Breaking Down Jonathan Kuminga To The Sacramento Kings Rumor

Breaking Down Jonathan Kuminga To The Sacramento Kings Rumor

I promise you today when we’re muting mics, there’s no basketball talk happening because we don’t know what’s going on either. We have an like a like a kind of idea. It’s it’s out of control, man. It’s out of control. Like
the reporting the reporting last night, it’s all kind of surrounding the same thing. And that’s where I don’t think I don’t think anything here has been implicitly like wrong. I think the Kings very much are trying to lure Jonathan Kaminga away from the Warriors uh by way of or lure the Warriors to to trade them Jonathan Kaminga with a starting offer of like Devin Carter, Daario Sarich and in a couple of seconds like can we can we get that out there or or protected first or whatever it is.
Yeah. Yeah. like can is that I have no doubt that that’s been discussed on some level. But I also then you see like from Anthony Slater like there’s nothing close with Kaminga and there’s no there’s no deal happening. It’s just there’s definitely conversations happening. There’s definitely this this Kings, Pistons, Warriors, maybe other teams question mark, sign and trade being bandied about and discussed and kicked around, but the parameters of that, the teams involved, the players involved, I don’t know. I got nothing.
Okay, so look, everybody in Sacramento had it last night. Had the exact same information.
Yep. that the Kings are it’s it’s part of a big three-team deal. The Kings are trading Malik Monk to the Detroit Pistons. Dennis Shruder is coming to Sacramento. It’s part of that deal. Dario Sarich and Devin Carter and and it kept changing. It’s either two second round picks or a protected first round pick going to the Warriors for Jonathan Kaminga. We don’t know the dollar total that Kaminga is gonna sign for. It just kept playing out. Like I’ve never seen a story
that everyone in Sacramento has and people in Detroit have, but no one in the Bay Area has at all. It is circulating everywhere. I’m getting hit by every single reporter I know going, “Oh my gosh, are you hearing this?” And it’s like, “Yeah, we’re all hearing the same exact thing,”
right? Which is kind of a problem. Okay. So, yeah, it’s a problem because we always worry about leaks, right? Yeah. Yeah. This is not a leak. This is like a full-blown pipe burst and the entire Golden One Center is flooding.
Like, it’s out of control. What is happening? I don’t know.
And so, it’s just like extremely difficult. That’s why I’m not out there putting the trade out there because it’s it’s like I there’s a rule that I when I worked retail, there’s a rule that I always live by and I taught my cashiers.
The customer is always right.
Never.
Oh, okay. Got it.
If they tell you a story, it’s a story. Straight up.
Uhhuh.
And they would look at me like, “What do you mean?” Like if some customer walks up and starts giving you some big giant story,
there’s probably a reason why they’re telling you a story and they’re probably lying and there’s probably something nefarious about what’s happening.
Yeah. So, like when you have someone come come in and try to return two $400 tents from the other Copeland’s in San Francisco and you take back that and you give them the money and they sit there and they tell you this elaborate story about how they they work for a nonprofit and how their camping trip got cancelled the last second. this big dramatic story and then they walk out the door and you go open up the tents and all that’s left is the poles and the bag and the rain cover and they just stole a400 and something dollar tent from you,
right?
It’s always a story,
right?
And so like in this situation like, man, I got my my Spidey senses are tingling, man. Anytime that it is this obvious, this blatant, this all over the place,
right,
I step back and say, “No, no, no, no. I’m gonna vet this thing fully. And if I can’t get it vetted, then I’m not running with it.” Like the I put it out last night. The rumor mill was churning. And it’s crazy. And I have like Trista Tristy Rodriguez from NBC Sports Bay Area. She wrote it. She put it out there what everybody else is hearing. Yeah. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that because she might have somebody that she feels really comfortable
telling her that.
But this is pretty crazy.
