KINGS QUESTIONS: How does De'Andre Hunter fit with the current roster?

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Lotta for Keenan? That's me. Hey, you're... Yeah, buying a car online on Auto Trader? Really, but unlike other sites you can start online, test drive with a local dealer, then finish online or at the dealership. Cool. Enjoy. Buy your car online on Auto Trader. Really. 5am, I'm up with a crisp Celsius energy drink. Running 12 miles today. Grab a green juice, quick change and head to work. Meetings, workshops. One more Celsius, no slowing down. Working late, but obviously still meeting the girls for a little dancing. Celsius, live, fit, go. Grab a cold, refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com. Who is DeAndre Hunter and how does he fit into the grand scheme of things in Sacramento? Let's discuss.

1:05You are Lockdown Kings, your daily Sacramento Kings podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in. I am James Hamrie, Kingsons, out of ESPN 1320, the Kings Beat, and host of Lockdown Kings. Let's dive into today's three keys. And as we do, hit that thumbs up button to help with the algorithm of life. Who is DeAndre Hunter? We're going to talk about that in the first block. Of course, the Kings acquired him at the Trade Deadline last season. In the second block, how does Hunter fit in with the Kings specifically in the 26-27 season? And then finally, we're going to finish up with the contract stuff. What exactly does DeAndre Hunter's contract look like? And why is it that it might be tough for him to get an extension before the season starts, even though he is eligible. So, all right, Scott Perry didn't sit on his hands at the Trade Deadline. That's something that previous regime did after they made the big swing for the fencing,

2:10and the Demonis subonus, we saw very, very tame Trade Deadlines from the Sacramento Kings. That is not what happened in year one of Scott Perry. In fact, he took on more salary for this season when he traded Dennis Schroeder and Keon Ellis to the calves for DeAndre Hunter. Signed to a three-year 44.4 million dollar deal in the off season, Schroeder ended up being a huge mistake for the Sacramento Kings and Scott Perry. Perry quickly rectified that error when he moved him to the calves. The cost of that transaction, of course, was Ellis. Neither of these players are currently on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Schroeder was traded to the Hornets. His 12th NBA season, including eight teams since the start of the 2023-24 season, which is one of the craziest stats I've ever heard. Ellis left to join former Kings assistant, Jordy Fernandez in Brooklyn on a two-year 18 million dollar deal.

3:11Using a crystal ball, Perry closely predicted that Hunter's 24.9 million dollar contract for this season would be roughly equal to the 14.8 million Schroeder was going to make and the 9 million for Ellis. And to be honest with you, he is actually really close to that. The difference is 1.1 million between the contracts that the Kings sent out and the contract that they brought in for DeAndre Hunter. So again, that was sort of one of the things that Scott Perry said at the time, like, look, yes, we had to give up Keon Ellis. And yes, we moved off of Dennis Schroeder, but realistically, when you look at the 24.9 million that Hunter makes, we were going to have to pay that money next season either way when you factor in, you know, again, Keon Ellis, he actually had Keon Ellis right around 10 million. And of course, Dennis Schroeder at 14.8. So now the Kings have Hunter, right?

4:12They were hoping they would get a year and a half roughly to see how he fit as a player with the Kings roster. But an eye injury changed all of that last season, just two games into his Kings career. Hunter seemed ready to play a week or so after the initial injury, but his eye, when they went in for his final exam, they realized that he actually had a detached retina in his left eye and that required surgery. So not a good thing. What the Kings were hoping is that Hunter listed at 67 and 220. Would be a forward that they could pair with Keegan Murray. And that's the type of player they've been praying for since the team traded away hair, some barns in the DeMar de Rosendale. Of course, that did not happen. We did not get to see those guys play a huge amount of minutes together. In fact, as soon as Hunter got hurt, wasn't that long before Keegan Murray got hurt as well for a third time last season.

