- Kings guard De’Aaron Fox had his right hand X-rayed because of pain and swelling, tweets James Ham of ESPN 1320. Fox was held out of Friday’s game (Twitter link), but the injury is not expected to be a long-term issue.
Kings big man Richaun Holmes will miss the remainder of the season due to personal reasons, the team announced (Twitter link via James Ham of ESPN 1320).
“Richaun is a core member of our team, who is very important to our success,” general manager Monte McNair said. “We fully support Rich and look forward to seeing him back on the court for the 2022-23 NBA season.”
“I would like to thank everyone for their support during these difficult times,” Holmes said. “I love this team, I love my teammates and I look forward to returning next year.”
Holmes, 28, is in his third season with Sacramento. He has developed into a quality starting center with the Kings after spending the majority of his first four seasons coming off the bench for the Sixers and Suns, respectively.
Through 45 games this season, including 37 starts, Holmes is averaging 10.4 points and 7.0 rebounds on 66% shooting from the field and 77.8% from the charity stripe. His minutes have decreased drastically since the Kings dealt for Domantas Sabonis last month — Holmes is averaging just 15.3 minutes, 3.9 points and 2.9 rebounds per game in a reserve role since the trade.
After a breakout season in 2020/21 when he posted averages of 14.2 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 1.7 APG, and 1.6 BPG, Holmes re-signed with the Kings on a four-year, $46.5MM deal as a free agent last August. The fourth year is a player option.
The timing of the announcement is interesting, as ESPN’s Zach Lowe just wrote this morning (Insider link) that Holmes “might be the good player on a long-term contract most likely to be traded this summer.” While this isn’t exactly surprising, considering Holmes is too good of a player for the limited role he’s had since the Sabonis trade, it’s still noteworthy.
Kings guard Donte DiVincenzo is coming off his best game since being traded from Milwaukee to Sacramento at last month’s deadline. On Wednesday, facing his old Bucks team, he put up 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting (4-of-8 on threes), chipping in four rebounds and three steals.
According to James Ham of ESPN 1320 in Sacramento (Twitter link), head coach Alvin Gentry said after Wednesday’s game that there’s a good chance DiVincenzo will move permanently into the Kings’ starting lineup before the regular season is over. Gentry added that he almost made that move for Wednesday’s contest.
DiVincenzo started all 66 games he played in 2020/21 for Milwaukee, but has started just one of 31 games for the Bucks and Kings this season following his return from ankle surgery.
- Kings forward Domantas Sabonis said this week that he intends to play for Lithuania in the EuroBasket tournament this summer, James Ham of ESPN 1320 tweets. He was a member of the Lithuanian National Team during the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The struggling 29-39 Lakers, winners of just two of their last ten games, are looking to the future, encouraged by the development of some of their youngsters, writes Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register.
Though the Los Angeles front office mostly opted to build its new-look roster around older veterans this summer, a handful of younger role players have emerged around 37-year-old All-Star forward LeBron James this season.
24-year-old guard Malik Monk and 23-year-old rookie wing Austin Reaves, alongside 25-year-old forward Stanley Johnson, have emerged as three of the Lakers’ more reliable players who may have yet to hit their ceilings. 21-year-old swingman Talen Horton-Tucker remains an intriguing option as well, though he has underperformed relative to his new three-year, $32MM contract this season.
“They’ve continued to improve and get better and more comfortable in our system, in our environment,” head coach Frank Vogel said of the Lakers’ youth movement. “Malik, Austin and Talen. That trio is another reason amongst others why I believe we have a chance.”
There’s more out of California:
- The NBA has fined Kings big man Richaun Holmes to the tune of $25K after he threw a basketball into the crowd during a 134-125 loss to the Jazz on March 12, per a league press release (Twitter link). Holmes was ejected from the game at the time of the incident. It shouldn’t make too big of a dent in his wallet — the 28-year-old is in the first season of a lucrative new four-year, $46.5MM contract he signed with Sacramento during the 2021 offseason.
- Despite being inactive for the last 30 Warriors contests this season due to a nagging back injury, All-Star power forward Draymond Green remains convinced he can still win his second Defensive Player of the Year Award this season, per Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area. “Yeah, I’ve seen guys win with not many more games than I’m gonna play,” Green said. “I don’t know what league everybody else has been watching, but I have not seen anyone solidify themselves as Defensive Player of the Year.” Johnson notes that, should Green be available for all 13 remaining Warriors games during the 2021/22 regular season, he will only have suited up for 48 total this year.
