If I don’t get to see an Isaiah Thomas Pizza Guy ads next season on League Pass I’m going to be bummed. They are some of my favorite of the local ads.
But I may not because Thomas may well not be in Sacramento.
The Kings have long been torn on Thomas, even if the fans have not. Thomas is 5’9” and a defensive liability, but he has beaten out every guard the Kings have drafted/brought in to replace him. Last season he averaged 20.3 points a game with a true shooting percentage of 57.4 percent, plus he dished out 6.3 assists a night. He had a PER of 20.5.
Those are the kinds of numbers that will get Thomas, a restricted free agent, paid. Not eight figures, but $6 million at least, maybe a couple million more a season. That’s an issue for the Kings, especially if Rudy Gay opts in for his $19.3 million or re-signs with the team for a healthy contract. Good friend of this site D.J. Foster of Bleacher Report laid it out beautifully.As it stands right now, the Kings have over $47 million in guaranteed contracts. If Rudy Gay opts in to his massive player option worth $19.3 million, that will bring the Kings to over $66 million. Then there’s the eighth pick in the draft to account for ($2.2 million), as well as Thomas. Without Thomas, the Kings should be at around $68.5 million in salary commitments.
That’s a problem, as the salary cap is projected to check in at somewhere between $63 and $65 million, meaning the luxury tax will be around $77 to $79 million.
If Thomas were to sign an offer sheet starting at around $8 million annually, which doesn’t seem unrealistic since that’s what point guard Jeff Teague pulled down in a similar situation last offseason, then the Kings would be a tax-paying team. You have to think that Sacramento’s ownership wants to avoid that, particularly if the product on the floor is an unlikely playoff team.
If Thomas gets a healthy offer, the Kings may not match.
The structures of the new CBA were in part the owners trying to take back control from the players and not let something like the Miami “big three” happen again where the players got to dictate the terms. Owners and NBA front offices didn’t like that loss of control. But those structures and taxes are going to make a lot of teams hit a wall, small or big markets.
How would you feel about the Ray McCallum era in Sacramento? Fans in Sac Town would be crushed if the Isaiah Thomas era came to an end — fans always relate to the little guy, the one their size, making their way among the trees of the NBA. He’s a favorite.
This wouldn’t be a basketball decision, it would be a dollars and cents decision. Welcome to the NBA.
But I’ll still have my favorite Pizza Guy add take off to watch forever.