Just ahead of this year’s draft, Sacramento Kings guard Langston Galloway will reportedly opt out of his current contract and become a free agent.
With the 2017 NBA Draft only 36 hours away, it’s clearly on the forefront of the Sacramento Kings‘ proverbial mind, as it is on the minds of all teams in the NBA.
As we await to see how the event unfolds, more roster moves are on the horizon for the Kings, this time centering around Langston Galloway. As first reported by Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders and later by Sam Amick of USA TODAY, the current Kings guard will reportedly decline his $5 million player option for next season and thus, become a restricted free agent this summer.
Adding on to the report, Keith Smith of Real GM relays that the Kings will likely pass on extending a qualifying offer to the 25-year-old guard, which would then make him an unrestricted free agent and will increase their cap space even further.
Splitting his time between the Kings and the New Orleans Pelicans, Galloway averaged 7.9 points per game on shooting splits of .380/.390/.787 in 74 games this season.
The move itself certainly comes as a bit of a surprise considering Galloway is only a few months removed from making his way to Sacramento as part of the DeMarcus Cousins trade.
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However, with an already limited role with the Kings, the prospect of the team having an even deeper and more crowded backcourt for next season and beyond might not have worked in Galloway’s favor.
Although it’s certainly a risk to turn down good money considering the journey he’s taken just to carve out a place in the NBA, Galloway is certainly betting on himself that he can earn either a comparable deal or a more stable role elsewhere.
While that’s looking at Galloway’s side of the transaction, where the Kings go from here is a very fascinating question.
As James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area notes, the move opens up the Kings’ cap space to an estimated $56 million (assuming they go through with not extending him a qualifying offer).
Now with Arron Afflalo‘s $12.5 million salary only currently guaranteed at $1.5 million, the expected move is the Kings will buy out the remainder of Afflalo’s contract before his salary is fully guaranteed the day after the draft.
If that’s the case, that would bring the Kings’ cap space to an estimated $67 million, as Ham accounts here.
With the copious amount of cap space the Kings are accumulating with each passing transaction, it only increases the intrigue on the players they may pursue once free agency begins.
Of course, that topic will have to wait once we advance past the draft.
For as brief as his time was in Sacramento, Galloway came into a situation that could have gone many ways and did what was asked of him when called upon, both on and off the court.
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As for his chances this summer, time will only tell how he’ll fare in free agency, but it’s certainly a decision that Galloway feels very comfortable with making and that’s all that matters.