Sacramento Kings: Finding a place for Kosta Koufos

With promising pieces in place for their frontcourt, could the writing be on the wall for Kosta Koufos and his time with the Sacramento Kings?

So much of the talk surrounding the Sacramento Kings over the last few months has focused on their growing foundation and rightly so.

Between Buddy Hield, Willie Cauley-Stein and Skal Labissiere, enough flashes were had over the second half of the season to be intrigued by the Kings’ future. Now on the cusp of adding two top-10 draft picks to their growing nucleus, the Kings will soon enough have a surplus of developing players to embark on a proper rebuild.

But as the Kings continue looking towards the future and trending younger, it obviously raises questions regarding where the more experienced players on their roster fit into their new timeline.

That’s a question they’ll face directly this summer as many of the veterans on their roster will either hit free agency (Rudy Gay, Ty Lawson, Darren Collison), need decisions to be made over their guarantee dates for their contract (Arron Afflalo, Anthony Tolliver) or hold player options (Langston Galloway).

However, one of the few veterans it doesn’t apply for is big man Kosta Koufos.

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After signing a four-year, $33 million deal, Koufos came to the Kings in the summer of 2015 as part of their much maligned offseason that saw them make flawed decision after flawed decision in the hopes of achieving short-term gain.

But as he has throughout his other stops over his nine-year career, Koufos has provided serviceable production for the Kings over the last two seasons, playing both as a starter and in a backup role.

Now with both Cauley-Stein and Labissiere rising as the team’s frontcourt of the future in the post-DeMarcus Cousins era, it’s fair to wonder where Koufos fits into the Kings’ plans.

Koufos has reportedly been on the trade block before since coming to the Kings, even being mentioned as a possible target for the Houston Rockets during this season, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein.

While that may have been the case under a different set of expectations with Cousins in the fold, the Kings’ shift in philosophy doesn’t do much to secure Koufos’ long-term footing within the team, at least from our vantage point.

At 28 years old, Koufos still stands as a strong rebounder and while limited offensively, he is effective around the rim in his limited scoring opportunities.

Since he’s now two years into his current contract, Koufos could stand as an interesting stopgap option for other teams around the league, considering the state of this year’s free agent big man class.

Of course, all of this is rampant speculation at this point, but it could be something that resurfaces, especially as we inch closer to the draft and the start of free agency.

The Kings clearly have their eye on the future and with Cauley-Stein and Labissiere already showing flashes of their potential, major minutes will simply have to go their way for the foreseeable future.

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From that point alone, it leaves Koufos in a curious position in terms of his role, specifically his playing time. Despite the veteran presence he brings that is very much needed to a team like the Kings, it only makes sense for them to see if another team will want his services this summer.