The Sacramento Kings have agreed to an extension with Harrison Barnes for 3 years and $54 million, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The average of $18 million per season is higher than many Kings fans were hoping, while some fans didn’t want Barnes to return at all, instead hoping for a more significant upgrade to the team.
Sacramento Kings forward Harrison Barnes – a key part of the franchise’s rise into Western Conference contention – has agreed on a new three-year, $54 million contract extension, his agent Jeff Schwartz of @Excelbasketball tells ESPN. pic.twitter.com/JCT4RUayt7
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2023
It is worth noting that at this point we do not know the structure of the deal. The deal could be backloaded to preserve cap space now. The deal could have non-guaranteed money in it as well. Right now we’re going off an agent’s report to Woj, and agents always paint the sunniest picture.
The structure of the deal is going to be really important to how I personally evaluate this contract. If, for example, the contract is back-loaded the Kings may have still preserved more money for Sacramento in this summer’s free agency while the increases align with salary cap increases. After this year, the Kings will be operating as an over-the-cap team anyway.
A few important notes about this extension. First, according to Sam Vecenie, this contract would still be tradeable, meaning it gives the Kings a salary matching piece that could be included in future deals:
Because it’s an extension with a first-year salary that likely doesn’t see his salary increase by more than 5% (and because it’s an extension for three or fewer years versus a free agency deal), the team can still trade Barnes. https://t.co/ZymIK0xaAc
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) June 30, 2023
However, Sam Amick notes that the deal does include a trade kicker:
The Harrison Barnes deal with the Kings has a 10 percent trade kicker, a source with knowledge of the deal tells @TheAthletic. It’s three years, $54 million for him to return to the Kings. ESPN first reported.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) June 30, 2023
If Barnes were to be traded, the Kings would pay the kicker, but as long as the Kings are willing to spend that money, it shouldn’t stop them from being able to trade Barnes later if they’d like.
Second, this does not fully exhaust the Kings’ cap space. ESPN’s Bobby Marks outlined the Kings options:
Sacramento still has flexibility this offseason after the Harrison Barnes extension.
Options include:
1. Using $18M in room and also bring back Trey Lyles;
2. A combination of renegotiating Domantas Sabonis contract, bringing back Lyles, use remaining room and also the $7.7M…
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) June 30, 2023
There’s still a lot we still don’t know, including any other deals the Kings may have lined up for tomorrow. I’m willing to allow the offseason to play out before I judge Monte McNair’s plan.
I was hoping for an AAV around $15 million per year, so I understand anyone who is upset with the numbers on this. I don’t entirely disagree. I’m just reserving my anger until we have more information. Also, I have found that most contracts end up being a couple million per year higher than I expect, so this isn’t unusual.
A final thought: despite a truly terrible series against the Warriors, Harrison Barnes had a really good year last year. He was a huge factor in many Kings wins. Losing Barnes for nothing only made sense if the Kings had a bigger splash lined up. If the Kings didn’t have something else, then retaining Barnes is a smart move.
We’ll see what else the Kings have in store when free agency kicks off at 3 PM PT on Friday.
