- Kings head coach Mike Brown is unsure whether NBA newcomer Sasha Vezenkov will be part of the team’s rotation when the regular season begins, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. In a separate story, Anderson points out that Vezenkov started in place of injured forward Keegan Murray (thumb) on Wednesday, but Chris Duarte took Vezenkov’s spot in the lineup to open the third quarter. According to Brown, Vezenkov’s ability to hold his own on defense will be a significant factor in determining his role.
The Celtics and Bucks made the best overall moves this offseason, according to the NBA’s general managers. In his annual survey of the league’s top basketball decision-makers, John Schuhmann of NBA.com writes that 23% picked Boston as having the best summer, while another 23% picked Milwaukee. The Trail Blazers (17%) and Lakers (13%) were among the other clubs who received multiple votes.
Of course, the Celtics’ and Bucks’ pre-camp trades for Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard, respectively, were huge factors in the positive perception of their offseasons. Of Schuhmann’s GM respondents, 47% said the Lillard acquisition was the most impactful move of the offseason, while Boston’s addition of Holiday placed second at 13% (the Celtics’ trade for Kristaps Porzingis tied for fourth, at 7%).
Both Boston and Milwaukee are viewed by the league’s general managers as good bets to compete for the title in 2024. The Celtics were selected by 33% of Schuhmann’s respondents as the team that will win the championship the season, while the Bucks got 23% of the vote share. No other Eastern club received a vote, with the Nuggets (33%), Suns (7%), and Clippers (3%) representing the only other teams that were chosen as potential champs.
Here are a few more interesting results from Schuhmann’s GM survey, which is worth checking out in full:
- As much as the NBA’s general managers like Boston’s roster, it was the Grizzlies‘ acquisition of Marcus Smart from Boston that was voted as the most underrated player addition of the summer (17%), narrowly edging out the Mavericks‘ sign-and-trade for Grant Williams (14%).
- The NBA’s GMs are high on the Thunder. Oklahoma City was the runaway winner as the team with the league’s most promising young core (73%) and also earned the most votes for which club will be most improved in 2023/24 (30%).
- Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama got plenty of love from the league’s GMs. He was the top choice for Rookie of the Year (50%) and was the overwhelming pick for which rookie will be the best player in five years (90%). He also placed second among the players Schuhmann’s respondents would most want to start a franchise with today, with his 23% vote share trailing only Nikola Jokic‘s 33%.
- NBA GMs expect Ime Udoka of the Rockets to be the head coach that has the biggest impact on his new team (57%), followed by Monty Williams of the Pistons (17%).
- Jordi Fernandez of the Kings, viewed as a future NBA head coach, comfortably won the vote on the league’s best assistant (31%).
- The NBA’s GMs consider Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (23%), Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (20%), and Magic forward Franz Wagner (13%) the top candidates for a breakout year.
- Which rookie was the biggest steal in the 2023 draft? Rockets wing Cam Whitmore (43%) was the top choice, with Jazz guard Keyonte George, Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson, and Heat forward Jaime Jaquez each receiving 10% of the vote.
Harrison Barnes has played for the Kings the last four-and-a-half seasons and he’ll be around even longer after signing a three-year, $54MM extension. After being subjected to so many trade rumors, Barnes is appreciative of his longevity with the organization, he told Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
“I’m humbled and honored. Because there hasn’t been a whole lot of stability here,” he said. “But to be able to build, to see an entire process go through in the same place and say I was part of a successful rebuild, it’s great. I was part of a rebuild in Dallas and wasn’t able to see that go through. But to actually see it through here and hopefully much further, it’s special.”
We have more on the Kings:
- Sasha Vezenkov scored 12 points in 11 minutes of second half action in a 112-99 loss to the Raptors during the team’s preseason opener Sunday, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee notes. Vezenkov signed a three-year, $20MM contract with Sacramento after winning the EuroLeague MVP award with Olympiacos last season. He’s looking to break into the second unit.
