After falling to the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA Play-In Tournament, the Sacramento Kings' 2024-25 NBA Season is now complete.
With that behind them, their focus has now shifted toward the 2025-26 campaign. This offseason will be a difficult one, filled with many tough choices for their new-look front office led by new general manager Scott Perry.
Will the team remove the interim part of Doug Christie's job description? Will they look to trade any of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, or Domantas Sabonis? Are they going to go for more of a rebuild or a re-tool?
None of those questions has an easy or obvious answer. Fortunately, there is at least one personnel decision that will be an absolute no-brainer for Perry.
The Kings shouldn't think twice about picking up Keon Ellis' team option
Two types of options can be included on contracts: player and club options. A player option is when the person under contract has the choice of whether or not they want to go through with the last year of their contract. Meanwhile, a club option is when the team gets to make that decision.
As it stands, Keon Ellis is under a club option for the 2025-26 season, meaning the Kings will get to decide if they want to keep him under contract for it or not. As the title of this post suggests, the Kings should not think twice about this decision. They absolutely should pick up Ellis' team option.
Along with Ellis putting together two straight seasons that suggest he is the exact type of three-and-D role player the Kings are in desperate need of, he's also getting paid way less than his production is worth.
Next season, Ellis is set to make 2.3 million dollars. However, if he plays the way he did this year, his production value will be worth 16.3 million dollars in 2025-26 (to learn more about how this was calculated, click the hyperlink in the next sentence). He already had one of the best contracts in the league this year, and that will continue next season if he keeps playing the way he has proven capable of in the recent past.
The only reason the Kings should even entertain the prospect of declining Ellis' team-friendly club option is to negotiate a long-term extension with him that will keep him under contract for years to come (similar to what the Indiana Pacers did with Andrew Nembhard last season).
Regardless, the easiest decision Perry will make this offseason will involve making sure Ellis is still under contract for them in 2025-26.