The Kings and Pacers are nearing an agreement on a trade that will send wing Chris Duarte to Sacramento, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Charania, Indiana will receive draft compensation in the deal.
Duarte, 26, was the 13th overall pick in the 2021 draft out of Oregon. He had a promising rookie season in 2021-22, averaging 13.1 PPG with a .369 3PT% in 55 games (28.0 MPG), but took a step back in his second year in the NBA.
The 6-foot-6 swingman battled injuries that limited him to 46 games in 2022-23, and his numbers dipped to 7.9 PPG with a .316 3PT%. The emergence of rookie Bennedict Mathurin and the addition of another former lottery pick, Aaron Nesmith, resulted in Duarte playing a diminished role (19.5 MPG) even when he was available.
The Kings appear willing to bet that Duarte can recapture his rookie former and will take on his $4.1M guaranteed salary for 2023-24. They’ll have to make a decision by Oct. 31 on his $5.9M option for the ’24-25 season. If that option is picked up, Duarte would become extension-eligible during the 2024 offseason.
The Pacers also reportedly discussed Duarte in their trade talks with the Hawks about De’Andre Hunter.
Assuming the Kings aren’t sending out a player in the deal for Duarte, their projected cap room will dip to about $15M or $12.5M if they plan to retain Trey Lyles‘ cap hold, tweets Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype.
There’s also a scenario in which Sacramento operates over the cap and acquires Duarte using a trade exception generated in the Richaun Holmes deal in order to retain the full $12.4M mid-level exception and $4.5M bi-annual exception. However, that would eliminate the possibility of renegotiating Domantas Sabonis‘ 2023-24 salary and would take the $7.7M room exception off the table.
As for the Pacers, they already projected to be among the teams with the most cap room available this offseason. Moving off Duarte will increase their room to about $36.3M, tweets Gozlan. That would be more than enough to offer two free agents well above a mid-level salary.
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