Sacramento Kings: Grading the Terence Davis re-signing

Following a very successful sophomore campaign with the Sacramento Kings, the two-guard out of Ole Miss Terence Davis will be returning to the team on a two-year deal, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. This is a move that should elicit a positive reaction from the fans, as Davis captured the attention of Sacramento with his performance off the bench last season.

Despite being named to the 2019-20 All-Rookie Team in his first season with the Toronto Raptors, the Kings were able to acquire the guard for just a 2021 second-round pick. This pick ended up translating to No. 46 overall, where Toronto selected Dalano Banton.

Needless to say, it looks like Sacramento came out on top in that trade, and it’s good to know the team will be retaining Davis moving forward. In 27 games with the Kings last year, Davis improved on his All-Rookie performance by averaging 11.1 points and 3.3 rebounds in 21.5 minutes per game off the bench.

The contract the team and Davis agreed upon is reportedly a two-year, $8 million deal. The full details have yet to be released, so it remains to be seen if there is a team or player option attached to the second year. Regardless, $4 million is a great price to pay for positive bench production in a year many guards have received a truckload of money.

The Sacramento Kings have further bolstered their backcourt rotation by re-signing the fan-favorite Terence Davis to a two-year deal.

Although Sacramento hasn’t made the splashiest acquisitions thus far, I have to commend the front office on their frugality. If you would have told me the team would be retaining both Richaun Holmes and Davis for less than a combined $17.5 million per year over the next two seasons, I simply wouldn’t have believed you.

Davis was a valuable sharpshooter last season, hitting 37.2 percent of his three-point attempts while maintaining a reasonably high volume of 5.4 attempts per game off the bench. Davis took 12 three-point attempts per 100 possessions and converted on 4.5 of those shots. That volume and efficiency rank second-highest on the Kings last season, behind only Buddy Hield himself.

The bench unit should now ideally feature Davion Mitchell and Terence Davis as the primary reserve guards, with a combination of Tristan Thompson and Alex Len getting minutes at the center slot. Much remains to be seen about a potential Buddy Hield trade, but I believe the bench is shaping up quite nicely thus far.

If the Sacramento Kings could slide Barnes over to power forward, bring in a true small forward (like Kelly Oubre) on the Mid Level Exception, and use Hield or Marvin Bagley in a trade to bolster the depth at the forward spots, they could return to playoff contention sooner than expected.

Ultimately, Davis is not the type of player who significantly improves the Kings. He is, however, a quality bench player at an affordable price. These are the type of savvy decisions Sacramento needs to continue to make in order to place itself in a position to contend once again. Perhaps this deal would sit better if the Kings had already gone at and got “their guy” like the Heat, Bulls, and Lakers all managed to do this offseason. For that reason, I’m happy but not ecstatic with the re-signing of Davis.

Grade: B+