Kings' Petrie continues to work the phones

LAS VEGAS – Besides basketball games, the NBA summer league turns this city into the hot spot for NBA transactions.

You might see a free agent like forward Anthony Randolph sitting with Denver coach George Karl and his players to spark speculation the Nuggets could sign him.

Executives are talking or text-ing on cellphones constantly, and agents are angling for the best deals for their clients while trades are discussed.

Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie is keeping tabs on all the chatter.

"You get a sense of the landscape and what other things might flow from that," Petrie said Sunday after the Kings scrimmaged the Memphis Grizzlies at Spring Valley High School.

"It's always interesting to see how things play out, and there's still some big decisions that some of these teams are going to have to make over the next week or so."

The Kings already have one big decision in their favor: Restricted free-agent forward Jason Thompson re-signed with them on a five-year deal.

While some of the more prominent free agents have already signed new deals, Petrie believes there are still players who can help the Kings.

"A lot of the hot money goes out early," Petrie said. "There still are players out there who are quality players, and there's still the possibility for trades. We've had quite a few conversations on different things, and I'm hopeful we'll get some things done in the next few days."

The Kings are monitoring players waived using the amnesty clause because, as a team under the salary cap, they can bid on those players.

Sacramento did not bid on power forward Luis Scola, who was waived by Houston with the amnesty clause. Phoenix claimed Scola.

After the Kings drafted Thomas Robinson and re-signed Thompson to join Chuck Hayes on the roster, another power forward isn't the biggest priority.

The Kings, however, could bid on Josh Childress, a small forward who was waived with the amnesty clause by the Suns to make room for Scola.

Petrie reiterated the Kings aren't content with their roster and continue to look to address their needs.

"We can't get it all with one player," Petrie said. "We would like to do some prudent things to improve our roster and still give us some flexibility going forward. To still improve ourselves at small forward, improve our shooting and probably get a little more creativity in the backcourt if that was possible and continue to build with a young nucleus."

The Kings began the offseason approximately $15 million under the salary cap. With the signings of Robinson and Thompson, they've spent about $8 million of that toward next season.

Because Thompson was their top priority, the Kings were reluctant to put out a big offer sheet to a restricted free agent because they would have had to renounce Thompson's rights to create more cap space.

If the Kings are looking for creativity, they could seek guard O.J. Mayo, even though he's a volume shooter in the mold of many of the players already on their roster.

More sound choices might include Shannon Brown or Leandro Barbosa.

"Even the free-agent period is not the end of being able to do things with your roster because trading continues on into next February," Petrie said. "So there's still a possibility to do things beyond free agency."

• Read more articles by Jason Jones

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