How effective would Jonathan Kuminga be with this Kings lineup?

How effective would Jonathan Kuminga be with this Kings lineup?

We are joined by Dan Favlli of Bleacher Report. Dan, thank you so much for joining us. Oh, no problem. Thank you for having me as always. So, let’s let’s start here, Dan. We’re going to have some fun, okay? Because we’ve been going through a lot of your articles, Dan. you know, when we take a a break from some Jonathan Kaminga talk and we love checking out all your articles, but Dan, here’s the only thing that’s going on here. I’m I’m reading the articles and you have a lot of good kind of combination articles where you are bringing up different teams. But, but I I’m reading here, Dan, and it says one word to describe each NBA team. For the Sacramento Kings, you had hopeless. For another article you had, it was rosters that don’t make sense. The Kings were on that list. You have players that you were predicting players that might uh request a trade. Damont Sabonis. Then there was another article, teams that should trade their best player. The Kings were also on that list. Dan, do we have is there any any positivity you can cook up in your soul about the Sacramento Kings? In your heart of hearts, is there anything you got for us? I love Nate Clifford. I think that was an excellent move. Okay. He was I think he was the best rookie at summer league by far and he feels like someone he just does so much. It feels like someone who’s going to fill a lot of their weaknesses, especially on defense, but also kind of bolster their strengths as well. And I’m kind of interested. I don’t think they’re going to do this knowing how they’ve developed some of their other players. I really would like to see him run some of the offense, too. And with Sabonis, but you just have so many guards, other guards right now. I don’t know if they’ll do that, but that was a really good pickup by them. I think I think he’s going to be a fantastic NBA player. Having some fun with Dan Favlli of Bleacher Report. And trust me, Dan, we appreciate it. and uh you giving us the ability to expand on that uh with the with the time that we have specifically in the off season. With that being said, you just brought up Nick Clifford and and Scott Perry mentioned him running the offense and Dan, I’m probably with you here because I’m I’m going to uh kind of assume your your thought process. How much do you think the I don’t want to say obsession, but the uh the love for Westbrook or the feeling of need that the Kings have to add Russell Westbrook. How much sense do you think that makes right now? Uh is there a number less than zero? I mean I you have Dennis Shruder, you have Malik Monk, you have Jamar Rozan, you have Zack Lavine, you have Nick Clifford, you have Devin Carter too and Sabonis. I just don’t I don’t see the fit there at all. and they need I’d rather them get a wing or another backup big than target another guard. So, uh, that doesn’t make any sense to me. I’ I’d be shocked if he landed there, but maybe I’m also giving the Kings a little too much credit on on that front. Yeah, I I was we were talking earlier about why haven’t the Suns called on Russell Westbrook? They legitimately they they need someone and he was getting 27 minutes last season. I don’t see where he’s gonna get it on this Kings team, even though I know they’re the Kings are trying to maybe move Malik. Moving Malik Monk for Russell Westbrook is just a sentence that I don’t enjoy saying. That’s I I don’t enjoy even getting getting into that. But as we move on to Jonathan Kaminga now and everything that’s come out, the different smoke between the the Warriors Kaminga’s camp, obviously the Kings and now the Suns involved. Just from a basketball perspective, Dan, what is your take on Jonathan Kaminga? We were trying to figure out another player that called their shot this early in his career and said, “No, I’m going to be a star. You need to pay me like it and give me an opportunity.” I couldn’t really think of anybody. Does that turn you on or off? What are your thoughts on Jonathan Kaminga and what he could be in this league? You know, I was having that same conversation with my Harvard Knox co-host the other day and we think it’s Greg Monroe. Like he signed his qualifying offer by choice when he was back in Milwaukee because he thought he was going to be a star and he never became a star. Um, Kaminga is I tend to be lower on him than most, but I understand what people see. You look at his splits when he has played 30 plus minutes per game for his career and they are insane. Like this guy can score. He can be a little bit of a play finisher. He can create his own shot. Getting downhill in the half court is a real skill. Whether it’s off the catch or from a dead stop, that stuff matters. But when you look at it through the lens of the Kings, you can see how they can paper over some of his weaknesses. Like the inconsistent rebounding. Sabonis just gobbles up everything anyway. So you’re fine there. um you probably have enough shooters to where his rocky three-point shooting isn’t a huge deal, but if you’re playing him at the four next to Sabonis or you want Murray next to him and Sabonis, I guess it could get a little bit rickety. Um I would just question like what is the plan defensively for him. That puts a really heavy lift on the shoulders of Keegan Murray and then either Keon Ellis or or Nick Clifford because Kaminga has not been by and large a good defender. The things that the Warriors have mostly asked him to do are make reads as a passer, which he just can’t. Like, I just haven’t seen it yet. But it’s also, can you be a play finisher? Can you rebound? Can you defend hard? The play finishing, it’s there, the defense, the rebounding, it’s just not. And so while the Kings can kind of get past the rebounding and they might have room for what he wants to do on offense, but that’s the other