How The Sacramento Kings Can Still Win This Offseason

How The Sacramento Kings Can Still Win This Offseason

Now back to the insiders with James Ham and Kyle Madson brought to you by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. James is over there. I’m Kyle. That’s Joe. We’re talking about the NBA draft lottery. Won suspiciously by the Dallas Mavericks last night. 916909 1320. 911691320. That is the Elkrove Kia talk line. If you’d like to jump in on the program and join the conversation, of course, you can also join the conversation in the chatty house at youtube.com/espn1320 or twitch.tv/ ESPN1320. And while you’re there, please subscribe to our channel. We would appreciate the heck out of that. Hit the little notification bell. That way, you get notified when we go live, which we do every day at 9:57 a.m.ish right here on ESPN 13:20. But uh we’ve got some questions there as well that I want to run through because you’ve started a few and we have some really good ones. Let’s start with our guy Jim Garfinkle asks, “Does this lottery change the direction of the Kings?” Not the identity, the direction. I don’t think C can I can I can I start here? Yeah. I don’t think it changes their direction because their direction was okay. They’re not going to have their pick this year. So, they’re going to Scott Perry in the front office are going to start whatever path they’re going to take, whatever direction they’re going to go down. Uh they’re going to start it without a first round pick. Had the Kings jumped into the top four, I think it changes their direction. Oh, I think that changes the calculus dramatically. Yeah. But by even Dallas jumping up and the Spurs jumping up and those two teams being in the West and and possibly building, you know, juggernauts here over the next couple years, that doesn’t change anything for me of what the King should be doing. No. Okay. So, you know, when you you get sushi, right, it always comes with uh like the the sliced ginger, right? Yeah. This was a full-on pallet cleanser for the Kings. Mhm. That’s like they just like, “Okay, it’s over. It’s done with. We rip the band-aid off.” Yes. We no longer have our 2025 pick, but July 1st is like the biggest day for Scott Perry ever because now he starts with a completely clean slate with a 2026, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, and 32 first round picks that are his own. And just real quick, and none of those are like, “But this might go to this team, and if it doesn’t convey, nope, it is. They all belong to the Kings.” Yeah, they’re 2031 does have that little asterisk. It’s a It’s a potential pick swap with the San Antonio Spurs. Yes. On top of that, they have the Spurs unprotected 2027 pick and the Timberwolves unprotected 2031 pick. Keep an eye on those. Those are two of the most valuable pieces the Kings can have because what they do is they free you up to trade your own picks, but also to make blockbuster trades with unprotected picks that aren’t yours. Yes. So it does not matter what you do and what you don’t do. Mhm. They are other teams unprotected first round picks which could be so incredibly valuable. It’s ridiculous. Two unprotected firsts in a deal is crazy. That’s you’re getting like you’re getting an star level player. You’re not throwing an unprotected first at somebody for Kyle Cruz. You’re throwing unprotected firsts for I I don’t John Morant like that that that type of Yes. that type of deal. I don’t I don’t know if I’d do that for John specifically, but that that type of player. Yeah. And there’s always a potential that like a team you’re dealing with may have a player that’s so good that you have to throw in one or two of your own picks. Sure. But you can give a team a 26 and a 27 and a 28. Mhm. And a 31 or a 30. Like you have so many options now. A lot of drive capital. Yeah. And the fact that they’re staggered is really brilliant. The other thing it does is the way the Kevin Herder trade worked out is that if you if you didn’t give up your pick next season, it converted into two second round picks, a 26 and a 27 second round pick because the Kevin Herder trade is now over and done with. The Kings also get those two picks back. They could not they were basically held in the bank. You could not use your 26 or 27 second round pick. So now the Kings have a 25, 26, 27. Now check this out. They don’t have a 28, 29, 30, or 31 second round pick. They’ve got a 32. So they’re back up to four second round picks total over the next seven years. Charlotte’s first this year conveys as a 26 and 27 second. Yeah, but I they already traded that pick for Jake Larabia. Oh, that’s right. Yes, that’s right. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I think they traded one of those picks for Labraia and and one pick for um Valenunis. Okay. Um Yeah. So, so like look, this was to me it’s it’s that moment where Scott Perry goes, “Okay, I now know what I have to work with.” Yes. Completely. Yes. There are no more question marks. I know exactly what I have to work with. And can I plot out a pathway? And that’s where again a guy like Demard Rosen, you might be able to trade him in a deal like what we talked about just a not even reporting a speculative not a report this would work financially deal of Duncan Robinson and Hayhawk not a report for uh Demar Rosen. Um so there’s that type of deal, right? There’s also a deal where you find a team that would take on Demard Rosen and maybe you’ve got to give up a couple of second round picks just to dump the salary. A team with a bunch of salary cap space. Sure. And maybe they would take two seconds to take on that contract because Demar is still a player, right? As opposed to when you had to give up the your the 24th pick or 25th pick and and the draft a couple years ago to dump uh the 25 million owed to Rashawn Holmes. Sure. Right. So, like there are a lot of ways you can do it, but