The Sacramento Kings are among the few teams that have lots of cap space remaining and Vlade Divac and company will apparently not be shy about going after the NBA’s top restricted free agents with it.
After putting in a four-year, $78 million offer sheet in on Zach LaVine only to see the Bulls match it, the Kings continue to probe the restricted free agent market with the hopes of upgrading their backcourt and wing rotation. With LaVine off the market, the top available option is Marcus Smart, who has grown frustrated with the RFA process (not unlike LaVine) and the lack of an offer from Boston or anyone.
That will likely change soon, as the Kings will reportedly be putting together an offer sheet for Smart, according to A. Sherrod Blakely of NBC Sports Boston, although the range of years and dollars for what they’re mulling is unknown.
Source: After striking out on Zach Levine, the Sacramento Kings are preparing to put together an offer #Celtics Marcus Smart.
— A. Sherrod Blakely (@ASherrodblakely) July 10, 2018
Smart makes more sense for the Kings than LaVine in that they could desperately use a versatile defensive presence on the wing and he is, if nothing else, that. The question about Smart is how effective and efficient he can be offensively, as he is prone to some awful shooting performances, but his defensive skills allow him to still be a net positive quite often.
The question is what kind of offer the Kings will make given how aggressive they were with their offer sheet for LaVine. The Kings know the only way to actually get an RFA target is to make a big offer that is on the line of being more than the player’s likely value. For Smart, the presumptive range for an offer has been between $11-13 million, but if they put something out there like four years, $60 million it could give Boston pause about matching.
