- Kings combo guard Seth Curry‘s stock was limited in the eyes of many NBA scouts because he was viewed as a tweener with no set position, something that Curry believes is an asset, writes Kevin Fippen of NBA.com. “I feel comfortable at both positions, honestly,” Curry told Fippen. “I mean, I like having the ball in my hands and being able to make plays but I think my shooting is an asset too. I pride myself on being able to play the one [guard] and two [guard] and being able to affect the game in a lot of different ways.” In 41 appearances for Sacramento this season, Curry is averaging 6.1 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists to accompany a slash line of .496/.458/.843.
- The Kings have recalled power forward Duje Dukan from their D-League affiliate, the team announced. Dukan has appeared in 27 contests for Reno this season and is averaging 14.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists to accompany a shooting line of .403/.371/.722.
- The Kings have assigned power forward Duje Dukan to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This will be Dukan’s seventh trip to Reno on the season.
Kings coach George Karl acknowledges that his team fell short of expectations but still sees quite a few positives about the 2015/16 campaign for the franchise, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee relays. “I am seeing this team in a positive light much more than anybody in the world,” Karl said. “I think I understand the bad times better than over-reaction, expectation, doom that we seem to live in. I don’t think there have been stretches this season where we’ve played bad basketball; I think we haven’t played winning basketball. And I’m not the one that sets expectations. I’m not a predictor. I laugh all the time in the summertime.”
Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young aren’t injured, but Nets GM Sean Marks announced today that they will be held out of games for the rest of the season. The Kings began resting their best players earlier this week, and coach George Karl said Friday that DeMarcus Cousins won’t play any more road games this season.
Sacramento has incentive to protect its first-round draft pick, which will go to Chicago if it falls outside the top 10. The Kings are currently seventh in Hoops Rumors’ reverse standings with a 31-46 record, but only one and a half games separate them from 11th-place Orlando. The Knicks, Nuggets and Bucks are also in that mix. That’s likely why Cousins, Rajon Rondo and Rudy Gay were held out of last Monday’s game, along with Marco Belinelli, who has an aching right foot.
Brooklyn doesn’t have to worry about its first-rounder, which is already pledged to Boston with no protection. The Nets are more concerned about possible injuries to Lopez and Young, who are their most productive players and best potential trade assets. “I think two people had gotten injured playing in meaningless games finishing up the season,” Lopez said to ESPN.com’s Mike Mazzeo. “So [Marks] just wanted to take sort of a precautionary angle going forward.”
Resting healthy players isn’t a new issue in the NBA. Contending teams have been doing it for years, especially once their playoff fates are sealed. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has been willing to risk league discipline for giving his stars a night off when he believes a grueling schedule calls for it. In 2012, he was famously fined $250K for leaving Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green in San Antonio for a televised game in Miami.
But resting players to keep them fresh for the playoffs is different than keeping them out to avoid losing a draft pick or to prevent a late-season injury. There are ethical concerns, especially when fans pay high ticket prices to watch stars perform. That leads us to tonight’s question: Should the NBA adopt new rules to prevent the resting of healthy players and should the Nets and Kings be punished for their actions?
Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the topic. We look forward to what you have to say.
- Kings point guard Seth Curry is still deciding whether to exercise his option for next season, tweets Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. A decision is due just a week after the end of the regular season. Curry added that he likes Sacramento and GM Vlade Divac‘s plans for the team. If Curry opts in, he will make $1,015,696.
- Sacramento placed coach George Karl in a no-win situation and would be making a mistake if it fires him, argues Andy Furillo of The Sacramento Bee. The front office failed to support Karl when it overturned his early-season suspension of DeMarcus Cousins, and Furillo claims that move deteriorated their already-strained relationship. Even with a rebuilt roster that was weakened by injuries, Karl has led the Kings to their highest win total since 2007/08.
- The Kings have recalled Eric Moreland and Duje Dukan from Reno of the D-League (Twitter link).
The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 is set at $70MM, which is good for an 11% increase from last season, and the luxury tax line is fixed at $84.74MM. With the February 18th cutoff date for trades and the de facto deadline of March 1st for buyouts now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of updating the salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Sacramento Kings, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:
- 2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
- 2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
- Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $72,671,296*
- Remaining Cap Room= –$2,671,296
- Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $12,068,704
*Note: This figure includes the $882,630 due Wayne Ellington, who was waived via the stretch provision, plus the $25,000 owed to Marshall Henderson, and the $30,000 due Vince Hunter, both of whom were waived.
Cap Exceptions Available:
- Room= $1,473,212
Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000
Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $3,400,000
Note: Despite the trade deadline having passed, the NBA season technically doesn’t end until June 30th. Teams are able to again make trades upon the completion of the regular season or when/if they are eliminated from the playoffs, whichever comes later. So these cash limits still apply.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Ed Szczepanski / USA TODAY Sports Images
12:01pm: The extension is official, the team announced.