5:13And there it just wasn't in the cards to play. We're talking about a former number four overall pick from the 2019 NBA draft that is Hunter. Again, kind of interesting. They have a pair of forwards now that were the number four overall pick in their respective drafts in Keegan Murray and DeAndre Hunter. So, but I think the interesting thing is he he's kind of had a career that looks similar to Keegan Murray. He's had a very inconsistent impact, especially that you would hope for from a top four pick. And he's missed a ton of games. He's carved out a solid career both in Atlanta and then his shortstop in Cleveland. But during his seven seasons in the league, he's been okay. He's averaged 14.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists. He's a career 44.7% shooter from the field 36.4% from three. He did not shoot the ball well at all last season from three.

6:15But that looked more like a blip on the radar as opposed to something that was something that he's going to deal with long term. He's been a very good three point shooter throughout his career. He's also been in the running for six man of the year. He started 271 of his 372 games as a pro. He also has missed 167 games as a pro with multiple injuries including a bunch of ankle injuries early on. So, he isn't the lockdown defender that you're kind of hoping for that the Kings would find at that three. But he's solid. More of a league average with maybe some potential upside. Again, you have to look at him in kind of a weird way. He's old for his draft class. So, he's 28 going on 29 this year. And, you know, again, he's a 2019 pick. There are plenty of players from that draft, which are much younger, much, much younger. So, 25, 26 years old as opposed to 28 going on 29.

7:19And like, look, I think he's big enough and strong enough to play both forward positions. That's a good thing. He also gives the Kings that length and athleticism that they've been looking for. He's actually a very good athlete. He's also a workout warrior, which is crazy to see an NBA basketball player that works out like DeAndre Hunter. A little bit reminiscent of Aaron Aflalo. When he came to Sacramento, but DeAndre Hunter is one of those athletes. It comes in and realistically, he's pretty jacked. He's a guy who hits the weight room hard. So, what you're hoping is that maybe at some point in his career, the injury stopped being such a huge issue for him. And he just settles in and maybe figures out how to be the player that a lot of people thought he would be coming out of college. Again, a decent three point shooter. A strong score. He's averaged up to, I think, 17 points for a game in his career. He's an OK rebounder. He's an OK assist man, realistically, not a great assist man.

8:23He has a little bit of the DeMarta Rosen game to him. He likes the mid range, but also, I think for this Kings team, he can really feel a void if he can stay healthy and stay on the court. I'd also say that it makes a lot of sense if you look at how the Kings have bulked up that position, whether it's bringing in precious a chewer that can play the forward, allow Keegan Murray to shift back to the three. Or it's bringing in a lot of three, you know, sort of small forward options, even if they're some of them are undersized. So you've got Alex Cariband, they can play the three, but then on top of that, you can look at a guy like Ben Simmons, you can look at some of the younger guys that play the shooting guard, Nick Clifford, day qua, applaud and they can shift over and play that position as well. And if the Andre Hunter is going to have a season like he has most of the years of his career, you'll be lucky if he's playing between 65 and 70 games.

9:23And that would be lucky. I mean, I think that there's a good, like if you look at his career path, there's there's probably going to be 15 to 20 games out of minimum that he will probably miss due to injury. And sometimes it's even more than that. So I think the Kings are, they did a good job of bulking up that position. But overall, like, look, we didn't get to talk to DeAndre Hunter a lot. I know during the season, you know, he heard his eye. And then one day he spoke to the media because he thought he was coming back and he was going to play either that night or the next night. And then next thing you know, he went in for a, you know, just one of those eye exams to clear him to make sure that he was imperfect health and ready to come back. And they're like, oh, no, no, that's not going to work at all. So that's when he had to undergo eye surgery. Again, last time we talked to him, he was still contemplating whether he was going to have to wear goggles for the rest of his career or not. But probably would not be a bad idea. There have been, you know, players in the past who have had lots of issues with their eyes after they're done playing. I think it's Kareem Abdul Jabbar who had a ton of issues both as a player and then following his career because of all the times he was poked in the eye and sort of, you know, that issue became a dryness issue down the road.

10:41So something to be aware of for Deandre Hunter. But okay, let's take a quick break. When we come back, let's, let's talk about how he fits into the plans for the 2026, 2027 season. Be right back. Feeling better can mean something different to everyone. Maybe it means handling everyday stress in a healthier way, being more present with the people who matter or simply getting better at something that's been weighing on you better help. Focus is on global emotional well being connecting people with a therapist who really gets them with thousands of therapists and millions of members in over 100 countries. So if you could wake up tomorrow and be better at one thing, what would it be? Think beyond the obvious answer and consider what would genuinely make a difference in your day to day? Maybe it's putting the phone down and actually being present, getting better handling stress or even something as simple as finally keeping the plants alive, your house plants. That's not something I'm good at right now.

