3 Keys for Scott Perry
What are the 3 keys to Scott Perry having a successful 2026 off-season?
Key #1 - NAIL THE DRAFT
Kings fans were understandably disappointed when the team fell to the no. 7 draft slot despite having the 5th best odds at the #1 pick. However, as D-lo and KC of ESPN 1320 often remind us, the process remains the exact same regardless of whether they pick 1st or 7th: just get it right.
The Sacramento Kings have a history of whiffing on lottery picks, and it’s something that has crippled the franchise for decades. Sacramento has never been a major free-agency destination, and the Kings lack the cap flexibility to pull off trades easily, leaving the draft as the only guaranteed available avenue of improvement.
Scott Perry was in the war room when De’Aaron Fox was drafted, and his 2025 draft selections have all shown varying degrees of promise. This should give Kings fans some level of optimism, but the draft is tricky. A hit or miss this year could end up being the defining moment of Scott Perry’s hopefully long-lived tenure as GM. When your franchise is coming off a 22-win season, one task should be in the front of Scott Perry’s mind: draft whoever you think the absolute best player available is, and you better be right.
Key #2 - Clear up cap space
Scott Perry can be given a little more leeway here, as he is in a tough spot with some of the contracts handed down to him. The Sacramento Kings are currently the fourth most expensive roster in the NBA, making it incredibly difficult for them to make any major roster changes via the trade market. Until some of these bigger contracts are moved or expire, Perry won’t have much of a chance to make his mark on the roster. If Perry can swap chunkier contracts like LaVine and Sabonis for smaller, more digestible ones, Sacramento’s cap flexibility would greatly increase.
With increased cap flexibility, Scott Perry would have the freedom to add undervalued players or draft capital through the trade market. Teams like OKC have historically used their cap flexibility to take on bloated contracts in return for future draft picks, which have been the foundation of their recent dominance. Cap space could alternatively be used to make opportunistic trades for younger players who may be at odds with their organization, something the Kings missed out on last off-season in Jonathan Kuminga.
While it may be difficult to move on from Zach LaVine’s $49 million contract, there could be realistic trade partners for DeMar DeRozan, Domantas Sabonis, and Malik Monk. DeRozan is owed $25.7 million, but only $10 million is guaranteed, meaning that if the Kings waive him before his guarantee date, he’d count as only $10 million toward their cap room. Sabonis and Monk have received what seems like a good amount of interest over the past year from teams such as Toronto and Detroit, respectively. Both players fill a need for those teams, but deals will be difficult to work through given Sacramento’s restricted position.
Key #3 - Prioritize development
Going into last season, it felt pretty clear that the Sacramento Kings organization clearly felt this roster was capable of being competitive. It’s what led them to hand out an awful 3-year, $44.4 million contract to Dennis Schröder. Pretty quickly, it became clear that was not the case, as the team started 3-7 in their first 10 games and eventually had to use Keon Ellis as a trade chip to dump Schröders contract. While Doug Christie initially made it clear that losing was absolutely not acceptable, his post-game pressers became less and less angry as the year dragged on and the organization began to prioritize the younger players.
Both DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine averaged over 30 minutes per game. Zach LaVine was shut down in mid-February, but DeRozan continued to play anywhere from 30 to even 40 minutes in late-season, meaningless wins that cost the Kings a chance at a higher draft pick. While the Kings may have some trade partners for their vets, there’s a good chance many of them return.
Sacramento cannot have a repeat of this for the 2026-27 season. We don’t need to watch another 30 games of playing aging veterans heavy minutes before the team finally accepts development as the priority. Sacramento will have 3 incoming draft picks, as well as 3 intriguing sophomore returners. From the jump, the focus should be on developing those players. If that means benching Zach LaVine, so be it. Maybe they start him and only play him 20ish minutes. Either way, Kings fans shouldn’t have to spend half the season begging for a clearly non-competitive team to play its young players.