Put a Cap on It!
July 9th, 2009 | by larryyocum | 
It’s awfully quiet on the Kings free agent front and it is likely to remain that way for awhile. There just isn’t a lot of incentive for free agents to sign with this current Kings squad and unless there is a swap of expiring contracts, I don’t expect there to be any big news this summer.
The NBA announced yesterday that the new salary cap would be $57.7 million for the upcoming season, decreasing from $58.68 million in the 2008-08 season. With that in mind, let’s look at the salary cap situation for the Kings and how their current salaries are structured to see if there is any hope.
Current Salaries for the 2009-10 season as of 7/9/09:
Kevin Martin $10,180,170
Kenny Thomas $8,553,125
Andres Nocioni $7,500,000
Beno Udrih $6,077,500
Francisco Garcia $5,800,000
Tyreke Evans$3,600,000? (Tyreke just signed yesterday, so the full details have not yet been disclosed, but that is the estimated amount that the #4 pick was slated to make.)
Spencer Hawes $2,332,800
Jason Thompson $2,035,920
Mikki Moore $2,000,000
Sergio Rodriguez $1,892,035
Donte Greene $870,000
Omri Casspi (unsigned)
Jon Brockman (unsigned)
Total: $50,841,550
After the expected signings of Omri Casspi and Jon Brockman, there just isn’t much left to bring in potential free agents and this team isn’t in a position financially or from a competitive stance to offer a mid-level exemption or take a luxury tax hit by signing more players, nor does the team seem intent on adding more salary at this point. So, it will likely remain a quiet off-season.
Next year’s situation looks very positive as there will be a huge contract enema. A nasty way to put it, but Kenny Thomas and Mikki Moore have nasty contracts that need to be flushed. After getting rid of those expiring contracts the Kings will be projected to be around the $43 million range with lots of money to spend on potential free agents in potentially the largest free agent class in history. Will they be able to capitalize?
There is another option that could play out that would be very savvy on the Kings part. They could package those expiring contracts to a club that thinks that they have a legit shot at LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, etc. and trade for a player that is already under contract. The Pau Gasol gift to the Lakers for Kwame Brown comes to mind, but deals like that are few and far between for obvious reasons.
