Kings renegotiate and extend star center Domantas Sabonis

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In one of the biggest moves in Sacramento Kings history, Monte McNair navigated the minefield that was the 2023 NBA free agency period, using his cap space like a genius and leaving just enough to secure All-NBA center Domantas Sabonis on a new four-year extension.

As reported here at The Kings Beat back on Jun 22, the Kings ventured into renegotiate and extend territory with Sabonis and came away with a winning deal. According to ESPN, a deal was reached between the Kings and their star big man on an extension totaling $217 million over five years, which includes $195 million in new money, slightly off the $219 million we predicted.

The breakdown wasn’t easy to come up with, but here is the math behind everything. After reaching two bonuses in his contract for last season, Sabonis pushed his 2023-24 salary to $22 million. In a renegotiation, it appears that the Kings added $7.7 million to that figure for this season that pushed his salary to $29.7 million.

With the new CBA taking effect on July 1, the Kings are now allowed to give Sabonis an extension worth up to 140 percent of his salary in the final year of his contract. With the new negotiated 2023-24 salary, the Kings were able to hand Sabonis an extension starting at $41.6 million for 2024-25, with eight percent raises each season.

The new deal puts Sabonis at $44.9 million in 2025-26, $48.5 million in 2026-27 and $52.4 million in 2027-28 when the three-time All-Star is just 30 years old. In total, the $217 million yields Sabonis an additional $195 million, including nearly $8 million this season.

Why extend Sabonis now?

The Kings are singularly focused on winning. After 16 seasons of searching in a barren desert, the team finally found water last season when they won 48 games and earned the third seed in the Western Conference.

McNair could have swung for the fences again in free agency after clearing Richaun Holmes and his $25 million over the next two years off the books, but instead, he took solid swings, bringing back Harrison Barnes, Trey Lyles and Alex Len, as well as adding EuroLeague star Sasha Vezenkov. We can throw the additions of Chris Duarte and Colby Jones into this mix, but there is no guarantee of major playing time for either.

These are all modest, but impactful additions that further the idea of maintaining and improving, but the key to everything with the Kings is Sabonis and point guard De’Aaron Fox.

Where so many others built a house on sand in Sacramento, only to watch it wash away, McNair worked to find foundational pieces that he could build upon. Fox is already locked up for three more seasons, but the pending free agency for Sabonis posed a monumental threat.

Sabonis could have made more in free agency if he waited until next summer, but he also had plenty to risk. The Kings could have waited it out as well and seen if the 2022-23 campaign was an aberration or something sustainable. In the end, the two came to an agreement that makes sense for everyone. Sabonis has the piece of mind that he has found his NBA home. McNair can now work his roster around his two pillars.

To finish up the Sabonis discussion, this sounds like Monopoly money, but star level basketball players take home a good chunk of their team’s salary. Sabonis is a 27-year-old player who led the league in rebounding and double-doubles. He made the All-NBA third team and the All-Star team. He also led a team to the playoffs for the first time in 16 years and if the Kings didn’t pay him this contract, another team would have next summer. This is the cost of business in the NBA.

How did we get here?

McNair gets an A+ grade for ingenuity as a cap masseur. Some of this is boring and you can look away if you want, but the series of events that set up this moment are crafty as hell.

The draft night trade that sent Holmes to the Mavericks, along with the No. 24 overall pick did two things. First, it cleared the deck of $12 million dollars this season of Holmes’ contract and another $12.9 next season. It also wiped out a $2.7 million cap hold reserved for the No. 24 pick. This move by itself placed the Kings at roughly $35 million under the cap.

With money to spend, McNair could have gone out and waved $25-30 million in the face of Kyle Kuzma or Jerami Grant. Maybe he did and struck out. But the quick turn, which according to a league source, happened on Thursday when the Kings went back to Barnes and began to work on a new, three-year, $54 million contract.

Barnes said yes. He always wanted to say yes after climbing through the nine levels of hell in Sacramento only to come out the other side. The figure might scare some, but the 31-year-old forward started all 89 games last season including regular season and playoffs. He is Mr. Reliable for the Kings, even if he had a few bad games against the Warriors. This was market value for a player of this skill.

McNair now had his starting five back, with the potential to add more. This is where he went to work.

In the opening moments of free agency, McNair brought back Trey Lyles on a two-year, $16 million deal. Again, this was a market value deal for an incredibly useful player who can play minutes at both the four and the five. His contract is also tricky.

Due to his status as an “early Bird” player, McNair was able to use Lyles’ minimum cap hold as a stand-in while he made other moves. In the end, all of these deals will be signed, but they have to unfold in a specific manner. Again, this is complicated stuff, but when all of these deals are called into the league, Lyles’ will be one of the last to be processed, even if he was one of the first to be reported.

Vezenkov’s deal falls under a similar heading. He will land what is called the “room exception.” Whether he gets all of the $7.7 million exception in year one is unlikely. The Kings probably carved out a small amount out of that to use elsewhere. While he hasn’t seen the floor in an NBA game, Vezenkov is a bargain at three years and $20 million. He tore up the EuroLeague last season, earning multiple MVP awards. He’s an elite shooter and floor spacer with a mature game and a high basketball IQ.

Whether Vezenkov is a star or not, he will serve a role in Sacramento. His shooting will translate and his contract, when compared to players like Davis Bertans (five-year, $80 million), is a bargain. He will also be one of the last players to officially sign in Sacramento, even if his contract was breaking news early on Saturday, well before Sabonis’ extension.

In addition to these bigger moves, McNair added a player with potential in Duarte for what looks like a future second round pick. The $4.1 million contract is exactly in line with what the team paid Terrence Davis last season and he has potential to be a solid contributor.

McNair also kept Kessler Edwards and extended qualifying offers to Neemias Queta and Keon Ellis. All of these transactions were fit into the cap, while preserving nearly eight million for Sabonis’ extension.

Lastly, McNair brought back Len on a budget $3.2 million contract on Saturday. It looks like a minimum deal, but the 30-year-old 7-footer is a nice insurance policy to have. The veteran dealt with incredible chaos off the court with the situation in his home country of Ukraine. He was a pro all season and was lauded by the coaching staff for being one of the best examples on the team of staying ready.

Len could sit for much of the season, like last year, while head coach Mike Brown gives Lyles a shot as a small ball five or Queta minutes as an up-and-comer. He also could work himself into the rotation like he did late last season.

Conclusion

This might not look like a sexy offseason for the Kings. There wasn’t a home run swing. But McNair surgically maneuvered through a minefield and built out a roster that not only can maintain, but potentially improve greatly off the team’s success last season.

He balanced continuity with some intrigue. He brought back efficient and effective players and the same can be said about the additions.

More than anything, he strengthened the foundation of the franchise by tying the core of the team up for a minimum of two seasons and in some cases much longer. The final cap number won’t be in the luxury tax, but that may not be the case next season. Winning costs money and McNair just invested a load of owner Vivek Randivé’s cash in a group that shocked the NBA last season and has room to grow.