If the Sacramento Kings Get Jonathan Kuminga, What Does It Mean for DeMar DeRozan? | Locked On Kings

If the Sacramento Kings Get Jonathan Kuminga, What Does It Mean for DeMar DeRozan? | Locked On Kings

Jonathan Kamingo wants to come to Sacramento. The Kings are offering him a starting spot amongst other things. But if Kamingo were to become a king, what does that mean for Demar D Rozan? Would they look to trade him? Ask him to go to the bench? I have some insight on that and more right here on Locked on Kings. You are Locked on Kings, your daily Sacramento Kings podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is that time. Time for another episode of Locked on Kings. Hello and welcome into Locked on Kings, your podcast hub for Sacramento Kings coverage all off season long. My name is Matt George. I have the privilege of being your host here. I’m a Sacramento sports anchor and reporter for ABC 10 News. And this Jonathan Kaminga saga continues. Or in reality, it kind of just stays the same with little bits of information and insight coming out every day or few days about what the warriors want or thinking, what the Kings want or are thinking, what Jonathan Kaminga wants or is thinking. And in reality, it’s just three different parties kind of staring at each other waiting for someone to budge. And as we’re going to talk about on today’s podcast, I don’t think the Kings are willing to budge at this point. But should they be? And if they were to budge in order to get a Jonathan Kaminga trade done, signing trade done, does that impact Demar De Rozan’s role and future with the Sacramento Kings? Plenty to get to on this podcast today. I also want to talk a little bit about Zack Lavine and expectations for Zack uh going into next season. That’s coming up at the end of the show today. But most recent information about Jonathan Kaminga, Mark Spears said on ESPN that Kaminga wants to come to Sacramento. He wants to play for the Kings. That is his ideal destination at this point. Now, we know that the Warriors really only have two offers, concrete offers on the table. One is from the Kings, one is from the Phoenix Suns, and parties have met. Kaminga has met with the Sacramento Kings. I shared with you like a week or two ago that I was told the meeting between the Kings and Kaminga went really, really well. Uh, and I think that is made perfectly clear by this report from Mark that Kaminga wants to come here, right? And there’s been talk and rumors of of dollar figures and how much the Suns would be willing to offer and potentially how much the Sacramento Kings would be willing to offer. It sounds like the Kings offer would be a little bit less than the Phoenix Suns. Although the Phoenix Suns trade offer to the Golden State Warriors, I think is significantly worse than the Sacramento Kings offer. Not that the Kings offer is that great either, but the the Suns offer was essentially like Royce O’Neal and six second round picks or something like that because the Suns don’t have a firstrounder to trade uh at this point. So that those circumstances haven’t changed, right? As much as I wish I could come on the Lockdown Kings podcast and tell you, oh, there’s there’s new information, there’s a new development, there’s progress that’s been made. Again, we we find out these little be bits and pieces of information or context, but in reality, we’re in the same spot that we’ve been in for weeks. The Warriors really just aren’t playing ball. They’re not. Like, they don’t have to necessarily. There’s enough out there that a deal could be done. Like, Jonathan Kaminga arguably should be a Sacramento king by now. It’s just waiting on the Golden State Warriors to say, “Okay, fine.” and accept the offer that the Kings have put out there. Now, Mark Spears has also floated out a potential offer from the Sacramento Kings of Malik Monk and a protected firstround pick, which I shared with you weeks ago that Malik was not or was on the table, but the Warriors did not have interest in Malik, just like the Warriors seemingly don’t have interest in the Devin Carter Dario Saridge trade package. So, we’re just in this state of limbo. The Warriors are being difficult, but if we’re being completely honest, too, so are the Sacramento Kings. Scott Perry is refusing to budge. Now, I support this from Scott. I think he’s doing the right thing. I think he’s not giving into what the Warriors are demanding when the Warriors may have the leverage. They may have the final say, but as we’ve talked about at length over the last month, the Warriors are also in the worst position. They have the biggest mess to clean up that the Sacramento Kings are willing to say, “All right, fine. Don’t take our offer and figure that mess out yourselves.” But the Sacramento Kings have to also take ownership of the fact that if they really, really, really wanted Kaminga, if they wanted this deal to be done, they could have gotten it done by now. Because whether it’s Keon Ellis or an unprotected first round pick, the Kings know what the Warriors are asking for. Again, I personally would not include either of those in a deal. You don’t have to give an unprotected first round pick up for Jonathan Kaminga given the circumstances of what the Warriors do. You certainly don’t have to give up Keon Ellis in this deal. And I understand wholeheartedly, and I’m