Kings set to introduce draft picks. What are next steps in their summer plans?
The Sacramento Kings will hold a press conference to welcome the newest members of the team at 11 a.m. Monday at Golden 1 Center.
Kings general manager Scott Perry will introduce first-round draft picks Darius Acuff Jr. and Alex Karaban along with second-round pick Emanuel Sharp.
The Kings selected Acuff with the No. 7 pick in last week’s NBA draft before making a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers to acquire the rights to Karaban, who was selected with the 29th pick. Sacramento selected Sharp with the 45th overall pick.
The Kings drew rave reviews following the draft with many analysts giving them A grades for the selections of Acuff, Karaban and Sharp. They will join 2025-26 rookies Nique Clifford, Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell in forming a young nucleus as Perry works to overhaul the aging and absurdly expensive roster that was assembled prior to his arrival.
Acuff had a historic season at Arkansas, where the 19-year-old point guard joined the legendary Pete Maravich as the only players to lead the Southeastern Conference in scoring and assists in the same season. Karaban was a two-time national champion at UConn. Sharp was a 3-and-D guard at Houston, where he earned Big 12 Conference All-Defensive Team honors.
Perry and the rookies will have little time to unwind following a whirlwind draft process. The Kings will immediately shift their focus to the next steps in their offseason plans with free agency and summer league action set to begin in the coming days.
Free agency begins at 3 p.m. Tuesday. Teams can start negotiating with all free agents at that time, but contracts can’t be signed until the moratorium ends on July 6.
The Kings are not expected to be major players in the free agent market given their salary cap situation. According to the latest projections from ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Sacramento is $16 million over the luxury tax line, $13 million over the first apron and $49,000 over the second apron.
The Kings can get under the luxury tax if they waive DeMar DeRozan, whose $25.7 million salary is only guaranteed for $10 million. If the Kings waive DeRozan and use the stretch provision to pay that $10 million over three years, they can get $12.5 million under the luxury tax. They still wouldn’t have enough money to pursue top free agents, but they would have access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception and avoid crippling apron penalties.
While Perry and his staff work to clean up the team’s salary cap sheet for the 2026-27 season, the Kings will participate in the California Classic July 4-6 in Sacramento and the Las Vegas Summer League July 9-19.
The summer league schedule set up a number of marquee rookie matchups for Acuff, who will go up against No 1 pick AJ Dybantsa, No. 5 pick Keaton Wagler, No. 6 pick Mikel Brown Jr., No. 10 pick Brayden Burries and No. 11 pick Yaxel Lendeborg.
