Sacramento Kings Salaries
Let’s start off by looking at who is currently on the Kings’ books for next season.
Here are the contracts over five million dollars
- Kevin Martin — $9.68mil
- Kenny Thomas — $8.78mil
- Andres Nocioni — $7.5mil
- Beno Udrih — $6.03mil
- Francisco Garcia — $5.8mil
That totals $37.8 million spread across five players. Kenny Thomas will be entering the final year of his contract, and will come of the books the following summer. However, three of the other four are on the books for four more years, and Garcia is on the books for five more seasons.
Now let’s have a look at the rest of their contracts
- Spencer Hawes — $2.33mil
- Jason Thompson — $2.04mil
- Donte Greene — $870k
These contracts add up a little over $5.25 million spread across three players. All three players are on their rookie contracts, and two of them are just finishing their rookie seasons.
That brings the Kings’ total up to $43.04mil for eight players.
Other costs
- 2009 Lottery pick — Sacramento have won the rights to the #4 selection in this year’s draft. That pick comes with a cap hold of $3 million.
- Mikki Moore is on the books for $2 million next season following his buyout a month ago.
- Ike Diogu and Rashad McCants are restricted free agents
- The offer sheets are worth $3.95mil and $3.65mil respectively.
- Cap holds are 300% of the final year’s pay on their previous deal. Diogu was paid $2.9mil, so his cap holds would be $8.7 million. McCants was paid $2.6mil, so his cap holds would be $7.8mil.
- Diogu is a near certainty to be cut loose. It’s unclear what the team plans to do with McCants, but I can see them keeping him if they get a reasonable contract (say $3mil per annum). So for now, I do expect them to make an offer sheet for McCants but not for Diogu.
- The Kings would have nine players on their books, leaving three open rosters for extra charges. If the Kings made an offer sheet to McCants, that would leave only two open roster spots. So it’ s between $950k and $1.425mil.
So we have three added costs — lottery pick, Mikki Moore, roster charge — and a cap hold to consider. That will add a minimum of $6.425 million, bringing the Kings total up to $49.465 million.
Then add a possible cap hold for McCants and the Kings are on the hook for $57.265 million … effectively eliminating all their cap space.
The Cap
We don’t know where the cap will end up being.
- If it holds steady, it’ll be at $58mil.
- If it increases it could go up to $60mil but that is the most unlikely of the three possibilities.
- If it decreases, then the cap could fall to say $56mil which is a figure which has been mentioned in some press stories. This is the most likely event, but holding steady is also a strong possibility.
Kings’ Cap Space
There are two big variables here which could alter the Kings cap space significantly
- The cap holds on restricted free agents McCants and Diogu, although I doubt they try and retain Diogu.
McCants has played 17.5 minutes a night in 10 games since joining the Kings on trade deadline day. He’s shooting 50% from the field, and 35% from three. He’s also adding 2.3 boards and an assist a game.
Anyway,
Let’s throw Rashad McCants out of the discussion, because if they choose to make him an offer sheet, then his cap hold wipes them out in free agency. So let’s say, if Sacramento want cap space, then they will not make McCants and offer sheet …. and they’ll have $8.5 million available to them should the cap hold steady. If the cap decreases, they’ll have only $6.5 million (just one million more than the MLE)
Kings’ Free Agent Targets
The Kings are currently suffering major financial losses, and I think they’re highly unlikely to spend money unless they can acquire enough talent to put them in playoff contention — which is also highly unlikely, so the situation is doubly doubtful for Sacramento.
The Kings have only one player in their core and that is Kevin Martin. They have three good prospects which are still trying to work their way in, and could very well do so given time. It’s hard to say how much confidence management has in those players though, and what level of talent it would take to convince them to go in a different direction.
There is also the added complication of Sacramento having a top five pick in June, and how that player could vastly change what types of players they’ll be interested in, in July.
So what are you saying?
Sacramento could end up with $6-8 million in cap space, but I don’t think they’ll be a player in the summer.
I think they’ll hold steady, and try building through the draft, while also waiting for another major contract to come off the books … allowing them more flexibility in the summer of 2010.
They’ll also want to see what their young prospects are capable of before trying to replace them, unless that talent is truly exception and it doesn’t look like the Kings will have enough cap space to get that talent.
So, I don’t think they’ll be a player in free agency. No more so than the average team over the cap.
Posted on March 20, 2009 by Dave