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13:04All right locked on NBA locked on kings is part of the locked on podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network. Thanks for making us your first listen to the day. All right, two weeks ago Hunter was kind of a no brainer starter for the kings at the three to open the season. That might still be the case and it probably is still the case, but that was before the Ben Simmons signing. So it's unlikely that Ben Simmons is ready to move into starting lineup off the jump after sitting out last season and playing spurnally in the two seasons before that. But there is also a chance that that's the case. Remember that the Andre Hunter was traded for played two games and then missed the rest of the season. I think he played two out of 30 games for the sacrament of kings last year after the trade. So it's not like he has some sort of continuity or some sort of leg up on a player like Ben Simmons. If things go Hunter's way he'll be in the opening five alongside Jerry say Cove Zach Levine, Keegan Murray into Montesson, so bonus.

14:10But the Kings have a ton of other options at the three as well. So first and foremost, precious to Chua is likely to play plenty of minutes at the four, which can push Keegan over to the small, small forward for chunks of the game. There's also Ben Simmons and who can man the position Alex Keriban and then to top that off again, I brought to something last block, but there's any Clifford, there's Dayquan Plauden. There are enough players that the Kings have that can play the small forward spot that they should be able to get through this season. The difference is that you're going to give up something, whether it's linked to athleticism, whether it's defensive prowess, whether it's size at the position. And that's where I think Deandre Hunter again 67 220. He's a big grown up man that can play that small forward position. He can switch and play the three and the four and really be an interchangeable piece with Keegan Murray. I think that that's something that we're going to see a lot of this season.

15:13But again, some of these other players we're talking about, they are either a player like Simmons who has been out of the league for a while or players at lack experience, you know, again, the Keribans, the neat Clifford, the Dayquan Plaudens who all actually might get into that position and try to price them in its way from Hunter. So where I like Deandre Hunter is as I catch and shoot three, catch and shoot three point shooter from the corner. I like he I like him as a back cutter and sort of, you know, transition player, a guy who can move up and down the court, very athletic can get in and fly in for a dog. I do I think there's a lot to like about him. I also, I think again, when you're dealing with players like this, you're going to have to try to, you know, convert him into a player that works in your system. The problem is I'm not sure what the king's system is, but you know, he does like to do a lot of the whole mid-range game that we saw the ISO ball stuff that we saw from De Marta Rosen, but with a cuff and Levine and subbonus and Murray all the starting five.

16:21It's very possible that that Deandre Hunter will find himself as the fifth option in that group. It's okay. That's totally fine for him to be the fifth option as long as he's bought in the goal of this season should be to develop a cuff as number one right to develop a cuff. And then I think the other goal should be to prove up Kagan Murray as, you know, a secondary, maybe a number two, number three option as a score. So Hunter can be part of all of that, but I also see a world in which he's really used as a secondary score off to the side. And maybe even a player that becomes, you know, again, with staggered rotations, maybe he plays consider considerable minutes with the second unit with again, guys like Malik Monk, guys like Prussia, Sotua, and guys like Maxine Rayno where all of a sudden if you pair those four guys together with the player. And you guys together with whether Simmons or Dylan Cardwell or whoever it is you're going to pair him with.

17:22You might be able to actually get a nice boost and have an offensive second unit. I think this team can go with a defensive second unit. And maybe Deandre Hunter is part of that, but also I think that they can go like with a true defensive second unit, which, you know, again, I don't know how good that's going to be whether they can score enough. I could see a neat Clifford and Emmanuel Sharpe and Ben Simmons and Prussia Sotua and Dylan Cardwell, if you're just getting boat race by somebody and you need to figure out a way to sort of stop the stop the bleeding and do a, you know, again, a defensive substitution. I think that Hunter can be part of that group. He can also be part of other groups. He can be again part of the starters. He can be part of that second unit that you might have an offensive second unit. And at times I think he can even fit into somewhat of a defensive second unit. I do think he's a solid enough defender. And I think he'll also be able to maybe take a little bit of pressure off Kagan Murray when it comes to defending the most elite offensive player on every single team every single night.

