This live tracker will stay up to date with how much the Kings will have to spend in free agency.
As a small market team, the Sacramento Kings are more likely to land stars in the draft than in free agency. However, cap space a valuable asset for any team and something that fans are always curious to know how much their team will have.
As things stand, the Kings are projected to have roughly $13.2 million in cap space, but that number is reliant on the team renouncing all of their free agent cap holds and waiving all of their players that are on partially or non-guaranteed contracts. Is that likely? Let’s break it down.
As illustrated by Basketball Reference’s salary cap table, the Kings will have three players on non-guaranteed contracts going into the 2022-23 season: Chimezie Metu, Jahmi’us Ramsey and Robert Woodard II. Of those three players, only Woodard has a partially guaranteed contract worth $300k, but he’s probably the least likely of the group to be brought back just based on production, followed by Ramsey.
Metu’s been good enough this season to warrant keeping him around on a $2 million contract, so let’s just factor him into the equation — that puts the Kings at roughly $12 million before cap holds are taken into account.
Fortunately for the Kings, cap holds expected to be the least of their worries. Assuming they part ways with Marvin Bagley III before the trade deadline, the biggest cap hold the Kings will have on their books is Tristan Thomspon’s $12.6 million cap hold. Barring an unforeseen midseason turnaround, Thompson likely isn’t sniffing anywhere near that number in free agency and, as a result, the Kings will presumably renounce his cap hold early on.
So, unless the Kings add guaranteed salary between now and the trade deadline, they’re looking at approximately $12 million in cap space and a maximum of $13,2 million. That won’t land them a superstar free agent, but it might get them a starting-caliber player to support their core or, at the very least, strengthen their bench.
This page will be updated with each move the Kings make, so make sure to check back in.