5 Moves the Kings need to make during the 2024 offseason

Move #3: Find Another Keon Ellis

Arguably the brightest part of the 2023-24 season for the Kings was the unexpected emergence of Keon Ellis into a high-level bench player/solid starter.

After going undrafted in the 2022 NBA Draft, Ellis appeared in 57 games (21 starts) last year, placing in the 93rd percentile in Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus (DEF EPM) while also shooting 41.7% from beyond the arc. The best part is that he still has two years left on his insanely team-friendly three-year, 5.1 million dollar deal.

The best teams generally find a way to get the most bang for their buck, and with Sabonis (40.5 million in 2024-25) and Fox (34.8 million) set to eat up a large part of the cap next year, the Kings will need to uncover another diamond in the rough on a bargain deal.

The way I see it, this could happen in one (or more) of three ways. First, they could hit on one of their veteran minimums – kind of like how the Dallas Mavericks did with Derrick Jones Jr. in the 2023 offseason. Javonte Green and Jae'Sean Tate (if the Houston Rockets don't pick up his team option) could be names to look out for in this regard.

Second, they could strike gold with their second round pick (45th overall). Second round picks in that range take very little cap space (less than 1.5% of the salary cap). So, if you can get one who is ready to play rotation minutes in Year One, that is a huge boost for your team (think about what Toumani Camara did for the Portland Trail Blazers last year).

Lastly, maybe that player, like what happened with Ellis, is already on the roster. The two players I'm specifically referring to are Sasha Vezenkov (6.7 million next year) and Colby Jones (2.1 million).

Despite some rumors that suggested otherwise, it seems like Vezenkov intends to honor the last two years of his NBA contract. Vezenkov's rookie year was inconsistent, but we've seen players bounce back from shakey starts before. If he does, the former Euroleague MVP could be a valuable shooter/spacer for the Kings off the bench.

Jones also just wrapped up his rookie season. Unlike Vezenkov, Jones is more of a defensively-slanted player. If Jones can become a serious contributor off the bench in Year Two, he would give the Kings some much-needed perimeter defense, athleticism, two-way juice, and rim protection (74th percentile in block rate).