“My commitment to the Sacramento Kings goes back to my days as a player and I’m grateful to continue playing my part in creating a winning future for the Sacramento Kings,” Divac said in the team’s statement. “I know that we have what it takes to be a successful franchise and I look forward to continuing to improve and build on the progress that we’ve made.”
10:05am: The Kings are putting the finishing touches on a multiyear extension for Vlade Divac, who runs the front office as GM and vice president of basketball operations, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). The team is also close to adding an experienced front office hand, with former Pacers and Bucks executive David Morway the leading candidate for that role, Stein adds. The team doesn’t have a deal with Morway yet, USA Today’s Sam Amick cautions, nonetheless suggesting that he’s the only candidate and that it’s only a matter of time before he joins the team (Twitter link). Presumably, he’d report to Divac.
It’s been a bumpy ride for Divac, who’s in his first job as an NBA executive, as he’s reportedly struggled to grasp salary cap concepts and the Kings have fallen short of their goal of the postseason this year. Ranadive has reportedly mulled replacing him with John Calipari on occasion, but the extension for Divac appears to cut off the idea that Calipari, who’s insistent on a dual coach/executive role, would join the organization. Divac decided against firing coach George Karl in February after nearly doing so, but the team is widely expected to search for a new coach this summer, Stein writes, pointing out that Sacramento hired Karl before bringing in Divac last year.
Turmoil surrounding DeMarcus Cousins has been the primary storyline for the Kings under Divac, with Karl reportedly going behind Divac’s back to negotiate potential trades, though Divac has insisted on several occasions that he doesn’t intend to trade the center. Divac and Cousins grew close, though Divac was enveloped in Cousins’ tirade against Karl earlier this month.
Divac’s time in the Kings front office appeared to begin innocuously when the team named him vice president of basketball and franchise operations a year ago. It wasn’t publicly known until a month later that Divac’s arrival usurped GM Pete D’Alessandro‘s player personnel power, though Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee noted when the hiring took place that Divac was above D’Alessandro on the organizational chart. Still, Divac and owner Vivek Ranadive were the only ones in the Kings brass who knew the implications of the move for a few days after it took place, as SB Nation’s Tom Ziller reported.
D’Alessandro left the Kings this past summer for a job with the Nuggets, and assistant GM Mike Bratz has essentially been the only seasoned voice in the Sacramento front office since then. The Kings gave Divac the GM title in late August following the departure of D’Alessandro. Morway would bring more than a decade of experience under Larry Bird and Donnie Walsh in the Pacers front office as vice president of basketball administration and later GM. Morway resigned from the Pacers in 2012 and joined the Bucks as assistant GM in 2013, but Milwaukee declined to renew his contract last year.
It’s not the first time Morway has been connected to the Kings. He reportedly interviewed for the GM job in 2013 before it went to D’Alessandro. More recently, the Kings interviewed former Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks for the role that Morway is apparently poised to fill, but Marks made it clear that the Kings job wouldn’t be a good fit for him, Amick tweets.
Wesley Matthews was angry but not surprised when the Trail Blazers didn’t offer him a chance to return this past summer, as he explained to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. It worked out for Matthews, who landed a max contract from the Mavericks, and for C.J. McCollum, who’s affirmed Portland’s faith in him as he’s stepped seamlessly into Matthews’ old job as the Blazers’ starting two-guard. “I don’t blame them for doing what they did, by any means,” Matthews said. “That’s the hand they wanted to play. That’s fine. I’m not bitter, and I didn’t mean for anything to come out like I was bitter. Just would have liked a phone call. Hey, [Blazers GM Neil Olshey] could have texted me. But they’ve got a nice thing going there with [Damian Lillard] and C.J.”
See more on another Dallas wing player amid news from the Western Conference:
- It’s conceivable that Chandler Parsons will play again this season for the Mavericks even if he does undergo surgery on a torn meniscus in his right knee, reports Schuyler Dixon of The Associated Press. Parsons is reportedly getting a second opinion before having the procedure, but he’d be able to resume basketball activities within six weeks of having the operation, Dixon hears, meaning it’s conceivable he returns during the playoffs, which begin April 16th. It’s no certainty the Mavs qualify for the postseason, however. They’re one game up on the Jazz for the last playoff spot in the West.
- Doc Rivers won’t rule out the possibility of Blake Griffin missing the rest of the regular season, but he’s confident that he’ll be back in game action within the next three weeks before the regular season ends, observes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. Griffin will have to serve a four-game suspension once he’s healthy enough to play. The Clippers signed Jeff Ayres for the rest of the season last week.
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James Anderson has been frustrated sitting on the bench for long stretches this season with the Kings, even though coach George Karl acknowledges he’s probably the team’s best defender, but the swingman is seeing more playing time of late, notes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Anderson has to decide on a minimum-salary player option for next season.