With free agency fully underway, the Sacramento Kings are already making moves. Two announcements that have yet to be officially made are the fates of Drew Eubanks and Doug McDermott. Both men are unrestricted free agents and are likely not returning to the roster.
So far, the Kings have made a couple of hard choices. First, they parted ways with Devin Carter as part of a trade with the Hawks purely designed for Sacramento to dump salary. It's not the way Carter probably saw his time with the Kings coming to an end, but maybe he'll get a fresh start in Atlanta.
Within hours of that move, Sacramento then exercised their team option for the second year of Killian Hayes' contract. He's now a free agent looking for a new home. Neither move was a surprise, as the Kings absolutely have to make room at the guard positions after picking up two more in the draft.
On top of that, the Kings are still dancing around what to do with free agents Precious Achiuwa, Daeqwon Plowden, and Russell Westbrook. The desire is likely to keep all three, but Plowden and Achiuwa appear to be the priorities. That leaves players like Eubanks and McDermott out.
The future is written for Eubanks and McDermott
Eubanks is a veteran center-forward who was brought in as backup for Domantas Sabonis. With the respective rises of rookies Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell in play, Eubanks became superfluous on the roster. If the Kings retain Achiuwa and acquire Jalen Duren, they do not need Eubanks.
McDermott is in a similar situation. Another veteran, this forward is slowly becoming unnecessary as the roster construction changes. Depth at the three and the four has increased with Achiuwa, Plowden, Keegan Murray, and De'Andre Hunter, not to mention the newly acquired Alex Karaban.
That being said, Sacramento still needs at least a couple of additional forwards who fit their youthful, versatile rebuild with a defensive focus. Neither McDermott nor Eubanks fits those criteria. But if the Kings don't retain their services, that creates roster space to make some moves in free agency.
Nothing official has been announced at this point regarding either player. Being that the Kings have some hard payroll decisions to make, it just seems unlikely that they'll use some of their limited space for either McDermott or Eubanks. At this point, fans are just waiting on a front office announcement.
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