sure there are going to be Warrior fans in the comment section of this podcast saying, “Well, then fine. and you’re not getting Kaminga. I get it. Like I I I totally understand that perspective from Warriors fans, from the Warriors organization themselves. And like I’ve said before, I think the Kings are okay with that scenario. But I want to ask this question to you Kings fans listening. Should they be willing to budge? I’m asking you again. I personally feel that the Kings do not have to give in, that the Kings do not have to include Keon, do not have to include a future unprotected first round pick. I would rather them play the long game, not have Kaminga to start the season and see if anything changes from now to the trade deadline or if Kaminga signs a qualifying offer and then is just an unrestricted free agent next summer and the Kings can go out and sign him, then I’m totally okay with that route. But are you are you in the camp of Kaminga is right there. He’s there for the taking. He wants to play for you. You want him. Just go out and get him. Just get it done. Include Keon. Include a first an unprotected first round pick. If that’s you, which one would you rather include, Keon or that unprotected first? Because the Warriors sure as heck aren’t getting both. They know that. Are you in that camp? Are you to the point where it’s like, you know what, this opportunity does not come around very often, just go and get it done. And I’d be willing to include one of those two. Tell me which one. And tell me why you feel that way and why you believe that it’s worth it to go out and get Kaminga right now. And the value of having Kaminga right now versus waiting a handful of months to a year. And of course, a lot can change in the year, too. There’s no guarantee if they don’t get this deal done now. There’s no guarantee that they’ll have an opportunity to get him in the future. And maybe that’s your whole point. Maybe it’s Matt. We’re the Sacramento Kings. These opportunities don’t grow on trees. We’ve been looking for a wing like Jonathan Kaminga for the last handful of years. He’s right there. He’s available. I’m willing to include Keon Ellis. I’m willing to use one of my future first round picks, Unprotected, to go and get that deal done. If that’s you, great. Tell me why. But there’s been a conversation that’s been floating around Sacramento of, okay, let’s say the Kings go out and get Jonathan Kaminga. What does that mean for Demar De Rozan? Right. Allan Styles from a uh from Sacktown Sports 1140 was um was talking about like is there a handshake deal in place between the Kings and D Rozan to where if the Kings were to get Kaminga, then the Kings would go to D Rozan and say, “Okay, we’ve promised Kaminga a starting spot. your starting spot is the the the one that we’re more than likely going to give him. I don’t see them moving Keegan out. I certainly don’t see them moving um Zack Lavine out and they need Dennis Shruder to start as a point guard. So, Don Deamar, we’re we’re gonna we’re going to look to move you somewhere else so out of respect, you can go and get the role that you want and get another opportunity to to compete at a high level in instead of asking you to come off the bench. I understand that theory completely. I’ve inquired about it. I’ve asked about it. I was like, “Hey, what is the plan with D Rozan if you bring in Kaminga, who again, the Kings have reportedly promised a starting spot, promised the opportunity here in Sacramento that he never got in Golden State.” And I’ve been I was told pretty directly that the Kings would sooner ask Demar to come off the bench than they would trade him. Like all signs point to and I I’ve talked about this earlier on in the off season right around a little bit after Scott Perry was uh or or became the general manager of the Kings. All signs point to the Kings and Perry want Dear D Rozan here. But why? I’ll talk a little bit about why and how Demar fits with the identity building and the culture building that the Sacramento Kings are trying to establish this season and how I feel Demar would handle being asked to come off the bench. I’ll talk all about that plus some conversations about Zack Lavine, his role with the Kings next season. Is he the guy on this roster no matter if Kaminga is here or not? That’s all still coming here on Locked on Kings. This episode of the Locked on Kings podcast is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? Well, with Monarch Money, it can be. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all of your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. There’s so many things that Monarch Money will teach you. It won’t just help give you like step-by-step processes of how to how to save or how to get your your your savings built up or get a credit card down or whatever the situation that you’re going through. 