thing is all right if Malik Monk is going out in this hypothetical trade and so is Devin Carter. Demar D Rozan, Zack Lavine, Sabonis, like you’re still trying to divvy up a lot of touches there. I would imagine they could figure it out, but I don’t view Kaminga as enough of a ball mover to say, “Yeah, throw him in there with like two or three other on ball decision makers and you’ll figure out how to make it work.” Yeah. The other thing and talking to Dan Favlli of Bleach Report, also the Hardwood Knox Pod as well. The the other part of it with Kaminga is going back to a couple years ago because we went through the whole timeline today. The other part of it was they thought he was going to be one of those highlevel defenders. Hey, throw somebody on an island. And there are notes of that back in 2023, 2024. I think that he he kind of is coming off like a hey, if you give me what I want, then I’ll give effort in that regard, but that’s just not typically how it works when you’re a young player in this league. And it hasn’t worked out for him because he’s trying to put the chicken before the egg or whatever the case would be. with with all of that and what you broke down, are you surprised at the Kings interest, specifically the Kings interest in Jonathan Kaminga with Scott Perry and BJ Armstrong and a new front office coming in. I’m a little bit surprised because I think even if you I know the Warriors wanted unprotected first, which the Kings should just absolutely not give up, but like even with Devin Carter, Malik Monk, and a first round pick as a baseline offer, like that’s not nothing. I know Monk is maybe a little superfluous right now, but if if I’m the Kings and I’m making this move or if I’m a Kings fan, I’m sitting here going, “Okay, well, like, well, then what’s the next move after this?” Because it doesn’t feel like something where it’s I guess you can play Jonath again, Keegan Murray, Kaminga, that’s interchangeable. You have your wings there next to Sabonis, but if you want to put the ball in Jonathan Kaminga’s hands, you want him to work with Sabonis. I just don’t know like Demar D Rozan and Dennis Shruder both being on this team and then like Zack Lavine I think he could fit around them just fine. It just feels like that doesn’t fill their biggest need unless they think that he can also be either one a better shooter than he’s shown so far on a more consistent basis anyway or do they think that he can log some like backup center minutes as well to kind of diversify the way that their offensive looks? I would say no to the latter. I don’t think he can play them. He certainly can’t defend like a five. So, I I guess I’m not shocked. And for the value that’s being floated out there, it’s not egregious on their end, but it’s still just like, you know, Devin Carter was a lottery pick. Like, and you’re giving up another first round pick with Malik Monk. That’s not that’s not nothing if that’s the package you’re going in on. And I would want probably more certainty in whomever I’m acquiring. My thought process, Dan, was that maybe a lot of this was to build some familiarity with uh with Jonathan Kaminga as Demard Rozan may or may not be on this team next season. That contract isn’t guaranteed for the last year of his deal. That the Kings were maybe trying to build a relationship assuming Jonathan Kaminga will hit free agency if if he’s got the stones to to enter uh to go with the qualifying offer. With that being said, we know the Suns are interested. We know the Kings are interested. From what you’ve seen, how many teams we we sat at about fiveish based on cap space and things like that. Let’s say Jonathan Kaminga takes a qualifying offer right now. He hits free agency at the end of the 2026 season. How many other teams do you feel as if the Kings would be battling it out with to win the Kaminga sweep stakes? You know what gets really dicey with that is if he’s going to take his qualifying offer, his bird rights I don’t think are going to transfer. And so you need to be a team that can afford to carve out the cap space to pay him. And so it’s like like theoretically Brooklyn can do it, Utah can do it, Detroit can do it. Um I don’t know that any of those teams actually want him. I think if Brooklyn wanted him, they’d probably have him already quite frankly. Um I could see Chicago being a team that would be interested in him and they could have cap space next year. Uh it doesn’t seem like there’s a if we were looking at strictly sign in trades like for for this summer, it kind of feels like the Jazz, the Bulls or the Kings would end up being the most likely landing spots. I mean like Phoenix’s best offer for Kaminka so far is just frankly a joke. Like it’s like seconds and Royce O’Neal and whatever it is. So I think those would be the three teams I would keep an eye on. Um but it does seem like the Kings just again based off the rumored reporting we have of the offers, it does seem like they’ve been the most aggressive in trying to get him out of Golden State. And to that point, it sounds like he really wants to go to Sacramento, who seems to have promised that they would start him. Talking to Dan Favlli of Bleach Report, also the Hardwood Knox Pod. Dan, let’s throw out another name here as we were looking at a potential uh teams that will potentially be under the cap and teams that could obviously trade into it. Keon Ellis has been made untouchable in Kaminga situations, but dot dot dot Keon Ellis could be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season because the Kings picked up his option when a lot of Kings fans wanted them to decline it. They wanted as much quote unquote uh financial flexibility as possible. Now, let’s have this same conversation with Keon Ellis, who if the Kings, they can offer him an extension, but he could still say, “Well, I want to see what’s out there.” Do you think the Kings made the right move to keep that