consideration. Griffin reportedly wanted to bring in the same front office staff he had in Cleveland, which was something the team opposed.

Team executive Steve Mills has been handling the GM duties on an interim basis since the organization fired Phil Jackson. The franchise remains on the hook to pay Jackson $24MM over the next two years. Mills, meanwhile, is poised to ascend to a president of basketball operations role for the Knicks.

Kings Sign Bogdan Bogdanovic To Three-Year Deal

July 13th, 2017 at 12:41pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 13: Bogdanovic has officially signed his three-year, $27MM deal with the Kings, per agent Alexander Raskovic (Twitter link).

JUNE 29: Bogdanovic’s three-year deal is expected to be worth $27MM, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee reports. That’s considerably less than the $36MM that was initially reported, though it’s possible there will be some non-guaranteed money at the end of the deal that accounts for the discrepancy.

JUNE 28: The Kings have struck a deal with draft-and-stash prospect Bogdan Bogdanovic, according to Jason Jones and Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. Bogdanovic – not to be confused with Wizards RFA Bojan Bogdanovic – is expected to sign a three-year contract with Sacramento worth $36MM.

Bogdan Bogdanovic, the 27th overall pick in the 2014 draft, was originally selected by the Suns, but his rights were sent to the Kings in a draft-night trade in 2016, when Phoenix moved up to No. 8 to select Marquese Chriss.

A 6’6″ sharpshooter, Bogdanovic was named the MVP of the Turkish League this year after averaging 14.7 PPG, 4.0 APG, and 3.5 RPG. The 24-year-old also earned All-EuroLeague honors and helped lead Turkish team Fenerbahce to its first ever EuroLeague title.

Because it has been more than three years since he was drafted, Bogdanovic is no longer subject to the NBA’s rookie scale. As such, the Kings will sign him using cap room. The deal can become official next month.

Serbian website Kurir first reported that the Kings and Bogdanovic had reached an agreement, as Orazio Cauchi of Sportando details.

FA Rumors: Muhammad, Farmar, Mbah a Moute, Allen

July 12th, 2017 at 10:56pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Hawks, Nets, Bucks, Knicks and Magic have all expressed interest in swingman Shabazz Muhammad, according to Marc J. Spears of ESPN.com (Twitter links). The Bulls are on that list as well, tweets Alex Kennedy of Hoops Hype. Muhammad became an unrestricted free agent last week when Minnesota pulled his qualifying offer to create enough cap room to sign Taj Gibson. He has been with the Wolves for all four of his NBA seasons and averaged 9.9 points in 78 games last year.

There’s more tonight on the free agent front:

Jordan Farmar is hoping to return to the NBA and spoke to Lakers coach Luke Walton today about a possible opportunity, Kennedy relays (Twitter link). The 30-year-old point guard played two games for the Kings in November of last season.
The Raptors have talked about making a play for former Clippers forward Luc Mbah a Moute, reports Michael Grange of Rogers Sportsnet (Twitter link).
The Clippers and Timberwolves are both considering Tony Allen, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Coaches Doc Rivers in L.A. and Tom Thibodeau in Minnesota have connections with Allen from their time with the Celtics.
Veteran point guard Beno Udrih is talking to several teams in Las Vegas, tweets Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Now 35, Udrih believes he can play for several more years. He got into 39 games with the Pistons last season.
Former Baylor standout Royce O’Neale is considering several NBA offers, according to Kyler (Twitter link). The 24-year-old forward went undrafted in 2015 and has been playing in Lithuania, but he has an NBA opt-out in his contract through July 20th.