As the league continues to examine expansion, the specter of an expansion draft looms large. Every existing team, including the Sacramento Kings, will have to choose which players to protect. The Kings won't have to worry about Zach LaVine or Domantas Sabonis, though. They would be safe.
If Las Vegas and Seattle receive final approval for their new franchises, they are expected to start playing in the 2028-2029 season. It feels like a long time away, especially for Seattle fans who have been waiting nearly 20 years to get the Sonics back. Even two years seems like forever.
At some point during that time, the league will have an expansion draft. It will allow the two new franchises to select existing players for their rosters, plus picks in the 2028 draft. The Board of Governors still has to determine rules, but there are previous ones to go by.
The last expansion draft allowed teams to protect eight members of their roster, leaving the rest exposed. There has also been a one player per team limit, meaning a single team can't have their entire roster pillaged. For the Kings, who they would protect is as obvious as who they wouldn't.
Sacramento would leave LaVine and Sabonis in the open
The Kings' front office has been clear that they want to move on from both LaVine and Sabonis as they don't fit the rebuild. As such, Sacramento definitely wouldn't put either of them on the protected list if the expansion draft were happening today, not that either would be a likely choice.
Part of the previous expansion draft rules included taking the players' contracts as is. The reality is that LaVine and Sabonis have two extremely expensive contracts, which would stop either Vegas or Seattle from drafting them. Such a move would cause salary cap problems almost immediately.
The funny part is this issue isn't going to come up for the Kings and these two players.. Assuming LaVine takes his player option, he only has one more season with the Kings. And Sabonis's contract will be done after 2027-2028. Neither player will be a King by the time the expansion draft happens.
There's also the possibility that the Kings finally find a way to trade either LaVine or Sabonis before the expansion draft. In a perfect world, those trades would happen before the 2026-2027 season, but that feels incredibly unlikely to happen.