18:32I think Prussia Sotua will also give a little bit of a break to Kagan Murray in that way. But you're going to have to figure out how to fit all these pieces on the floor. So I do, I do think that there are a lot of different units that the that Doug Christie is going to have to tinker with. Hopefully he can get a lot of that tinkering down in preseason before he has to go into, you know, a sprint and the 82 game regular season. But I do think that Hunter fits into a bunch of these, these actions, right. So let's just go through kind of the other things with Hunter is sort of the downfall. He's not a great passer. He's not at all a guy who, who racks up assists, even in the way that, the Mar-to-Rosen rack deficits here, you have not seen that throughout de-Hunter, Hunter's career. He's also a mediocre rebounder, nothing to write home there right around 4.1 rebounds for a game for his career. Again, sort of in the range of the Mar-to-Rosen. So I think overall this is a, it's a downgrade over, you know, again, a guy who's going out there and averaging 18.4 points for a game.

19:40And, De-Mar-to-Rosen. But I also think he's different and he's different enough where, again, the bigger size, the length and athleticism that he has, the fact that he's 28 going on 29 and not 36 going on 37. So I think that, you know, again, just as a straight offensive weapon, De-Mar-to-Rosen is a better player, but as an all around basketball player, it's possible that you might be able to get more out of De-Andre Hunter specifically in a system, right. As opposed to just being a passable to De-Mar and isolation and hope that he can bail the team out time and time again. So I really do wish we got to see more of the De-Andre Hunter or Keegan Murray combination last season. I think Hunter is solid enough that he could take some of that weight off of Murray. I also think that the accumulation of injuries that we saw from him last year and that we've seen throughout his career, it just limited what we could see.

20:44And it's just really tough to make a true judge on what that pairing is going to look like as a, you know, competent pair of wings. But I do think that again, between the three-point shooting, the athleticism, the not 100% commitment to defense, but a better defender than what we've seen at that position in the past. I think the Kings might actually have a pretty solid ball player and a pretty solid rotation, at least in that starting unit, that they could give them a shot to do a lot better than the 21 and a half wins that they're projected to win this season. So, all right, let's take a break. When we return, I want to go through sort of the dynamics of De-Andre Hunter's contract and his situation here in Sacramento. Because realistically, if you really liked him and you traded for him, you might want to lock him up, but there's some reasons why the Sacramento Kings, I do not believe we'll do that. So we're going to hit that next.

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25:17Okay when it comes to Zach Levine and his 49 million dollar contract it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that he won't be back after this season outside of some major change in heart from either the kings or again Zach Levine's people or even both sides right. That might not be the case for Deandre Hunter and his expiring 24 point nine million dollar contract the kings again they acquired hunter to be part of the program but his I injury last year really don't derailed the whole entire plan we still have got to see zero. Minutes of him in the front court with Kagan Murray and a monosabonus and Kagan Murray and a monosabonus didn't even play together for a single minute last year so. We're still in the discovery phase when it comes to Deandre Hunter and you know we don't know what these these groups players are going to look like we haven't heard even the slightest bit of chatter though about a potential extension for a hunter even though he is eligible right now to get an extension but I want to explain that I believe that's because the kings are playing a completely different game with their salary cap and it Deandre Hunter might just be a little bit more.

26:40Deandre Hunter might just be a innocent bystander that that's kind of getting you know run over in this situation if he's interested in Sacramento beyond the season we'll have to wait and see if that's the case but that's why I think the kings will actually look at him more than they would right now and why I believe that is because we keep having this jalen durn situation every podcast there's a segment of the podcast where we mentioned it or it's full bore we're talking about jalen durn situation. We're talking about jalen durn from start to finish and that's very specific he's a player who the kings would love to get their hands on right now but he's also a player that they might try to get their hands on this summer when he's an unrestricted for the agent so as of today the kings have a little over 130 million in dedicated salary for next season right that's not a lot of dedicated salary so when the Deandre Hunter and Zach Levine contracts fall off. The books plus some other smaller contracts that the kings have the kings are all of a sudden going to be well below the salary cap salary cap is projected at $176 million for next year and there's a slight chance that that could go up a little bit from there that's only a 6.7% increase in the current salary cap of 165 million and that would leave the kings roughly $46 million under the luxury tax.