then there’s also the other types of deals where you can take Demard Rosen, stack on Devin Carter’s contract. Now, you’re dealing with up to 36 37 million bucks worth of contract. You add a couple of first round picks. Now, you’re now you’re cooking to go get a player that you really really that upgrades your roster. You can go get they they now have the assets. Now, whether this this deal gets pulled off, no clue. Mhm. But they have the assets, the draft capital, the contracts to make a major major swing. Not a major swing like Cam Johnson, a major swing like Kevin Durant, Jiannis Antakmpo. They have the assets to go play in that pool. And again, now whether they can pull that off, I don’t know because OKC’s got assets like that. San Antonio’s got assets like that. Houston’s got assets like that. Like they that there are other teams with that, but the Kings now get to get to be in that in that group if they choose. If they choose to mean that’s what happens when you have nine first round picks, not a report. No. Yeah, we’re not We are reporting they do have nine first round picks. That’s That’s a Yes, that they do have nine first round picks and four second round picks over the next seven years. But over the next seven years, they have nine first round picks. That’s a lot. It’s a lot. And especially when you factor in those extra picks in 27 and and 31, it just gives you so much fluidity and then you can start tacking on pick swaps like you can you can really do some damage in the in the trade market if you’re Scott Perry and the Kings. Our guy TC is on the line. We’ll get to to more good chatty house questions here in a second, but I want to get to TC because TC is feeling good about where the Kings are at from a draft capital perspective. What’s up TC? Yes, sir man. What’s up with my two bros, Kyle and Hammer? Vibing, man. What’s going on, dude? Hey, VI. Hey, vibing for real. Hey, Hammer. Hey, Kyle. I like where we’re at, bro. I like our draft pack. Uh, our draft pick selection. I like where we’re at. So, hey, I don’t care about that first round pick, bro. Because I think moving forward right now, I think we’re in a better predicament. Like, what’s him? Am I right? Don’t we got to like the 14? What’s that almost 14 and a half trade exception? Um, no. They have a they have a $16.8 $8 million trade exception for Kevin Herder. Man, hammer. So, we almost got a $20 million. We could take almost a $20 million player and our unprotected first, bro. Listen, man. It’s f to get juicy, bro. Kings fans, get ready. I’m excited. Ham and Kyle, I’m excited, bro. Thanks, TC. Appreciate you. Yeah, get juicy. Well, I’ll tell you. Get ready. Salute. That’s That’s one of the other things that that I wrote down for today. The Kevin Herder trade is finally over, but realistically it’s not because the second Kevin Herder trade came with this little weird asterisk that you you were able to to do a deal where you didn’t have to take money back for Kevin Herder. Mhm. And it created $16.8 million trade exception, which is good all the way until the trade deadline next year. Man, so that’s a that’s a lot of money. And so as long as you’re not hardcapped, right, which is what happened last year with the Kings, right, which it happens on a signing trade, which happens on a sign and trade, right? As long as you don’t hard cap your you don’t again this summer hard cap yourself, that means you could get all the way up to the trade deadline and you could already be close to the luxury tax, you could blow right over the top of the luxury tax and take on a $15 million player from another team. Another fascinating aspect of all this. Yeah. Will they do that? Well, we have no idea. The the the crazy thing is is I have more confidence that Scott Perry would try to do that than I did with the other guys. Like just honestly and and they’re in a position now and again this is a where they’re set up this the place they’re starting from. This does not mean they’re going to get to this ultimate finish line, this this pie in the sky finish line that we’re talking about, but they are in a they are starting from a position where they can go get players where you would be very well justified to go over the luxury tax. It wouldn’t be just doing it to just have guys. No, no. You know what I’m saying? You take one big swing, you take a second big swing, all of a sudden you’ve got your small forward, you’ve got your point guard locked up, and that’s in your rotation, and you see a way that you can go get another big time player that you think can really push you like over the top, that’s when you do it. Yeah. Like we’ve talked about this forever, and RIP Rory, we used to fight all the time about the fact where whether the Kings were willing to, you know, spend and go into the luxury tax. to be honest, when have they been in the position, and they realistically they should have been in the position two years ago where they did. They went in the luxury tax to improve the roster, but they didn’t. And so, you’re always left with that. Well, maybe they won’t. Um, but it’s a big difference between being an NBA luxury taxpaying team and and basically being an NBA like the equivalent of a welfare team. Yeah. You get a lot more money back from the league. I mean, we’re talking about 13 14 million bucks. Sure. that they’re they’re gonna get and all the money that you save by not going over the tax. Yeah. So, we’ll see. Plenty more coming up for what the NBA draft lottery means for the Kings. We’re taking your calls at 9169-1320 9169091320. That’s the Elkrove Kia talk line. And then we got some more questions in the chatty house that we want to get to as well. All that coming up in the second hour. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. We’re the insider sponsored by Jiffy Lube on ESPN 1320. It is Sacramento sports leader.

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