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Those of you who have listened to me consistently since last season and the end of last season and in the beginning of this offseason, first off, thank you so incredibly much. I appreciate you. Second, you’ll remember me going into the offseason and even before the offseason started, even late last season, I was telling you I would be shocked if Demard Rosen was the Sacramento king going forward. if if D Rozan was still on the Kings next season. To me, it meant it made perfect sense for D Rozan to want to move on. He came here to Sacramento because he thought it was one of his best chances to win. Obviously, last season completely backfired on the Kings organization and Dear’s only getting older. He only has so many years left in the league. So, it would make perfect sense to me for Demar to want a change of scenery. It also would have made perfect sense to me for the Sacramento Kings to want to move on from Demar Dar Rozan at the time because it didn’t really work last year. Not that it was completely Demar’s fault. The Kings are more trending towards a direction of resetting and we’ve seen what a Zack Lavine Demard Roen core looks like in Chicago for many years. So why would we just want to try that? But now the Sacramento version, right? But very quickly after Scott Perry took over as the general manager of the Kings, it became very clear that the Kings weren’t shopping Demar. That Demar didn’t have a market that the Kings were particularly interested in exploring. I do believe it would have been easier for the Kings to move Demard Rosen than it’s been to move Malik Monk or Devin Carter of course, but I really don’t think the Sacramento Kings at any point have had interest in moving Demar Scott Perry all signs and what I have been told point to Scott Perry wants Demar to Rozan here. But if you might remember at the very beginning of the offseason too, I did an exercise where after Scott Perry’s press conference where he laid out his identity traits for the culture he wants to build and how he wants the Sacramento Kings to play and operate going forward, I took all of those traits and I ran through the Kings roster and kind of put up together a grading system and broke down who fit and who didn’t. And Demar and Zack Lavine both didn’t have the highest of scores. There’s a lot of oncore identity traits that the Sacramento Kings are trying to establish that I do not think Demar De Rozan fits, especially on the defensive end of the ball. And again, you can insert Zack Lavine into the same exact conversation. But when it comes to the signing of Dennis Shruder, the interest in Russell Westbrook and now the desire to keep Demar D Rozan here, to me, it all points to culture building and leadership. Now, I’m not fully sold on this. I’ll be completely honest with you. I’m not fully sold that keeping Demard Rosen around is the right thing to do to establish the culture that Perry and Christy are trying to establish. And I don’t mean that as an anti-Dart Rozan take. If the Kings were to trade Demard Rozan, they would get worse. Some people would argue it’s fine for the Kings to get worse because it’s better to be worse than it is to be mid. I’ve said similar things over the course of this off season. I have questions about how keeping Demar De Rozan here helps the Kings accomplish that establishing culture goal next season, especially when Dear is very unlikely to be here beyond two more years. Again, same thing with Zack Lavine. But I believe Perry views Demar as the consmate professional that Demar is. And he absolutely is a professional, right? One of the most wellrespected veterans, players, period, around the league. Demar De Rozan is that. And Demar said it himself that last year was one of the most like chaotic, crazy seasons that he’s ever had. It was the most chaotic, crazy season that he’s ever been through in his career. And unfortunately, it was his one season here in Sacramento. Some some of the chaos that we’re used to around here, it was it was new. It was a wakeup call for Demar. But I also believe that Demar recognizes or would listen to Perry and Doug and the vision that they have going forward and and take young players like Meek Clifford under his wing to help build and establish what the Kings are trying to establish. Plus, like I laid out for you last week in my or it might have been earlier this week in my Scott Perry two-year plan that I’ve come up with in my head, Demard Rozan does impact winning and would help the Sacramento Kings win. So again, every single time I’ve inquired about the Kings moving on from Demar De Rozan, I’ve been met with some pretty definitive no. The Kings aren’t looking to trade him. But they would, if they were to go out and get Jonathan Kaminga, which I still believe is unlikely at this point, they would ask D Rozan to come off the bench. Now, if this were NBA 2K and you were telling me I could have a a mercenary scoring option like Demar come in off the bench, then fantastic. But for context, Demar D Rozan has played just under 1,200 games in his career. 