Sacramento Kings: Grading The Offseason
Koufos Kosta Lot
With a four-year, $33 million offer, the Sacramento Kings brought Kosta Koufos aboard in quite possibly their best individual move of the summer. Koufos will probably help the Kings the most of any addition next season, he’s only 26 years old and he’s proven himself as a capable backup.
Last season with the Memphis Grizzlies, Koufos averaged 5.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 16.6 minutes per game, shooting 50.8 percent from the floor. He gives the Kings another big body in the paint, and even if he’s a not a great rim deterrent, having a player like Koufos at about $8 million a year is not a bad deal at all.
But in the context of Sacramento’s other decisions this season, adding Koufos makes little to no sense, even if he’s on a solid contract and is the kind of player the Kings should be targeting more often.
For starters, any time you already have two players who play the same exact position as your best free agency acquisition, you’re doing something wrong. The Kings sure as hell aren’t paying Koufos $8 million a season to come off the bench, which means the young rookie Willie Cauley-Stein probably will be.
But Koufos isn’t enough of a game-changer to elevate Sacramento to playoff contention out West, so all the Kings are essentially doing is dish out $8 million a season to stunt Cauley-Stein’s growth in their futile pursuit of a playoff spot. Koufos would provide insurance in the event of a DeMarcus Cousins trade, but the Kings would be foolish to go that route, so for now, it’s hard to get too excited about this defensive-minded addition.
Grade: B-
Next: Re-Signing Omri