- With a 36-35 record, the eighth-seeded Clippers are six games behind the sixth-seeded Nuggets in the Western Conference. L.A. has just 11 games left on its regular season slate. The team has little to no chance of avoiding the play-in tournament at this point of the year, barring a collapse from both the Nuggets and the 40-30 seventh seed, the Timberwolves. The team is also a whopping 5.5 games ahead of the ninth-seeded Lakers. Mirjam Swanson of the Orange County Register examines how the Clippers intend to operate down the home stretch of the season given the reality of their seeding. “We’ll get a chance to experiment with our small lineup, which we gotta get better at once we get everyone healthy and get everyone back and then kinda see how that plays out,“ head coach Tyronn Lue said. Lue also intends to work through after-timeout plays, with an emphasis on helping shooting guard Luke Kennard improve his timing off screens.
- Donte DiVincenzo brought a commitment to defense to the Kings when they acquired him in a four-team trade last month, per Alex Kramers of NBA.com. The fourth-year guard specializes in jumping into passing lanes and forcing turnovers. “At the end of the day, it is just locking up and locking in on the defensive end, [recognizing] how to disrupt [opponents] offensively and how to make a difference for a team,” DiVincenzo said.
- Domantas Sabonis has two years left on his contract and he’s hoping he can help the Kings end their playoff drought during the next two seasons, he told Sam Amick of The Athletic in a wide-ranging interview. “It sucks that we have that drought, but the fact that we can be part of something that can turn it around, you know, that’s the goal. Come in and change the perspective of this organization and what people think,” he said. “We’re excited that we can be part of that and build it, you know? So I want to stay as long as I can. Everything has to go well, (but) I’m happy here.”
- The Kings were the latest team to take part in what has become a trend this season, issuing a statement on Wednesday to say they disagreed with the NBA’s decision to suspend Domantas Sabonis. Previously, the Heat stated that they disagreed with the league’s decision to take away a second-round pick for their early pursuit of Kyle Lowry in free agency, while the Bucks publicly took exception to Grayson Allen‘s one-game suspension.
- According to Scott Soshnick and Brendan Coffey of Sportico, Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is preparing a bid for English soccer club Chelsea FC, which is currently up for sale. Sportico recently projected Chelsea’s value to be $3.35 billion.
Several of the NBA teams that had open roster spots following the trade deadline have since filled them, either with free agent signings, such as DeMarcus Cousins (Nuggets) and DeAndre Jordan (Sixers), or with promoted two-way players, like Caleb Martin (Heat) and Daishen Nix (Rockets).
However, there are still a number of clubs around the league with openings available, either on their standard 15-man roster or among their two-way contract slots.
Here, with the help of our roster counts page, is a look at the teams that have open roster spots as of March 10:
Teams with open 15-man roster spots:
- Atlanta Hawks
- Boston Celtics (2) *
- Charlotte Hornets *
- Cleveland Cavaliers *
- Detroit Pistons
- Indiana Pacers
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New Orleans Pelicans *
- Orlando Magic
- Toronto Raptors *
- Utah Jazz
* The teams marked with an asterisk each technically have full rosters as of today, but are carrying at least one player on a 10-day contract. We’re considering those roster spots “open” because those 10-day deals will soon expire.
Despite a series of signings since last month’s trade deadline, there are still 12 NBA teams that aren’t carrying 15 players on full-season standard contracts. However, four of those clubs have filled their open roster spot(s) with 10-day signings, and a fifth will join that group when the Cavaliers complete their reported 10-day deal with Moses Brown.
The Celtics are one team to watch here. When the second 10-day contracts for Malik Fitts and Kelan Martin expire next Monday night, Boston will either have to sign at least one of them to a rest-of-season contract or add another player within the next two weeks in order to get back to the league-mandated minimum of 14 players on standard deals.
Teams with open two-way spots:
- Houston Rockets
- Phoenix Suns
- Sacramento Kings
Following the trade deadline, five teams had open two-way contract slots. Four of those teams have since filled them — the Suns are the only holdout, having not carried a second two-way player since they released Chandler Hutchison in early January.
The Rockets have had an open two-way slot since they promoted Nix to the 15-man roster nearly a month ago, while the Kings‘ opening has existed since they waived Louis King on February 17.
Kings center Domantas Sabonis has been suspended without pay by the NBA for one game, the league announced today in a press release. Sabonis will serve his suspension on Wednesday when the Kings host the Nuggets in Sacramento.
According to the NBA, Sabonis’ suspension stems from an incident that occurred during the fourth quarter of Sacramento’s loss to the Knicks on Monday.
After being hit with a technical foul for his reaction to a foul call, Sabonis “reacted demonstratively again in the vicinity of the game official, and approached and bumped the official in a hostile manner,” per the league. He was assessed a second technical and ejected from the game.
The NBA posted a video of the incident on its website.
The suspension will cost Sabonis $127,586, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). That amount is 1/145th of the 25-year-old’s $18.5MM base salary for 2021/22.
With center Richaun Holmes also unavailable on Wednesday for personal reasons, the Kings will be without their top two centers when they take on Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets. Chimezie Metu and Damian Jones will likely take on increased roles. Alex Len could also see action, though he hasn’t been part of Sacramento’s regular rotation for nearly two months.