28:09I mean under the salary cap the luxury tax is projected at $213 million for next season and that means that again the king said $46 million under the luxury under the salary cap but 83 million under the luxury tax and that's crazy that is a lot of money to work with so again that means that you could in theory go out and sign a max money $46 million player or. So you could go out and sign a max money and then you would still have your middle level exception your buy annual exception and you could sit there and keep working to create a dip something different for your team because you're so far under the actual luxury tax so that would be great for me this is the under a hunter currently makes you know 24.9 million that's a contract he signed as a rookie scale extension I do not believe on the open market the

29:09I don't think he's he's gonna have to play for the league minimum or 10 million dollars a year but for me I think the contract that I would look at for him probably is the 15 to 18 million dollars per year and maybe a little bit less than that so the kings might be interested in something like that maybe we'll have to see it's not like this team has ever got to see a really good look at him and see how he fits in and whatever system or with whatever players that they have but again this is one of the situations where you could put them on the court and he's playing with Darius A.C. of Junior also and they have some sort of weird chemistry and you're just like okay this makes sense and he's 29 he'll be 29 during the season and maybe you sign him to a three year deal after the season and hopes that he's going to be someone that that can hold down whether it's as a starter or as a guy coming off the bench that that three four positions. So I think that's a good question for for a little bit of time right we'll see if that happens but before any of that happens Scott Perry has a whole bunch of money and it really does feel like he's going big game hunting and that he wants to test the free agent waters before he makes any commitments to any of these other players that might be up for extensions or might be up for a longer term commitment than just this season again

30:38if the Kings can say move off a Damanis subonus they might be able to save some more money there and we could see that $130 million dedicated salary for next season go down even further that's when you might start to see how the Kings could fit multiple players into their salary structure maybe they're not able to swing for the fences with a guy like Jalen Darn maybe he's already signed with the pistons or signs elsewhere but as of right now it would be who've Scott Perry to be as open minded as possible. With creating salary space for next season because you never know it might not just be a free agent signing it might be somebody trading you somebody because they're trying to go out and chase a big free agent and they need to clear a bunch of cap space and you as a Kings might have you know upwards of 40 45 46 million dollars to work with and so maybe you can take back some really good players maybe you can again pull off a lot of side of trade there are all kinds of ways in which if you have cap space

31:38you might be able to use it and that's why I think as of right now the Kings aren't going to limit themselves because again if let's just say you gave DeAndre Hunter an extension for your $60 million and started it you know 20 million use 20 million 20 million 20 million well now all of a sudden the Kings have $26 million in cap space to play with this next summer and that's just not how I think Scott Perry is going to handle his business he's realistically looking at a much bigger situation here and again if DeAndre Hunter becomes part of a longer term plan here in Sacramento it's because he played his way into that and because the Kings already have other plans with other positions and they're attacking those positions and I could definitely see that being the case so we're going to have to wait and see and that's kind of the interesting thing about the season so again the things can change between now next summer maybe a trade comes up that shifts all of this during you know right now or sometimes between now and the the NBA trade deadline in February that's always possible ability maybe that trade includes Hunter for a longer term fixture or younger player under contract at the same position but for now Hunter's a player with a with every incentive to have a good season for the Kings maybe that's a good thing maybe it's not but he's skilled and there's a need for a wingscore on this club this season so everything else feels like

33:08it might be waiting to see mode for DeAndre Hunter and the Sacramento Kings so all right thanks for tuning in make sure to follow me on social media at James underscore ham NBA make sure you subscribe and follow locked on King so you get all of the latest episodes hit the notification button so you get an alert when we post jump in the comments section do all that stuff thank you for making locked on Kings your first listen to the day for your second listen finding locked on NBA podcast where there is no offseason in the US Matt and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations rumors and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan find locked on NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts it's part of the locked on podcast network your team every day. Hey we'll see you tomorrow. Every game day you show up for your team now it's your time.

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