What’s Next For Sacramento Kings After Signing Dennis Schroder?

What’s Next For Sacramento Kings After Signing Dennis Schroder?

Brazil in the cut. We’re the insider sponsored by Jiffy Lube. All right. Um the Kings are finally doing stuff and we’re going to try and make sense of it today because the NBA hit uh the crazy button this morning. If ever if you’re watching on YouTube and Twitch or watching on YouTube, please hit the thumbs up. We would appreciate you immensely for doing that. And subscribe to the channel if you don’t. We’re on here every single day, Monday through Friday, James and I. 10:00 a.m. to noon, DLO and Casey, noon to 4. Uh we don’t change stream. It’s just all the same thing. So, so come hang out with us each and every day as we talk sports. Kings, ners, Giants, Raiders, A’s, whatever, whatever’s going on, uh, we got you. If you’re listening on 1320 a.m. and 98.5 FMD2, good morning. We appreciate you. If you’re listening on the free Odyssey app, thank you. Hello. If you don’t have the free Odyssey app, download that. Search ESPN 1320 and uh, you can listen to our station live anywhere around the world. Take us with you. Anyways, there you go.
So, I don’t even know where to start. Matt, a friend of the program, Matt Moore, HP basketball on Twitter, Hardwood peroxism.
Yep.
Said, “I don’t even know where to begin writing.” And that’s exactly how I kind of feel about this King stuff because they’ve now agreed to sign Dennis Rutder to a three-year $45 million deal with the third year partially guaranteed.
Yep. Jonas Valenunis has been traded to the Denver Nuggets for Dario Sarge in a salary dump. And now we’re sitting here with Dennis Shruder still being the most substantial thing the Kings have done. And I think where, you know, I I saw Kenny talking about this last night on Twitter, how people need to need to relax and, you know, you’re you’re saying today like, “God, people are so angry.” I think it’s just the uncertainty of what is this?
Yeah.
What What is this? Are they trying this year? Are they in a in a quote unquote gap year? Are They’re not tearing it down. They’re clearly not going to tank. I don’t I I I think the frustration is and where my frustration lies is I there’s no path here. There’s no clear direction here. This is get a point guard. All right, you got him.
Yeah. I mean, like, look, um, the salary cap is 155 million bucks. And the luxury tax is 150 188 million. The first apron is like 198 million.
But you just signed a point guard. And I know people want to freak out cuz this is Dennis Shruder’s 10th uh team in his 13th NBA season.
Fourth team in 12 months.
He’s not young. Um but he does do a lot of the things that the Kings want to do. He does play defense. He he does push the tempo. Uh he does shoot the three ball. Um he’s not a perfect, you know, he’s not perfect at any of these things. Um but he is the best free agent guard point guard on the market. And people can bring up Ty Jerome or they can bring up Tyus Jones or Trey Jones. The fact is like Dennis Shruder is a better player than all of those guys
and and he’s also a more natural point guard than Ty Jerome. Uh he’s a better scorer than either of the Jones brothers. He’s just he’s a better point guard. So I think where we we kind of get caught up in this saying is what exactly are the Kings doing with the Malik Monk situation? Uh I I know Jake Fischer had a lot of stuff on a potential sign-in trade for uh for Shruder and Monk last night. Um it at this point it does not appear that that is what’s happening. Um and and basically like I couldn’t make sense of of a swap Dennis Shrutder for Malik Monk swap. And I I can even tell people like look when you hear that uh the Kings traded Yonas Valenunis for Dario Sarich and save five million bucks. They’re not saving 5 million bucks to put it in VC or a DB’s pocket. That’s not what they’re doing.
What they’re doing is trying to lower their their salary right now so they can do other moves because if not they’re right up against the luxury tax. You sign Dennis Shruder to a deal that starts at 14.1 million. That’s the mid-level exception. They just gave up their mid-level exception. Okay. Right.
That would have put them at roughly 183 million and the luxury tax is 188.
You have no room to move.
You have $5 million to work with.
Yeah. And at that point, if you would have signed Jake Laorabia, who the Kings lost yesterday, if you would have signed Jake Laorabia, you’re at or over the luxury tax
and you’re done.
Mhm.
Right. So, by trading Valentunis, now you drop all the way down to like 178 million. Now you got about 10 million to play under the luxury tax. And look, they’re not done. At least I don’t think they’re done. They’re they still have the ability to go out and and sign more. Like we’ve heard the Russell Westbrook rumors. We’ve heard like all, you know, Malcolm Brogden. They’re going to talk to Malcolm Brogden, but
Zoom with Malcolm Brogden.
Yeah, they’re going to zoom. They had all these Zoom set up yesterday. So like at some point, you’re still going to have to address the lack of depth at the forwards uh spots. You still have Demard Rosen and and Nick as your only small forwards. You have Keegan Murray as your only true power forward. You can put Dario Sarich in that, but let’s be honest, Dario Sarich is looking more and more like he’s washed.
