30 teams in 30 days: Sacramento Kings offseason preview

The Kings begin free agency with three new first-round draft picks and no cap space, but nobody actually expects them to have zero space.

Technically, the cap holds of Rudy Gay ($20 million), Tyreke Evans ($16 million), Ben McLemore ($10 million), Darren Collison ($9.9 million), Langston Galloway ($6.2 million), Ty Lawson ($1.5 million) and 2014 draftee Bogdon Bogdanovic ($1.4 million) clog up the Kings’ books until July 1. Of these, Bogdanovic is the only one likely to remain, opening up a gargantuan $52.9 million in cap space for the Kings to spend this summer.

The Kings have so much money to spend this offseason that they can completely re-create their roster…if high-level free agents are willing to take their money. The front office and ownership turmoil in recent years doesn’t inspire confidence in their management of the team, but money talks and it should talk to someone this summer to bring them to Sacramento.

The Kings drafted point guard De’Aaron Fox with the fifth pick in last week’s NBA Draft, ostensibly cutting themselves out of the point guard market when free agency opens on July 1. They still may bring in a veteran to show Fox the ropes, but it won’t be the Kyle Lowry, Jrue Holiday or George Hill they had previously been expected to court heavily. Signing a free agent point guard a tier below the top guys comes with its own complications — that player will want a significant number of minutes, which means he’ll have to play with Fox.

For all his lateral quickness and long arms (he has a 6-foot-7 wingspan yet stands only 6-foot-3), Fox isn’t particularly strong and will have trouble with bigger guards. His backcourt partner will have to be able to bump up to defend 2s and there just aren’t many of those guys who match all the required qualifications for the Kings. Rather, the Kings could sign a cheaper guy just to spell Fox — someone like Brandon Jennings or Jose Calderon. It’s possible the Kings still splurge for a point guard on a short contract to be a stopgap until Fox is ready, but it’s unlikely given how much general manager Vlade Divac has praised Fox since he was drafted.

The Kings have five bigs on the roster, but only one of them is really capable of playing the 4 in the modern NBA. Kosta Koufos, Willie Cauley-Stein, Georgios Papagiannis and Skal Labissiere are all ideally centers and playing any two of them together doesn’t jive with Fox’s glaring shooting weakness. Harry Giles can come in and play the 4, but he can’t shoot from outside either and ideally the Kings will go out on the market to find a guy who can spread the floor for Fox. Restricted free agent Nikola Mirotic or unrestricted free agent Jonas Jerebko bring the shooting touch that would move the Kings into a more modern NBA offense from what they could do with their current roster. If they get really ambitious and the Raptors aren’t willing to spend on him, Serge Ibaka would be a fantastic addition for Sacramento as a guy who can hit corner 3s and protect the rim on the other end.

The majority of the Kings’ resources should be devoted to the wing, where they have a few prospects but none who really look to be starters on a good team. Garrett Temple, Buddy Hield, Malachi Richardson and draftee Justin Jackson doesn’t bolster morale that the Kings can make a leap past where they’ve been the past several years. With $53.7 million to spend, they should set aside at least $35 million to spend big on the wing, where they can either max out restricted free agents Otto Porter Jr. and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or go after unrestricted free agents like Danilo Gallinari or J.J. Redick.

The Kings will also reportedly negotiate with Bogdanovic to bring him over this season. Like Mirotic with the Bulls, because Bogdanovic has spent three years overseas since being drafted, he’s no longer subject to the rookie scale and can negotiate any salary with the Kings. Bogdanovic will probably command somewhere in the $7.5 million range to come over to the NBA this season.

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The Kings have all the money they could ever need to build their team, but using it wisely is entirely another thing when it comes to this franchise. Blunder after blunder was made in the DeMarcus Cousins era, but after shipping him out of town for Hield and the pick they eventually turned into both Jackson and Giles, a new era has begun in Sacramento. The Kings are hopeful that their three draftees are their building blocks for the future, one at each position, to lead them back to the playoffs and beyond. Let’s see if Divac and the Kings can get the right pieces to surround them, something at which they failed time and again with Cousins.

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