Going into the offseason, Zach LaVine unquestionably has the upper hand over the Sacramento Kings. He knows they want him gone, but he has a player option for next season. If he exercises it, LaVine will cash in whether he stays in Sacramento or not, and it's a seriously impressive move.
The 2025-2026 season was rather dismal for the Kings, though not a complete trainwreck. A new core of rookies and sophomores stepped up and started winning games. It wasn't enough to salvage the season, but they at least prevented a complete garbage fire from happening.
A big part of that was players like Zach LaVine being shut down for the season due to injury. No one wants to see any player injured like that. Period. At the same time, it's hard to ignore the fact that getting LaVine out of the way contributed to the Kings actually finding some sort of rhythm.
That's part of what makes moving him out of Sacramento this offseason so important. The other part is his massive salary and the negative impact it's going to have on next season's payroll. If he and Sabonis are both still on the roster, there will be luxury taxes and apron penalties galore.
LaVine is in charge right now and the Kings are at his mercy
For 2026-2027, LaVine's contract is worth just under $49 million and has a player option. It's widely expected that LaVine will stay with the Kings as no other team is going to pay him that kind of money. As it turns out, staying in Sacramento is an even smarter move that in appears for LaVine.
If he re-ups, the Kings will try to trade him. That means another team ends up paying him all that money. Sacramento could also buy his contract out. They'll negotiate a decreased salary amount that will likely be around 85% to 90% of what he's owed. Then, he's an unrestricted free agent.
That means Lavine could walk away with $44 million, immediately sign with another team for $20 million per season, the high end of what he's actually estimated to be worth, and come out ahead in the whole deal. It doesn't make any financial sense for him to not to at least take the player option.
Sacramento wants out of the Zach LaVine business badly and he knows it. If he takes the player option, he backs them into a corner with options that only benefit him. The worst case scenario for LaVine is that he sits on the Kings' bench for a season while making a huge amount of money.
Add us as a preferred source on Google