The Sacramento Kings got a taste of life as a playoff contender during the seeding games in the NBA bubble. But the end result is that the Kings enter the offseason with a playoff drought of 14 years and counting.
The lack of success resulted in Vlade Divac stepping down as Kings GM. He has been replaced by former Houston executive Monte McNair, the team announced on Thursday.
With a young team that's lived at the fringe of the playoff race for two years, Sacramento appears poised to make some noise in the Western Conference under new management.
McNair will now be focused on the restricted free agency of Bogdan Bogdanovic, a potential rookie extension for De'Aaron Fox and Sacramento's lottery pick.
Note: The financials in here are based on the salary cap and luxury tax holding at the 2019-20 levels, as expected.
MORE: Biggest trade, free agency and draft decisions for every eliminated NBA team
The restricted free agency of Bogdan Bogdanovic
Although he was drafted in the first round, Bogdanovic enters free agency a year earlier than a player signed to a four-year rookie scale contract.
The quirk in the CBA rules allows a team and player to negotiate a non-rookie scale contract three years after that player was drafted. In this case, Bogdanovic signed a three-year, $27 million contract in 2017, three years after he was selected by Phoenix in the first round.
Of course, from another perspective, he is entering free agency six years after being drafted. The free agency of Bogdanovic is especially unusual because he is five years older than most restricted free agents and has a more consistent body of work from his three years in Sacramento and playing internationally before.
Sacramento or a team with cap space would be signing an established player in the prime of his career.
Bogdanovic has already passed on a starting salary of $11.4 million in year one. He will have the $10.6 million, one-year qualifying offer to fall back on if the Kings elect to play hardball and a team with cap space doesn't materialize.
Unlike during the regular season, when Sacramento was limited to offering no more than a four-year, $50 million extension, the team can go up to five years and 25% of the cap in year one.
The question remains if Sacramento will take an aggressive approach or let the guard shop for an offer from another team.
Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, Miami, New York and possibly Phoenix will have cap space.
A contract that will benefit both sides is in the range of four years for a total of $64 million.
The $16 million per year cap hit would give Bogdanovic a raise of $7 million per year from his previous contract and allow the Kings to have enough financial flexibility to build out the roster, stay under the luxury tax and still work on a possible extension for De'Aaron Fox.
The De'Aaron Fox rookie extension
The $24.9 million salary in the first year of teammate Buddy Hield's extension set the bar when it comes to Fox. At the minimum, a new contract for the point guard should start at $25 million.
But Fox and his agent, Chris Gaston, should use not Hield's contract as a measuring stick but the five-year, $166 million max contract Jamal Murray signed with the Denver Nuggets last July. The contract also had All-NBA language that would see the total compensation increase.
For comparison, we ranked Fox at No. 15 in our most recent 25-under-25 rankings, while Murray was tied for No. 18. The Kings could point out that Murray has led the Nuggets to back-to-back playoff appearances, but clearly Denver has had a better roster around its young point guard as well as more coaching stability over the past three years.
Fox ranks third among guards in points in the paint (behind Ben Simmons and Luka Doncic) and has shot 54% on 2-point field goal attempts.
Waiting to sign their exciting young point guard to preserve cap flexibility for 2021 would actually do little for the Kings financially and even less from a PR perspective. Because Fox was selected in the top five of the draft, he carries a $24.3 million cap hold, only $5.2 million less than a projected salary of $29.5 million.
Even with Fox on a max contract and Bogdanovic's cap hit at $16 million, the Kings would be projected to have more than $35 million in cap space in 2021. And playing hardball could become a public relations nightmare, especially with a player that wants to be in Sacramento.
"I want to be here," Fox told the media before the restart of the season. "Obviously, I want to win, but I want to do it here. It's been, what, 13, 14 years since the last time the Kings made the playoffs? I want to be a part of the first one.
