With the 2024-25 NBA season over for the Sacramento Kings (courtesy of the Dallas Mavericks), their focus has now shifted to the offseason.
A big part of the offseason is free agency, a time when teams can sign players who are not under contract to a deal.
The Kings and their new general manager Scott Perry have already made it known that this team needs to add some ball handling and length/athleticism to their current roster, and it looks like one player who could really help them with the latter will be available this upcoming cycle.
The Kings need to try and sign Amir Coffey in free agency
In a recent episode of Yossi Gozlan's podcast, The Athletic's Law Murraycame on to discuss the Los Angeles Clippers' offseason preview. During their time, Murray mentioned Coffey's impending free agency and how it is very unlikely that the young forward will be back.
"I would be surprised if Amir is back. He didn't play a single second in the playoffs ... That is usually a tell-tale sign that it's like 'hey look you're about to be a free agent. We want you to get your money. We aren't going to put you in position to get hurt unnecessarily. But we also don't see you as someone who can help us in any capacity right now. Thank you. Good luck. We'll see you down the line," Murray said.
If this is true and the Kings are going for more of a re-tool than a full-scale rebuild, they should definitely make Coffey a top priority. Don't let the fact that he wasn't included in the insanely deep Clippers' playoff rotation. Coffey is the perfect three-and-D role player for the Kings.
Coffey is a big body (6'8) who has proven to be a strong on-ball defender who can guard multiple positions. He is also a very reliable 3-point shooter, hitting 40.9% of his 3.4 attempts per game (he is a career 38.4% shooter from downtown).
Coffey has also shown some flashes of secondary/tertiary on-ball creation. This season, he hit 47% of his midrange shots (78th percentile) on volume that was in the 53rd percentile leaguewide.
The best part is that Coffey isn't proven enough to command a big day. So, the Kings could realistically hope to sign him with their mid-level exception (MLE), which is expected to be about 12.8 million dollars. That would be a great payday for someone who made just 3.9 million dollars last year. Plus, it would keep him in the state of California. Who wouldn't want to keep living there?
Coffey is the exact type of complimentary piece the Kings need to be looking for in free agency, and landing him would be a major home run.