- Sacramento is looking for Keegan Murray to expand his offensive game in his second season. There were signs of that on Sunday, according to Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. Murray, who attempted almost twice as many threes as twos during his rookie season, looked to create more off the bounce in the preseason opener.
- Davion Mitchell and Malik Monk, as usual, were the first players off the bench, Patterson adds. Newcomers JaVale McGee and Chris Duarte rounded out the second unit with Trey Lyles, who re-signed with the club this summer.
The Kings have waived veteran guard Jeremy Lamb, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee reports.
Lamb was signed earliler this month on an Exhibit 10 contract. He’s expected to join Sacramento’s G League affiliate in Stockton after clearing waivers, according to Anderson. Lamb would receive a bonus of $75K if he stays with the Stockton franchise at least 60 days.
Lamb saw action in Sacramento’s preseason opener on Sunday, scoring six points in six minutes.
Lamb, 31, is a former lottery pick who has appeared in 573 career regular season games since 2012 for four teams, including – most recently – the Kings. However, the veteran swingman wasn’t in the league last season following a down year in 2021/22. He averaged 7.3 PPG on .383/.324/.840 shooting in 56 games (16.7 MPG) for Indiana and Sacramento in ’21/22.
Sacramento had a full roster of 21 players entering camp, as our roster count shows. They’ll have to shed two more to get down the 15-man limit (not counting their three two-way players) by opening night.
After helping the Kings snap their lengthy postseason drought in 2022/23, head coach Mike Brown will be tasked with turning Sacramento from a playoff team into a legitimate contender. Speaking to Mark Medina of Sportskeeda, Brown pointed to the ongoing development of rising young players like Keegan Murray as one potential path for improvement. He also praised the work that the front office did this offseason adding more depth to the roster.
“We’re a deep team,” Brown said. “You have to give [general manager] Monte McNair and [assistant GM] Wes Wilcox credit with the team they assembled. I like our group. The depth should help us going forward this year in a lot of different ways.
“I also like our players’ renewed focus on the defensive end of the floor and their ability to understand that we can take a big jump in that area. Not only do they want to do it. You can feel it by the way they are working and by the way they are talking about it so far. You couple the depth with the group’s understanding and hunger to be better on the defensive end of the floor, you feel like you have a pretty positive outlook.”
The Kings added more shooting to their roster this summer by trading for Chris Duarte and signing Sasha Vezenkov and will hope to get more reliable production out of the backup center spot with their addition of JaVale McGee.
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Second-year guard Max Christie, out to prove he deserves a spot in the Lakers‘ regular season rotation, had a strong showing in Saturday’s preseason opener, scoring 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting. “He’s a guy that can be one of our most versatile basketball players on the roster,” head coach Darvin Ham said of Christie, per Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times. “He can guard multiple positions, from the one to the three and some fours. I want him to be aggressive in that manner and take on those challenges. And then offensively, the same thing. He can catch and shoot with the best of them. And I want him to be comfortable shooting that three.”
- Suns guard Jordan Goodwin (right hamstring tightness) and forward Ish Wainright (right calf strain) are out for Sunday’s preseason opener vs. Detroit, tweets Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports. While neither player is on a fully guaranteed contract, Goodwin’s regular season roster spot appears more secure than Wainright’s, so his late start to the preseason is noteworthy.
- Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area explores how a thorough evaluation of the roster and an assessment of the flaws on display during last season’s playoff loss to the Lakers led to many of the Warriors‘ most significant roster moves this summer.
- The Kings renegotiated and extended Domantas Sabonis‘ contract this offseason, adding four more years onto his deal, which is now worth nearly $204MM in total guaranteed money. According to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee, the All-NBA center cited the Kings’ fans and his partnership with De’Aaron Fox as key reasons for why he was “more than happy” to sign a long-term deal. “Having a dynamic guard like that, a superstar who can do everything, offense and defense, it means everything,” Sabonis said of Fox. “You guys saw it last year, and for me as a big to play with someone like that makes life so much easier.”