"Obviously, we all want to win. There are some things we know we need to work on as a team, and I'm here for that. I want to be able to get to the playoffs with this team, and, hopefully, when I'm a veteran in this league, be able to be a (championship) contender."
The Hield negotiations stalled for more than four months and did not get finalized until the 11th hour. We will see if it takes that long for a Fox extension.
Offseason cap breakdown
Despite only $89 million of guaranteed contracts, Sacramento is over the projected $109.1 million salary cap.
The Kings have $28 million tied up in the non-guaranteed contract of Nemanja Bjelica, the free-agent hold of Bogdan Bogdanovic and their first-round pick.
The maximum room that Sacramento could have is $12 million, but at the cost of Bjelica and Bogdanovic.
Expect the Kings to have the $9.3 million midlevel and $3.6 million biannual exceptions.
Resources available to build the roster
The draft: Lottery pick and three second-round picks (Nos. 36, 40 and 52)
Their free agents: Bogdan Bogdanovic, Harry Giles and Kent Bazemore
$9.3 million midlevel and $3.6 million biannual exceptions
$5.6 million to receive or send out in a trade
Dates to watch
• The Kings will likely guarantee the $7.15 million contract of starting power forward Nemanja Bjelica, Waiving Bjelica would not give Sacramento cap flexibility to sign a replacement player. His contract has no salary protection and will become guaranteed the day prior to the start of free agency.
• Expect Jabari Parker to opt into his $6.5 million contract before the start of free agency. After averaging 15 points in 32 games in Atlanta, Parker missed 22 games with a right shoulder injury and has appeared in only one game with the Kings. Given so few teams will have cap space, the market for Parker would project to be closer to $5 million.
• The Kings will tender Bogdan Bogdanovic a $10.6 million qualifying offer by the day before free agency begins, which will make the guard a restricted free agent, allowing Sacramento to match an offer sheet.
Restrictions
• The Kings will likely regret the decision to decline the fourth-year team option for Harry Giles. Because the option was declined, the Kings are restricted to paying Giles no more than $3.97 million -- the amount of his salary in 2020-21 if the option had been exercised.
Giles missed his entire rookie season rehabbing both knees and missed eight games this season with a sore knee. But after Feb. 1, Giles averaged 22 minutes, 11.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists and shown potential as one the better-passing bigs.
Giles could sign a one-year, $3.97 million contract with the Kings and restore full Bird rights in the summer of 2021. The market for the 22-year-old projects to be in the $5-6 million per year range.
• Because the Bjelica contract is non-guaranteed, his outgoing salary counts as $0 in a trade. If the Kings amend his contract by the day prior to the start of free agency, the contract would count as full $7.15 million in a trade.
• Buddy Hield has a poison pill restriction that will be lifted the first day of free agency. Until then, for trade purposes, Hield counts as $19.7 million as incoming salary for a team acquiring him and $4.9 million as outgoing salary.
Extension candidates
The Kings have two extension-eligible players: Fox and Bjelica.
While there is a deadline of the day before the first 2020-21 regular season game on a Fox new contract, Sacramento has until June 30, 2021 to extend Bjelica. The 31-year old forward can be extended for an additional four seasons and up to $54 million total.
Despite significant pay raises on the horizon for Fox and Bogdanovic, the Kings do have the financial flexibility to afford a Bjelica contract in 2021 that would start at $10 million.
The draft assets
Here's how ESPN's Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz have Sacramento selecting in November:
No. 12 (own): Saddiq Bey | SF/PF | Villanova
No. 35 (via DET): Devon Dotson | PG | Kansas
No. 43 (own): Elijah Hughes | SG/SF | Syracuse
No. 52 (via HOU): Immanuel Quickley | PG | Kentucky
After not having their own first-round pick last year (traded to Philadelphia and eventually to the Celtics), the Kings are projected to select late in the lottery. Sacramento also has three draft picks in the second round.
The Kings own all their future first-round picks.