And I have the the thing is is I’m not trying to say anybody’s wrong here. It’s just that I I think this this deal was more, hey, this is what’s been discussed, not hey, we’re on the and and I don’t think anybody reported this, but this wasn’t a, hey, this is happening. The Kings and Pistons and Warriors are going to do this trade. It’s at the finish line. Uh, they’re just working out minor G. Like, that’s not what it was just, hey, here’s a thing that’s being discussed. And it’s interesting because the Dennis Shruder deal when it came in at 3 years and 45 million the the antenna went up for 3 years is the required length of a deal for a sign and trade.
Yes.
And then there was the Malik Monk sign and trade aspect of it. And then we didn’t hear anything really more than that. And now all of a sudden it’s back to a signin trade which is an interesting aspect of this whether it involves Jonathan Kaminga or not. And I and I want to go there for a moment if we can. I want to remove the Jonathan Kaminga piece of this because it seems like whether Kaminga is involved or not, this is going to be a signin trade at least between the Pistons and the Kings. Well, the Kings are trying to they’re hoping that it will be a signin trade like because it just helps you in a bunch of different ways. Sure. Right. So, if you do a sign-in trade, um, number one, it drops your your payroll way back down to like 163, 165 million. Right.
Right. And the luxury tax is at 188, but it also cost you Malik Monk to do that.
Mhm.
Right. So, that’s where the sign and trade comes in. You’d actually save money by shipping Malik Monk out for Dennis Shruder.
Okay. So, that would be if there was, just to pause you real quick. So if there was a straight across monk for shrruder signin trade
yep
the Kings are saving money. That would be their motivation to do that. Well I mean their motivation is to get a starting point guard.
Well no no no I know but
but at this point yes
versus sign him outright. Yep.
Or send Malik Monk out in the signing trade.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Because I think there are people out there who are going to go why wouldn’t you just sign him and then also keep Malik Monk? You tra a you have a glut of players at that position and b you’re saving money. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
And what’s and what’s intriguing there is you said it gets them down to about 164.
Yeah. It gets him down to like 164 165 million which gives them 24 million under the luxury tax
to go out and do some more damage
to go perhaps sign Jonathan Kaminga restricted free agent to a 1620 million offer. Well, no, because they don’t have Okay, there’s a difference between money before the luxury tax and being under the salary cap.
Oh, god.
They’re over the salary cap, which is 155 million. So, they can’t go out and sign an offer sheet to Kaminga.
Re Okay.
They can’t sign an offer sheet to Kaminga at all. So there’s no route to acquiring Jonathan Kaminga beyond no realistic route beyond
a sign in trade.
Looping the Warriors in via sign in trade.
Exactly. There’s no way to get Kaminga without a sign and trade. I’m sorry I said that wrong.
I I Let me rewind to the Monk aspect of this. Yes. This is where I was trying to go with it. You trade Malik Monk.
Yep. And now that opens the door for Jonathan Kaminga signs that $18 million a year deal with the with the Warriors. You acquire him now via trade and now you have the room to do so.
Yes,
there it is.
Exactly. So I knew I knew there was something there. If not, you know, we we start adding things up. If they just sign Shruder and again that will push them up to I think I had it at 183, but then we have to add in a couple of $2.5 million bonus. Uh potential bonuses I think. Well, at least it’s Sabonus. Potential bonus, right?
The Sabonus bonus. Interesting. Potential Sabonus bonus.
Yes.
Yeah.
All right. So, that 2 and a half million counts against your luxury tax. So, now we’re at like 185. And you got to remember the luxury tax is uh like I mean like they’re not going over the luxury tax. At least they haven’t yet. So, it’s at 188 million. Then they go out and they say Andrew Eubanks.
Mhm. You’re there. You’re done. You’re you’re completely finished. like without waving somebody, without going out and and clearing, you’re not if the Kings aren’t going above the luxury tax, then they’re capped right there. And even if they do, the first apron’s at like 96 million. You would only have like an additional 8 million to go above before you hit the apron. And then you start getting all kinds of penalties, right? So now if you trade monk, you all of a sudden have this gigantic swath of uh movement between where you’re at in salary and where the luxury tax is, right? So but you’re o you’re over the cap, but you’re under the luxury tax. And this is that area we kept talking about the Kings are have to play in this this area, which is a lot of money. It’s it’s basically $33 million between the salary cap at 150 and the luxury tax at 188. Mhm.
