One King had to take the hit when Russell Westbrook was signed

When the Sacramento Kings finally signed Russell Westbrook, that meant someone had to get cut from the roster for the regular season. That cut was Terence Davis, who was unsurprisingly waived after the Kings won their final preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

An NBA roster can have a total of 15 players on regular contracts with an additional three players on two-way contracts. Going into training camp, each team will have extra players who they have to waive before the regular season begins to get to those numbers.

Throughout the preseason, the Kings have been making cuts to get the roster down to the league maximum. None of the cuts were particularly surprising. The players the Kings needed to waive were obvious, since who was going to make up their roster was even more apparent.

The wild and crazy offseason of Terence Davis

Point guard Terence Davis went undrafted in 2019 but was ultimately signed by the Toronto Raptors. He played there for two seasons before heading to Sacramento, where he played an additional pair of seasons. Davis spent the next two years in the G League before rejoining the Kings.

After returning to Sacramento in April 2025, Davis was subsequently waived over the offseason. But in another surprising twist, he was re-signed yet again a couple of weeks later, leading into the Kings' training camp. It was an odd move to say the least.

At the time, the Kings were trying to make room for Russell Westbrook, a legendary point guard. Many thought cutting Davis was that move. When he was re-signed, that was a signal to many that the Kings had given up on trying to bring Westbrook in.

Making room for Russell Westbrook

By the point that the Kings finally signed Westbrook, they had the correct numbers for their regular-season roster. That meant someone had to go when Russell signed on the dotted line, and that was Davis. Being a guard on a team that is unbalanced towards his position isn't a good thing.

It kind of feels like he was brought back simply to hold Westbrook's roster spot. He only played in one of the Kings' four preseason games and was on the court for less than five minutes. He was never a serious consideration for the Kings' regular-season roster.

Given the composition of the guard-heavy team the Kings have put together, bringing in a new point guard meant getting rid of an existing point guard. It's unfortunate because Davis is a skilled and reliable player off the bench, someone the Kings could have really used.