Trey Lyles has played for five teams across his eight seasons in the league, but he feels like he’s found a long-term home with the Kings, according to Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. Lyles arrived in Sacramento in 2022 at the trade deadline and became a key contributor as the team ended its 16-season playoff drought last year.
The two sides agreed to a two-year, $16MM contract extension this offseason after Lyles made returning to Sacramento his No. 1 priority, according to Patterson.
“Last season, I felt at home with the team, city and the fans,” Lyles said. “But I think it really set in once I signed back. This is the first time in my going-on-nine-year career that I’ve been able to stay in a city for longer than two years. It felt good. … So, that was really the moment it was — not a weight off my shoulders, but kind of a breath of fresh air.”
The 27-year-old forward didn’t make a start for the first time in his career, but he had a consistent role, averaging 7.6 points and 4.1 rebounds in 16.9 minutes off the bench in 74 games.
“Trey’s such a good guy,” Kings coach Mike Brown said of Lyles. “He understands what’s right and what’s wrong. He’s going to bring it every day, and he gives us a lot of versatility.”
We have more from the Kings:
- Both Jeremy Lamb and Jaylen Nowell signed Exhibit 10 training camp contracts with the Kings, Spotrac’s Keith Smith tweets. Sacramento has room to carry one more player on a standard contract for its regular season roster, and Lamb and Nowell are both candidates for that spot, though the Kings don’t necessarily have to carry a full 15-man roster. Those Exhibit 10 agreements provide a way for the Kings to keep one or both of the players in their organization if they don’t make the regular season roster. Both players will be eligible for a bonus worth up to $75K if they are waived before opening night and then spend at least 60 days with Sacramento’s G League affiliate, the Stockton Kings.
- The Kings are high on forward Sasha Vezenkov‘s outside shooting, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Domantas Sabonis called the former EuroLeague MVP the best shooter on the team, while De’Aaron Fox said he was one of the best shooters on Earth. “Man, he shoots the [heck] out of the ball,” Fox said. “It’s crazy. One of our shooting drills, I think it’s like 150 shots, and I think he missed seven. … We want him to be comfortable and we want him to know he has a green light to shoot the ball.” The 6’9″ forward is embarking on his rookie season in the NBA at 28 years old and is expected to have a role right away.
- Guard Jordan Ford grew up rooting for the Kings, Anderson details in another story, and he’s now getting the chance to suit up for the team after he signed a two-way contract in September. “It definitely feels special today putting on the uniform for the first time, the actual threads,” Ford said. “It feels great and I think it’s something that is going to be great through the whole season, just getting to know all the fans and getting to know all the great people, so I’m excited.“
In the past decade or so, the NBA has seen its fair share of superstar trade requests, the majority of which have been granted. Kevin Durant requested a trade out of Brooklyn last year, and we’ve watched the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Jimmy Butler and Anthony Davis, to name a few, ask to be moved. For years, the norm was that those players gave a list of teams they’d prefer to be traded to, with that usually being honored.
Damian Lillard and James Harden are the latest players to demand trades from teams. However, unlike all those that came before them, Lillard wasn’t sent to his previously preferred destination (Miami), and Harden remains on the Sixers’ roster into training camp. Howard Beck of The Ringer opines that these two situations, in particular, prove that the NBA’s so-called “superstar empowerment era” has its limits. According to Beck, front offices and league executives see this as a good thing.
One Eastern Conference executive said “teams are taking back control,” according to Beck, with another longtime general manager saying “it is a significant event that [Lillard] didn’t land where he wanted.”
These executives aren’t against player empowerment, Beck says, but the widespread trade requests by superstars have been destabilizing to teams’ progress. There have been 14 trade requests by players Beck defines as superstars in the last five years, including three from Harden.