So, there’s a lot of wiggle room that you can do, but inside of that, that’s where you use your mid-level exception. It’s where you use your bianual exception. It’s where you use a $16.8 million trade exception from Kevin
Herder.
And so, you can start stacking up salaries inside of that that little area that you’re in, right?
Um, you can even sign league minimum deals. So, I think what the Kings plan as of right now, they they hope that they are able to move Monk in a signing trade to bring in Shruder and then I think they’re going to go right back and revisit the Russell Westbrook signing uh and try to bring Russell Westbrook in. Now, it’s possible they can’t get Westbrook. It might be too late that, you know, he might go sign back with Denver because Denver is building a monster, like whatever. But there’s ways in which they can start to bring in players like that,
right? Um, but now we have this Kaminga deal and and again, listen to the Kaminga deal that’s out there. It’s Daario Sarich at 5 million.
It’s uh Devin Carter at 6 million. So that’s 11 million bucks.
Now in that deal,
they’re going to have to do something like,
you know, first of all, Kaminga is going to want like 25 to 30 million. That’s what he wants.
And the Warriors are only going to be able to take back half of whatever he signs. Half of that. So, you could see right now where it could be like a $25 million deal. You basically have $12 million worth of player,
but there’s that other 12 million bucks that that you’re accepting in salary
that you’re not sending out. And that again is where this whole little area the Kings are playing in where they can start fitting that Kaminga salary in without going over the luxury tax. So, and they also like they’re going to have trade exceptions or they there’ll be other ways for them to finagle the deal where it works for them. Um, but it’s it’s not simple. And that’s why uh like going out and trying to get a Jonathan Kaminga is like it’s one of the more difficult things. But lastly, I’ll say like I agree with Brian Winhors. Brian Winhor said this is the worst
the absolute worst restricted free agent moment in the history of the NBA. There is no money for any restricted free agent to go out and sign an offer sheet because in order to sign an offer sheet,
you have to have
plain everyday cap space. You’ve got to be
you have to be you have to be $150 million. The $155 million luxury tax in order to sign a $20 million lux uh like offer sheet, you’ve got to be all the way back at $1 135 million bucks. And no one is ever
no one has copies.
Yeah.
It’s not a real thing. And it’s a it’s a way different situation than the Keon Ellis situation because Keon Ellis that’s a $14 million. He’s probably going to get the full midle, right? So a bunch of teams have the mid level where they can offer that 14 million. But when you’re talking about 25 million
there you can’t uh connect you can’t aggregate your your uh exceptions. you can’t aggregate your exception with a player in order to move them like so it gets really complicated
if yes or no and if it’s more complicated than this
tell me what I understand is that if they execute a uh this sign and trade for Dennis Shruder where Malik Monk goes out I saw that they would use the Kevin Herder trade exception
Yep. to absorb Dennis Shruder, which would leave their full midle open.
Would they be able to sign Keon Ellis? No.
To an extension using that mid level?
No. No, they can’t. But also, if they do a sign-in trade for Shruder, that would be a a straight player swap. If they absorb Shruder into their contracts uh without sending out Malik Monk, that’s where they would use the the traded player acceptance.
I see. Okay. Got it. Okay. You remember it’s a coupon that says Kevin Herder’s name on it and you’re given the coupon for a player,
right? Got it. Okay, great.
And no, they can’t use any of that money
to sign Keon Ellis. It’s too late to sign Keon Ellis to a deal this year. That’s Yeah. Be Got it. Okay, here we go. It’s a lot, guys. I’m trying to trying to get my arms around it, too. Let’s talk more about Jonathan Kaminga, though. I’m going to try and talk myself into this a little,
okay?
A little bit. Not all the way.
I think I’m going to do something even crazier. So, go ahead.
Oh boy. Can’t wait to find out. We literally I don’t know what it what it is. So, stick around. We’ll all find out together. We’re the Insiders. Sponsored by Jify Loop. Joe Brazil there. James Ham over there. I’m Kyle Madson. We’re the Insiders. for hanging out with you.

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