12 of those 1,08 like2 or 84 games, 12 of them he hasn’t started. He’s been a starter basically his entire career. And those 12 games were during his rookie season. For the last 15 years, Demard Rosen has been a starter. And over those 15 years, his numbers have been steady and consistent regardless of his age or the team that he was playing for. That’s not an easy sell. That’s not an easy sell for anyone. Now again, I think Demard Rosen is an absolute pro. And I don’t believe Demard Rosen would throw a fit or threaten to like demand a trade or anything like that if Doug Christie were to come to him and go, “Look, Demar, we want you here. You’re an important leader for this group, but we’re also building towards the future. Jonathan Kaminga, if we were to get him, is part of our future. Will you do this for us? I don’t know how Demar would handle that. I don’t think he would throw a fit. I don’t think he would pout about it. I just don’t know if the Sacramento Kings are the team to ask that of him even at 36 years old. Like the Sacramento Kings, a team that has made the playoffs once in the last almost 20 years. They’re the team to ask or expect a Hall of Famer, a first ballot surefire Hall of Famer in Demar Rozan to come off the bench. Optically, I think it looks worse on the Kings to ask him than it would on Dear to say no. And again, I I don’t really think Demar would say no. I’m not going to pretend he’d be happy about it. I I say all that to say I genuinely do not do not know how he would handle it. I just don’t know if the Sacramento Kings can make that request or make that demand of Demar. Again, I pro I don’t think they will end up having to make that request or demand of Demar. I do not think this Jonathan Kaminga thing is going to happen this summer. I do not think the Kings are willing to budge and I do not think the Golden State Warriors are going to play ball and accept the reality of their situation. They’re going to try and play the longer game. It’s completely in their prerogative to do that and figure out what to do with that mess. And it might work out great for them. It might work out awful for them. I have no idea. I’m not here to roll my eyes or or be sarcastic or make any kind of um like I’m just not here to to drag the Warriors with their handling of this situation. I if I put myself in the shoes of the Warriors and even Warriors fans, I understand completely how they feel with this. I just don’t I don’t know why the Sacramento Kings or the Phoenix Suns or any team would have to bow or or or or change how they’re operating or how they’re approaching this situation because of the Warriors. So, I don’t think it’s happening. If it does happen, the Kings, I’m told, would would sooner ask Demar De Rozan to move to the bench before trading him. I I just think that’s a really really tough ask. A really tough ask. And if you’re not comfortable, if you’re not confident in doing that and you still want to Rosen on your team, what is the alternative? Is it moving Keegan Murray out of the starting lineup? Because I don’t think you’re going to be able to move Zack out of the starting lineup. Lavine, unless you want to go big and just say, “F it. We’re still not going to have a point guard and have Lavine and D Rozan play the one and two and have Kaminga the three, Keegan the four. I don’t know. I don’t know what you do, but I do not believe that Demar D Rozan will be traded at any point and we’ll re-evaluate that when we get closer to the trade deadline. I’ve had people ask me, and probably a lot of it was sarcastic, Matt, why would Jonathan Kaminga want to come to the Kinks? Like why the Kings? I know he’s not happy with the Golden State Warriors. I know things haven’t worked out with the Golden State Warriors, but that is a championship caliber organization. Arguably one of the best organizations, not just in the NBA, but in professional sports over the last decade. Why the heck would he want to come to the Sacramento Kings that are a roller coaster of an organization and a model of instability at best? Because the Sacramento Kings, I think, are making available everything that Jonathan Kaminga is looking for. Maybe they’re not going to pay him every penny that he feels that he is worth. Nobody in the league is going to do that. I think Kaminga and his camp have accepted that to some extent. But Kaminga’s issue with the Warriors is that they never gave him the opportunity to be the best version of himself. The Warriors wanted Kaminga to kind of fit into a box and a role that would ultimately help them maximize their team at that time. They needed Kaminga to support their Curry le title uh window or title cont contention window. I understand completely why the Warriors did that. I would if I’m the Golden State Warriors, I’m doing everything with the the like the the priority in my mind is how do I open one more championship window opportunity for Steph Curry in his career here in Golden State? that that should be their number one priority, their number one prerogative. And if them handling Kaminga in that way makes complete sense to me. Doesn’t mean they didn’t make mistakes along the way. And I also understand Kaminga’s frustration as a former top pick and someone with all this tremendous offensive upside being asked, “Hey, we don’t really need that scoring from you. We don’t you’re not going to get that opportunity, but we need you to defend. We need you to rebound and just be ready for some offensive opportunity when they come. Now, Kaminga looks at Sacramento, is getting these promises from Sacramento of a everyday starting role, of a green light, and going, “Yeah, I can go to Sacramento and I can be the dude. I can be the guy there. I can develop into the core, the center of the future of that organization.” But again, if Kaminga were to be traded to the Sacramento Kings, signing trade, Lavine is still here. D Rozan is still here. Sabonis is still here. Where does Kaminga fall in that totem pool? I think you have to put him ahead of Demar D Rozan to some extent because in theory, Kaminga