Kings trade second-round pick McDaniels to Spurs

The Kings And Spurs have agreed to a trade that sends forward Jalen McDaniels and a second-round pick for San Antonio, ESPN's Shams Charania reports (Twitter links).

For Sacramento, it's a pay cut, while San Antonio will take on McDaniels' expiring $4.74 million contract to secure a second-round draft pick. According to Charania, the Spurs intend to waive McDaniels once the trade is official, so his salary will remain as dead money on their cap for the remainder of 2024-25.

The 52nd overall pick in the 2019 draft, McDaniels showed promise in the first four years of his career, which he spent primarily in Charlotte. His height (1.80 m), his wingspan (2.10 m) and his athleticism made him a versatile defender. He also showed some talent as an outside shooting player, completing 34.2% of his three-point attempts with the Hornets.

However, McDaniels' production and playing time plummeted last season in Toronto after he signed a two-year, $9.26 million contract with the Raptors. At the beginning of the offseason, he was sent to Sacramento as part of another salary cut by the Kings – in this trade the Kings sent Sasha Vezenkov And Davion Mitchell to the Raptors by cutting his salary by over $8 million by relieving two players who are each due over $6 million in salary.

However, the Kings still had financial constraints entering the preseason, with a team salary of about $169.7 million for 14 players. That gave them just over $1 million of wiggle room below the luxury tax line, making it impossible to open the season with a full 15-man roster while remaining under the tax. They also have some players with unlikely incentives in their contracts, which would drive up team salaries if those bonuses were earned.

More to come…