The Sacramento Kings have agreed to a four-year, $33 million deal with free agent center Kosta Koufos, according to ESPN's Marc Stein. Koufos will have a player option on the fourth year.
This is actually quite a sensible deal for Sacramento, which is a weird thing to type because of all that's happened lately. Koufos is one of the best backup centers in the NBA, a solid two-way big man who is capable of starting for stretches.
In a vacuum, this is simple: the Kings used their remaining cap space on a good player at a reasonable price. Hooray! There are questions about fit, however. Mainly this:
Barring more additions, not sure Rudy Gay can start at PF if you want Koufos and WCS to play enough. Also, no other SF.
— Tom Triller (@teamziller) July 5, 2015
Sacramento has been trumpeting Rudy Gay as a power forward for next season, but it no longer seems like the minutes will be there. The Kings drafted center Willie Cauley-Stein No. 6 overall, and now there's this. Having a bunch of solid frontcourt players is a pretty good problem to have, but it's all a bit weird for a team that fired Michael Malone, hired George Karl and made such a big deal out of the need to play with pace and space.
To recap: in the last few days, Sacramento has added Rajon Rondo, Marco Belinelli and Koufos, while sending Nik Stauskas, Jason Thompson, Carl Landry, a future pick and more to the Philadelphia 76ers. Kings vice president will probably still make a trade or two to try to balance the roster, but it's already apparent that the team is going to look completely different next year.