Ultimately, the “one team or nothing” approach looks to be the point where some clubs will draw the line, Beck reasons. While it worked out last season for the Suns, who had Mikal Bridges to send to Brooklyn in the Durant move, it diminished the market in the case of Lillard. “I think his chances of ending up in Miami would have been much greater [if he opened up the request to more teams],” one agent said to Beck.
We have more odds and ends from the basketball world:
- In an annual survey of EuroLeague general managers conducted by BasketNews, more than half (53.8%) predicted that Real Madrid center Edy Tavares would be the next EuroLeague player to go to the NBA. Last year, general managers picked Vasilije Micic to move to the NBA, and he eventually did, signing with the Thunder this offseason. Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report tweets that the Trail Blazers had interest in Tavares this offseason, but a significant buyout kept him in Madrid. The BasketNews report states that Portland actually submitted an offer, but with Deandre Ayton and Robert Williams on board, it’s unclear if they’ll continue to have interest. James Nnaji, Guerschon Yabusele, Marko Simonovic and Khalifa Diop also received votes. Tavares previously holds 13 games of NBA experience with Atlanta and Cleveland from 2015-17.
- In an annual piece (ESPN+ link), ESPN’s Zach Lowe names his five most intriguing players to watch out for in the 2023/24 season. Lowe avoids superstars, rookies and second-year players for the most part in his rankings. LaMelo Ball, Devin Vassell, Josh Giddey, Ayton and Immanuel Quickley are the five names Lowe selects to watch out for, with each having a chance to take their respective teams to the next level. I highly recommend reading the piece in full, as Lowe provides detailed breakdowns on each player.
- Following up on his piece about teams likely to overachieve, The Athletic’s John Hollinger broke down five teams that he believes will fall short relative to Vegas win total over/unders. Hollinger expects the Kings and Thunder to win fewer than 44.5 games, the Magic to win fewer than 36.5 games and the Bulls to finish with below 37.5 wins. Of note, Hollinger also doesn’t think the Suns will reach their projected total of 52.5 wins, despite adding Bradley Beal and depth in the offseason. Hollinger reasons that health is a concern and that while he thinks they are certainly contenders in the postseason, the regular season might be bumpy.
- Kings star big man Domantas Sabonis says his thumb is fully healed and didn’t require surgery, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee tweets. Sabonis suffered an avulsion fracture in his right thumb last season and played through the injury.
OCTOBER 2: Lamb’s deal is now official as well, according to RealGM.
SEPTEMBER 30: The signing of Nowell is now official, per RealGM’s transaction log. Sacramento’s deal with Lamb hasn’t yet been formally completed.
SEPTEMBER 29: The Kings are expected to add free agent wings Jaylen Nowell and Jeremy Lamb to their roster for training camp, a source tells James Ham of The Kings Beat (Twitter link).
Nowell, 24, spent his first four NBA seasons with the Timberwolves after being selected with the No. 43 overall pick out of Washington in 2019. He set a new career high with 10.8 points per game in 65 games (19.3 MPG) last season, though his three-point percentage dipped to 28.9% in 2022/23 after he made 34.5% of his outside attempts in his first three seasons.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported on Thursday that Sacramento recently brought Nowell in for a workout.
Lamb, 31, is a former lottery pick who has appeared in 573 career regular season games since 2012 for four teams, including – most recently – the Kings. However, the veteran swingman wasn’t in the league last season following a down year in 2021/22. He averaged 7.3 PPG on .383/.324/.840 shooting in 56 games (16.7 MPG) for Indiana and Sacramento in ’21/22.
The Kings currently have two open spots on their 21-man preseason roster, so they wouldn’t have to waive anyone to make room for Nowell and Lamb.
Of Sacramento’s 19 current players, 14 have fully guaranteed standard contracts. The Kings’ 15th and final regular season spot appears to be up for grabs after Nerlens Noel and Neemias Queta were waived earlier this month. Nowell and Lamb could end up competing for that spot, though the team also isn’t obligated to carry more than 14 players on standard deals to open the season.