5 Best Sacramento Kings contracts heading into the 2024-25 season
By Mat Issa
3. Keon Ellis
Average Annual Value: 1.7 million dollars
Production Value: 9.2 million dollars
Difference: 7.5 million dollars
The biggest bright spot of the Kings' 2023-24 season was the emergence of Keon Ellis into a bonafide rotational player. Last season, Ellis started 21 games for Sacramento while posting an Estimated Plus-Minus that placed in the 80th percentile.
Next season, Ellis has a chance of being the team's full-time starting shooting guard thanks to his blend of 3-point shooting (41.7% 3-point percentage) and defense (92nd percentile steal rate and 76th percentile block rate). This two-way impact makes Ellis one of the Kings' most balanced role players.
The beauty of this for Sacramento is that Ellis' emergence came after he signed a three-year, 5.1 million dollar deal. Now, they have a player whose production value is worth over five times as much as he's getting paid on an annual basis (and he's under contract for the next two seasons). Hopefully, for Ellis' sake, he nets a more lucrative deal after this contract expires.