Another former Sacramento King heads to Europe

Forward Trey Lyles signed with Real Madrid Wednesday after playing four seasons with the Kings. He's the third Kings player in the last two offseasons who decided to play abroad after spending time in the Kings organization.

Jonas Valanciunas and Sasha Vezenkov both tried to play in Europe

In 2023, the Kings signed Sasha Vezenkov, the reigning EuroLEague MVP, to a three-year, $20M contract. After just one season in Sacramento, when he averaged 5.4 points in 12.2 minutes per game and played in just 42 contests, Vezenkov reached a deal to return to Greek League powerhouse Olympiacos.

The Kings traded Vezenkov along with guard Davion Mitchell to the Toronto Raptors in a salary dump, and Vezenkov waived the remainder of his salary to get to Greece.

Sacramento traded two second-round picks to acquire Valanciunas at the 2025 trade deadline, so he could back up fellow Lithuanian center Domantas Sabonis. But after spending two months with the Kings, Valanciunas reached an agreement with a different Greek team, Panathinaikos. The Kings traded the big man away in another salary dump to the Denver Nuggets, but the Nuggets refused to let Valanciunas out of his deal, since they needed a quality backup for Nikola Jokic.

Trey Lyles is headed to Spain

Now the River City-to-Europe connection is continuing with Lyles reaching an agreement with Spanish club Real Madrid. Lyles averaged 6.5 points in 19.6 minutes per game and was a key part of the Kings rotation, seeing action in 69 games. But even with the Kings seemingly in need of forward depth behind Keegan Murray and 36-year-old DeMar DeRozan, Lyles remained unsigned well into September.

It's not clear if the Kings tried to get Lyles to return or if Real Madrid simply offered more money. Playing in Europe can be more lucrative thanks to different tax arrangements, especially compared to playing in California.

But it's not a good sign that simply spending time in the dysfunctional Kings organization seems to make players want to abandon the NBA entirely. Some teams have trouble keeping free agents in their organization. The Kings are struggling to keep them in the country.