short-term financial flexibility, or do you think that there’s a good chance they lose Keon Ellis if his agent says, “Well, thank you.” Unless they overpay early, hey, we’re going to hit free agency and see what happens. Yeah, that’s interesting. So, I don’t know if they made the right decision because if they’re done and like the and they made this decision to help acquire basically Dennis Shruder at this point when you look at how they traded Valenunis and kept Ellis’s number low, then no, it probably wasn’t the right decision. At the same time, we’ve seen how some things can come back and bite you if you pay these players early, looking at Indie with Andrew Nemhard and how difficult it made it to keep Miles Turner this summer, even though they certainly could have. I think if you offer Ellis an extension based off the money that he’s only seen now at the NBA level, he would take it. Like the max they can give him, I don’t actually think that he would get much more on the open market next summer and of course only takes one team. But you’re rolling the dice in a big way if you’re him, especially because as of right now, you’re in a rotation that has a bunch of other guards and that’s not someone who you’re going to want to see scale up to the three or the four that often. And we’ve seen his usage on the Kings be inconsistent. That could end up hurting his value. So, I actually don’t if they want him, I guess I think that they can keep him and it won’t be, oh, Team X came in, we let him hit free agency, and they offered him so much more. I would be fairly surprised at this point. Um, it maybe as part of a trade if they identify someone other than Kaminga, I think they’re smart to keep Ellis out of those talks. Personally, u maybe if they’re going after another type of higherend target, sure, he’s not that type of untouchable player, but I would think that if the Kings want to keep him, um, that he’s going to end up staying past this season. Dan Favlli, one more for you on the Demar D Rozan front. Now, there’s some Warrior fans out there that they’re just tripping, right? Well, if we’re going to take Demar D Rozan, we need two first along with him. And I I posted yesterday, hey, can we put some respect on Demar D Rozan’s name? And and I understand, you know, the 24 million and and the volume of shots. I get all that, but I still think it’s getting a little bit out of hand with the Demar D Rozan disrespect. Do you think that it’s that far gone with Demar D Rozan that another team wouldn’t be interested even as we approach the trade deadline or or a second option here gets hurt or a team thinks, man, we just need a little bit more scoring, but we’re pretty solid defensively. I don’t know, Dan. I just I I I refuse to believe that Demar de Rozan is this immovable terrible contract. Yeah. I mean, his he could be fully guaranteed for 26 27 and you can’t call him immovable. Like it’s just it’s such a short-term deal. Um and maybe the guarantee on the final year is like perhaps a little bit higher than other teams would prefer. What is it that 14 million or 10 million, 12 million, whatever it ends up being. That’s not like the team that’s acquiring him and planning on waving him. you’re not planning on doing anything that season anyway. So, I don’t know if you get an asset for him and it certainly depends on the fit. Like, I could see Golden State looking at D Rozan saying, “Hey, we have enough shooting liabilities here when it comes to three-pointers, uh, we don’t want him at that number.” So, I get that, but like, no, we need picks to get off of him. I think what you mentioned, the scenario that seems if the Kings were either looking to get value or have the easiest pathway to moving him is we know that there’s going to be a team that gets desperate mid-season, whether it’s because they’re better than expected, worse than expected, or just have an injury might be the big one. And you look at D Rozan and say that’s a really like he’s still really a useful stop gap, not just as a scorer, but just as someone who can facilitate your offense. And so maybe a team like Miami ends up being better than expected. They have that Terry Rosier expiring contract. Do you work out some three team scenarios? So, I would think it’s more likely the Kings get a pick for trading Demar. Maybe not a probably not a first round pick, but that the Kings get something for Demard Rozan leading into the trade deadline than it’s, oh, we have to include something just to get off of this money. That’s what I like to hear. Dan, let’s let’s end it right there talking to Dan Favlli of Bleach Report. Be sure to check him out on the Hardwood Knox Pod as well. Dan, always a pleasure. Really appreciate you taking the time, man. I know you’re running around doing a ton. So, thank you and as the weekend approaches, hope you have a great one. You as well. Thanks so much for having me, Alan. Take care. That was Dan Favlli of Bleacher Report, also the Hardwood Knox Pod. And I think right there, Kyle, what he said, the the the the winner in all of this conversation, what he said about Keon Ellis. I thought I thought that made me feel much better about the Keon Ellis situation moving forward. And and you know what probably echoes exactly what Scott Perry and BJ Armstrong are thinking. Hey, you know, the way the market is right now, yeah, they’re going to be people that are or they’re going to be different teams that are interested in Keon, but we’re going to take a pretty safe bet that nobody’s going to come in and nobody’s really able to blow key to to blow our offer out of the water. Nobody’s really able to do that.

Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale joined Allen Stiles to discuss free agent forward Jonathan Kuminga’s potential fit with the Sacramento Kings, Russell Westbrook’s free agency, DeMar DeRozan’s future, and much more.

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