I will I will hear a lot of things today. Like I said, I’m not I’m not in the place where it’s like fire everybody. What a disaster. Everything is awful. I’m not I I I’m not there.
Yeah. Like I said, it’s just the the general I I expect there to be a very clear direction of like, oh, this is what they’re doing. This is how this affects immediate immediate. This is how this affects two and three years down the line. And it’s looking more and more like this is this quote unquote gap year we keep talking about.
Yeah.
This is that this is, hey, we got some some rough contracts to move. Uh they’ll be easier to move down the line, so we’re just going to kind of do that. And that’s fine. You’re just not going to sell that to me.
No. I I I’m not going to be okay with like, hey, the the Kings are going to be like a nine or 10 seat again this year. It’s fine. Everything’s cool. Like, I just That’s yucky. I don’t want I’m not I’m not doing that. But what I won’t be talked into is Dario Sarge.
Oh, yeah.
I’m sorry. I will You can have the Purplest glasses in the greater Sacramento region and you’re not going to be able to talk me into Dario Sarge.
No, that’s fine.
As a as a like option.
Yeah. Like three years ago, I would have loved to have had Dario Sar four years ago, but yeah, Dario Sar’s career path has gone uh pretty much
not the right direction.
No, it it’s gone away. And like look, they could buy out Dario Sarge tomorrow and and spread his $5 million contract, 5.4 million bucks over three years u and so cost you 1.5 million. That’s another 3 million they can free up in in money to to get closer to get just add more depth to this roster. I I don’t I don’t think at this point that the Kings are even close to done. And I can even explain people that were out there freaking out last night because of the Malik Monk thing.
Yes. Like look, if if there was an opportunity for you to trade Malik Monk for for Dennis Shruder on paper that doesn’t sound great, right? Because I bad
I said this last week without any question. I believe that Malik Monk is a better basketball player than Dennis Shruder.
You’d be trading a younger better player for an older worse player. Yeah,
that’s a really hard sell for me, man.
I I get it. But I I would also say like Dennis Shruder is a true point guard where Malik Monk isn’t.
He is. I mean that he plays the position. He has played the position. I’m perfectly fine with them going into the season with Shruder and Monk. I think that that’s actually a really dynamic point guard pairing. It’s not De’Arren Fox. It’s not going out and getting John Morant, but what it is is you’re going out and you’re you’re filling up the 48 minutes at that position with two guys that can really cook and I’m okay with that. But the reason why you would have traded Malik Monk in a deal for Dennis Shruder is very specific. It would it would have been a sign and trade which would have hardcapped the team at 198 million which they’re not getting to anyways, right?
But on top of that, it would have kept the mid-level exception. So, the Kings would still have that 14.1 million bucks
that they can either trade or they can trade for a player to come into that money or they can go out and sign a player for that money.
They would have had that as well as Dennis Shruder. So, while you’re losing Monk,
Mhm.
you would have had the ability to go out and still continue to make moves. And it would have dropped their payroll all the way to like 163 million, which would have given them 25 million underneath the luxury tax and 35 million under the the first apron and where they would be hardcapped. Correct. As of right now, they’re not hardcapped. If if this is a straight sign uh of of Dennis Schruder to the mid-level exception, then they are not hardcapped and they can continue to do business accordingly. But that doesn’t mean that they have a bunch of money to go do stuff. What they do have is they still have the Kevin Herder uh $6.8 million trade exception. They’ve got a couple other trade exceptions. I I’m I’m pretty sure that in this deal to move Dario Sarich for uh Yonas Valenunis that they probably use a Chris Wart uh
like a um a TPE, the traded player exception, but that that thing was going to expire in like three days anyways. 5 days. Yeah. Uh so like look, they’re tightroppe walking right now. They’re trying to piece together a team. um trying to be competitive, which I know you can disagree with,
but that’s why Scott Perry was brought in here, not to tear it down, but to build something different in his image uh while remaining competitive. While whether they remain competitive or not, that’s a whole other story. Like, we don’t know if they’re going to remain competitive. But as of right now, if they just gave up their mid-level, they still have their byanual exception, a little over 5 million. Uh they still have these trade exceptions, so they can go trade for somebody. uh they still have minimum contracts that they can sign for people. I just think that this might as of right now if if uh again Malik Monk is staying in Sacramento for right now
uh that does kind of extinguish any like chase of Russell Westbrook.
It’s uninspiring. No, I agree.
All the names you’re saying are so uninspiring this idea that yeah, you can go make a trade for the with this with this trade exception. Like all right, man. Like I guess it sounds like it sounds like you’re just throwing I’m going to use the phrase band-aids again just yeah here’s here’s some stuff look we made moves and I don’t know man it just doesn’t we wanted a direction right the the we talked about you need that point guard you need a point guard to build around Tyrese Hallebertton Shil just Alexander look what the freaking Hawks are doing around Trey Young this off seasonason Yeah.
