Sacramento Kings reportedly offer max contract to Otto Porter Jr.
According to reports, the Sacramento Kings have offered a max level contract to current Washington Wizards forward Otto Porter Jr.
The Sacramento Kings may have made their first move in free agency before it began, but a second one has been plotted.
Per Marc Spears and Chris Haynes of ESPN, the Kings have reportedly offered forward and restricted free agent Otto Porter Jr. a max level contract. At the time of writing, the offer sheet, which is expected to be worth $106 million over four years, has not yet been signed by Porter as he reportedly continues to take more meetings with teams around the league.
In his breakout campaign for the Washington Wizards last season, Porter averaged 13.4 points per game (on 51.6 percent shooting from the field and 43.4 percent shooting from three), along with 6.5 rebounds per game and 1.5 steals per game.
As is the case with any restricted free agent, if Porter chooses to sign the max offer sheet or any for that matter, the Wizards will have up to 48 hours to match the offer after the free agent moratorium is lifted on July 6.
So far, the expectation has been that the Wizards will do exactly that, though as Haynes and Spears detail in their report, there’s been growing skepticism whether they will ultimately will:
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"“The Wizards, according to sources, are adamant that they will match all offers to retain their starting wing. There is skepticism within league circles that the Wizards could ultimately be bluffing in an attempt to discourage potential suitors from presenting an offer sheet.”"
For the Kings, offering Porter a max level contract is absolutely a gamble worth taking.
As Haynes and Spears note, Porter and his agent David Falk have made explicitly clear that for teams to have a chance of landing the Georgetown product, they would have to offer a max contract.
Beyond that, though, there’s plenty of reasons why this big swing makes sense on the court as Porter plays at a position of need for the Kings and at 24 years old, he fits within their current timeline.
The position of need part has been key throughout this process as the Kings have honed in on trying to bolster their wing depth.
In the first two days of free agency alone, the Kings have seen two reported targets in Andre Iguodala and P.J. Tucker sign elsewhere and according to Haynes, they’re scheduled to meet with unrestricted free agent Vince Carter at some point later today.
That shows that while their business with Porter is a big domino just waiting to fall at this point, the Kings are keeping as many irons in the proverbial fire as they can. Due to the abundant amount of cap space they have, the Kings will still have the flexibility to make other moves as they see fit, even whether Porter signs the offer sheet or not.
For now, the ball is in Porter’s court. According to Haynes in a follow-up tweet, Porter has two more meetings scheduled and from there, he’ll decide which offer sheet he will sign, presuming he’s offered the same max level contract from another team.
Next: 2017 NBA free agency tracker - Grades for every deal so far
As we wait to see how everything unfolds, we’ll certainly keep you updated when it happens.