is taking Dear starting spot or at least that’s what the Kings would ask of D Rozan. But what about Zack Lavine? Regardless of if Jonathan Kaminga is on this team or not, is Zack Lavine the guy here in Sacramento next season? For years, this was De’Arren Fox’s team. And even during that time, you could argue Deonta Sabonis got more accol accolades and had better overall numbers with his double doubles and triple doubles. But it was never really questioned if it was Demar or Deonta Sabonis’ team or De’Aran Fox’s team. De’Arren was always looked at as the guy here. Well, he gone. I still don’t think it’s Damata Sabonis’ team because as good as Domomas is, how can it be Sabonis’ team when Sabonis’ first instinct is not to score the basketball? This is an offensive league. No matter how important defense is and how much the Kings want to establish a defensive identity, this league is built on offense. And Zack Lavine is coming off of a monster offensive season. a monster year. He averaged 23 points per game, shot 51% from the field, 44% from three-point range, 82% from the foul line, averaged four rebounds, four assists, and maybe most importantly out of all that, he played in 74 games last season after all the injury history that he’s had. I don’t know. Like, the easiest argument to make is that Zack Lavine is the dude on this King’s roster next year. Now, we could easily discuss if that’s a good thing or not. And I think that’s a fair discussion. We know that anybody who has doubts in Zack Lavine’s ability to be a winning basketball player is justified because I think the general manager of the Sacramento Kings, Scott Perry, has those same doubts. And the Kings are going to ask for more defense from Zack Lavine. But Lavine is an offensive player. Lavine is a scorer. Lavine is a bucket. If you are not getting scoring and offense from Lavine at a star level, it is not worth the money that you are paying him. You are not maximizing Zack Lavine at all. There is no way in my mind whether Jonathan Kaminga is here or not that I can imagine anybody but Zack Lavine being the number one offensive option for the Kings next year. Again, that might not be a good thing short term, but that’s the reality of the situation because of what the Sacramento Kings traded for last trade deadline. Like, this is Lavine’s team offensively in my opinion. And and think back when were we most frustrated with Zack Lavine last year, not the Kings for trading for Zack, but Zack specifically in the in the limited time that he played here in Sacramento. At what times were we most frustrated with Zack? It was when he was being passive. It was when he was not shooting the basketball. We also saw saw in that that brief time that he was here a number of occasions where he got hot and he was cooking and he couldn’t miss, right? He had a couple of fourth quarters in Sacramento where he just went supernova. Like that’s who Zack Lavine is. That’s who the Sacramento Kings acquired. and whether he’s going to be on this team for two seasons or one season or half a season, as long as he is a king, that is his role. That is his responsibility. And in my mind, that makes him the top dog on this team next year. Is he the top dog on a team that scrap barely scrapes their way into the playoffs? Probably. Or misses the playoffs because they’re a playin team. Again, I have doubts about whether Zack Lavine can be the top dog on a team that’s actually a threat in the postseason and that those doubts have carried throughout the vast majority of his career. But if you want to try and make an argument for any other guy being the top guy in Sacramento right now ahead of Zack Lavine, please tell me who. And if you think that Jonathan Kaminga would come here and become the top guy over Zack Lavine, explain that to me because I don’t see I don’t see how that happens. We covered a lot. The Kings and Jonathan Kamingo want to work together going forward. The Warriors aren’t willing to play ball. If the Kings were to get Kaminga, Demard Rosen likely not going anywhere. What do you think? Hit me up George Sack on Twitter. Email me [email protected]. Leave your thoughts in the YouTube comment section down below. Appreciate you continuing these discussions with me as this offseason rolls on. We’re still monitoring this kam this Kaminga situation. Every time I check in, nothing really has changed. And more often than not, I’m getting the same kind of response of more than likely it’s not going to happen. But things can change quickly. Maybe the Sacramento Kings budge first. Should the Kings budge first. Maybe the Warriors finally give in. I don’t think that’s happening either. But no matter what happens, we’ll follow it all right here on the Locked on Kings podcast. Appreciate your support as always. Can’t wait to have you join me on the next episode of Locked on Kings. Until then, my name is Matt George. You’ve been listening to the Locked on Kings podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network.

Matt George shares what he’s heard about DeMar DeRozan’s future in Sacramento and how that could be impacted by a potential Jonathan Kuminga sign-and-trade.

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If the Sacramento Kings Get Jonathan Kuminga, What Does It Mean for DeMar DeRozan?
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