The Sacramento Kings may have lost in the first round of the playoffs, but their season was as far from a failure as it gets. The Kings ended the longest postseason drought in American professional sports and took the reigning champions all the way to a Game 7. The future’s bright in California’s capital.
Next season, however, the Kings won’t be the cute upstart finally breaking through anymore. Instead, they’ll have a much larger target on their back – Mike Brown’s team won’t be overlooked again.
With their season extinguished on Sunday, it won’t be long before the Kings start plotting how they could “Light the Beam” deeper into the postseason next year.
What moves should the Sacramento Kings make in the offseason to build on the success of the 2022-23 campaign?
Like any team, the Kings have a plethora of free agents set to hit the market over the summer. Many are not critical of the franchise’s future, but all eyes will be on what Sacramento decides to do about talented wing Harrison Barnes.
Another agenda item regards the future of Domantas Sabonis, who hit superstar status this season. He’s not going anywhere over the summer, but he is eligible for an extension prior to free agency following the 2023-24 season. The Kings will likely want to get that done.
Plus, the Kings will have to make the same pesky decisions every franchise needs to make this time of the year, such as whether or not to hit the phones on some trades and what to do with the NBA Draft. Here are three moves the Sacramento Kings should consider this summer.
3. Bring back Harrison Barnes
Harrison Barnes isn’t the best player on the Kings and his role will probably dwindle for any franchise in the coming years. But as the veteran leader of a young rotation, his presence is vital for Sacramento.
The 30-year-old was critical to the team’s regular season success. He averaged 15.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. He was a robust shooter, too, hitting 47.3 percent from the field, 37.4 percent from three, and 84.7 percent from the free throw line.
Barnes didn’t play as well during the playoffs against his former team. He received plenty of minutes in the first five games but didn’t make much of an impact outside of Game 2 when he scored 17 points. He also struggled immensely from three-point range and memorably missed a game-winner in Game 4.
The coach responded accordingly. In the final two games, Barnes’ combined minute total was less than any of the individual five games that preceded them. He scored a measly 10 points combined in Game 6 and Game 7.
Basing a decision on Barnes’ future based on what happened during this past postseason would be a mistake. It could portend what a future looks like without relying as much on Barnes, but this team isn’t ready to give him away completely.
Whether or not Barnes returns will likely depend on the factor that rules all of the free agency: money. He’s coming off a four-year, $85 million deal and can’t expect that kind of payday after reaching his 30s. But will he be willing to sign a team-friendly deal and remain loyal to the franchise that chose not to trade him at multiple points throughout his time there?
Barnes is the biggest piece of the free agency puzzle in Sacramento. Not Trey Lyles. Not Terence Davis. Barnes. The franchise should be willing to show him that in free agency and have the two sides meet somewhere in the middle.
2. Extend Domantas Sabonis
The Kings are built around two stars and a young core, giving hope for the future. As long as Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox are around, the Kings will be an intriguing threat to the Western Conference.
Fox has already been paid, signing a five-year, $163 million extension in November 2020, the largest deal in franchise history. He’s signed with the team through the 2025-26 season.
So it’s now up to the Kings to give a similar commitment to Sabonis to keep the core in place. He’s not set to hit free agency until the end of next season, but now is the time to lock him up before he gets a chance to test the market.
This will be the first real contract negotiations between Sabonis and the Kings, a test to see how eager both are to continue the partnership. He came over from the Indiana Pacers at the trade deadline in the 2021-22 season, a deal that sent budding star Tyrese Haliburton to the Hoosier State.
Sabonis is set to make $19.4 million during the last year of his contract, with another $1.3 million via incentives within reach. He signed a four-year, $74.9 million deal with the Pacers back in October 2019. His play warrants a substantial pay boost.
The new Collective Bargaining Agreement does have a little alteration that would increase the amount Sabonis could make in an extension this offseason. Before, he was capped at four years and $111 million – that number has risen to $121 million.
The Kings should run to the table and offer Sabonis that extension right away. The big man is still ascending, having reached his third All-Star Game this season and likely in line for some All-NBA honors. He’s a triple-double machine the Kings can keep building around.
That being said, it takes two to tango. If Sabonis reaches free agency next summer, he would probably command a max contract, which could include a total dollar sum that approximately doubles the extension the Kings can currently provide, beginning in July. That’s going to be a difficult negotiation.
1. Add role players, depth
There’s a lot to like about what Sacramento is bringing back next year. Fox and Sabonis are rising stars. Keegan Murray may be too. Malik Monk is one of the more dangerous pure scorers in the league and Davion Mitchell is an ace defending guard.
The team could use more depth and role players, though. They’ll see some leaving this offseason, such as Davis and Lyles. There’s an opportunity to improve over those free-agent departures.
The first place they need to look is the big man market. After becoming a sneaky analytics darling, Richaun Holmes disappeared into being a nonfactor this season. He played in 32 games and started just once. The Kings will try – likely in vain – to trade him this summer.
An intriguing replacement could at center be the ageless Brook Lopez, still plying his trade at a good level with the Milwaukee Bucks this season. He can protect the rim, rebound the ball, and make more than a third of his threes. Considering his age, he may also be affordable.
There should be other serviceable, cheap centers on the market this summer, should the Kings not snag Lopez. Al Horford and Naz Reid both come to mind as stopgap options for the position.
There’s also the NBA Draft. For 2023, the Kings have three picks. One will fall late in the first round, while the other two will come in the second round, giving the team a chance to reload depth. It’s hard to predict who the Kings would be interested in come draft time at this point. There’s still a lot more draft process to come, giving Sacramento time to make fuller evaluations.
One name that’s going to come up a lot is Kris Murray. The 22-year-old is coming off a breakout season in college, making First Team All-Big Ten and averaging 20.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. And yes, his brother is Keegan (twin, actually).
This is going to be a critical offseason for the Sacramento Kings. If they’re going to build a sustainable contender for the next few years, this is the time to do it.