Like, man, it is so much easier if you have that point guard to build around. You got to go find that guy. And then it’s like, hey, here’s Dennis Shruder. Call us in a couple of years. Just wait till we can get off these contracts. That’s not a plan, dude.
No. No. I get you.
And I And I understand that he inherited a mess. Like I said, I I I I I’m not fully in the what are they doing? Everything’s terrible. But at the same time, I I’m not going to be talked into wow. Hey, Sunshine and Rainbows, man. Look, they got a point guard.
Mhm. Like at least they can finally now move on with their off seasonason because apparently this was priority number one. Like there’s a Keon extension to do. You got a Keegan extension to do. Yeah.
You gota you got to figure all that out still. Well, I’ I’d also tell you this. It does look like like Scott Perry’s looking at the next two years as like how do I get through the next two years? How do I get through the finalund well 97 million or whatever it is it’s owed Zack Lavine? How do I get through the demar de Rozan two years remaining? Um whether it’s one or two years, right? How and if this is what I’m going to work with right now, I’m going to add Dennis Shruder to just get us through this two-year window. And that doesn’t mean that it’s a full two-year window. It could mean that at the trade deadline, somebody comes and knocking and says, “Hey, we’ll take Demar De Rozan.” And you make a move. Or hey, you know, we got a year and a half left of Zack Lavine. Somebody want to take on the contract. you make some move at the deadline. So, what we’re looking at is placeholders until they can figure out, you know, the path forward.
And the path forward, like here, it’s not going to be easy. Like one of the worst things that ever happened was that you allowed, and this is again, this isn’t even a knock on Zack Lavine. But when you take a starting point guard that you build a team around, you talk about the Trey Youngs, you talk about, you know, John Mor that Memphis is out there building around John Mor, you know, all of these point guards that they build around. you had your point guard to build around and you traded him for an overpriced shooting guard with a long history of of not only not playing defense but a long history of injury.
Mhm.
Like
you traded for a bad contract.
Yeah. Well, not only a bad contract, but a player at a position that realistically isn’t that difficult to fill that you already had multiples of. Mhm.
So when you did that, you unbalance a roster so greatly
that there’s no way to to really to like everybody right now is is on the other side of the boat trying to keep the thing from capsizing.
Totally.
Because you brought in a contract that doesn’t make any sense
and that’s just really really difficult to recover from. And that’s that’s the job that Scott Perry accepted.
No. And that’s that’s understood. I think I think where the other frustration comes in
Mhm.
because nothing you said is wrong. Like I’m not I don’t I’m not disagreeing with you, but I think where the frustration comes in is they take this huge swing to acquire Demon Sabonis, right? Like you trade Tyrese Hallebertton who is a who is a who is a rising star, but you get Demon Sabonis and hey, this thing works. And then that was like the last major move they made.
That was the last huge swing they took. And that was what three years ago now, four years ago now. Yeah. Four years ago. So, I think when when you’re the Kings and you’re like, man, it would take a huge swing to kind of get out of this. What’s what’s the big move that’s coming? Where’s the And you see Milwaukee waving Damen Lillard and just eating 22 million a year for 5 years and saying, “Hey, we’re going to do this and then we’re going to sign Miles Turner.” And you see Denver able to get off Michael Porter Jr’s contract for Cam Johnson and then sign Bruce Brown to the minimum. And uh what else did they do? And then acquire Jonas Valenunis.
Yeah.
Like you see all these teams do it. You see Atlanta doing all this stuff. You see Phoenix moving mountains to to try and change their situation. And then the Kings are like how about Dennis Shruder? Like trust us, we’re do like it seems like every other team is able to to function and maneuver and make this big swing. And for years with Monty McNair, we heard financial flexibility, uh, patience, and we’re gonna wait and bite our time, and then we’re gonna strike. And it just never happened. And, and now it kind of feels like, hey, financial flexibility, we’re going to wait and buy our time. Dog, that’s a really hard sell given how the last three years.
Yep. I agree.
We got to step aside on the radio. We’re going to play some commercials and then we’ll keep talking about this. We’ve got a ton of King stuff coming up. We got to get into the the Milwaukee Bucks insane moves. Denver looks awesome. Atlanta continues to win the offseason which is kind of crazy.
Houston
Houston winning the off. There is so much going on in the NBA and we’re going to cover all of it and there’s going to be news breaking throughout the day. So do not go anywhere on ESPN 1320. This is the insiders. We’re sponsored by Jiffy Loop. Joe’s over there. That’s James. I’m Kyle. Uh we’re rocking with you until noon on Sacramento Sports. Thanks,

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