SACRAMENTO -- Cut down day is coming and the Sacramento Kings have a few roster moves to make. There isn’t a lot of mystery to hash over with the Kings. They walked into camp with 15 players on guaranteed contracts and rookie Wenyen Gabriel under a two-way deal.
Teams have until Monday at 2 p.m. PT to set their rosters. That means the end of the road for Cam Reynolds and Kalin Lucas, who were waived by the Kings on Saturday. The duo are expected to join the Stockton Kings as allocated players, but their ties to the parent club will dissolve, barring a late two-way offer to one of them.
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Sacramento waived two Exhibit 10 players, Taren Sullivan and Gabe Vincent, earlier in the preseason. Like Reynolds and Lucas, Sullivan and Vincent will both have the opportunity to skip the G-League draft on October 20 and join the Kings’ G League affiliate for the upcoming season.
Last season the Kings carried a pair of two-way players all season in JaKarr Sampson and Jack Cooley. Both players were allowed to spend up to 45 days with the parent club and they shuttled back and forth between Sacramento and Reno.
With the Bighorns relocating to Stockton and going through a rebranding to the Stockton Kings, the ties between Sacramento and their G-League affiliate have strengthened.
The Kings are likely to watch the waiver wire and search for the right fit when it comes to their second two-way player.
NBA
As far as the NBA roster goes, the Kings have very little flexibility. Unless they decide to jettison a guaranteed deal, they are set walking into the season with 15 players under contract.
Sacramento has approximately $11 million in salary cap space walking into the season. Ben McLemore ($5.5 million), Kosta Koufos ($8.7 million), Iman Shumpert ($11 million) and Zach Randolph ($11.7 million) are all playing out the final year of their contracts, giving the Kings nearly $37 million in expiring contracts.
Willie Cauley-Stein is entering the final year of his rookie scale contract which will pay him $4.7 million this season. Sacramento can extend a $6.3 million qualifying offer to the 7-footer next summer, which would make him a restricted free agent and allow the team the option of matching any contract offers that come his way.
Outside of the four expiring veterans and Cauley-Stein’s qualifying offer, the rest of the Kings’ squad is under contract through this season and next, at a minimum. They’ll enter the season with nine players on their initial rookie scale contracts, plus free agent acquisitions, Yogi Ferrell (2-year, $6 million) and Nemanja Bjelica (3-year, $20.4 million).
