Kings Considering Russell Westbrook, Victor Oladipo

Two-time NBA All-Star Victor Oladipo is also among the veteran targets the Kings are evaluating, Fischer and Stein add, noting that Sacramento was among the teams to attend the guard’s workout in Las Vegas last month.

Westbrook, 37, appeared in 64 games for the Kings last season, making 58 starts. He put up impressive numbers in his 18th NBA season, averaging 15.2 points, 6.7 assists, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.3 steals in 29.0 minutes per game. However, the former MVP made just 42.7% of his shots from the floor and 69.4% from the free throw line, below his career averages, and the Kings played a little better when he was off the court (-7.7 net rating) than when he was on it (-12.1).

Oladipo, meanwhile, was a two-way dynamo in his prime, making All-Star teams in 2018 and 2019 and earning Most Improved Player and All-Defensive first team nods in ’18. Unfortunately, a series of major leg injuries, beginning with a ruptured quadriceps tendon in 2019, derailed his NBA career.

Oladipo hasn’t played in the NBA since tearing his left patellar tendon as a member of the Heat during the 2023 playoffs. The 34-year-old spent most of last season with the Wisconsin Herd in the G League but put up relatively modest numbers – 14.0 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 3.8 APG on .394/.321/.714 shooting – across 26 appearances (28.7 MPG).

The Kings currently have 13 players on standard contracts, so they have room on their projected 15-man regular season roster to make a couple additions before opening night. But Sacramento is operating just $1.3MM below the tax line and $3.4MM away from a first-apron hard cap, per Yossi Gozlan of CapSheets, so the team will have to shed a bit of salary – either by using the stretch provision on DeMar DeRozan‘s $10MM in dead money or by making another roster move – if it wants to carry a full 15-man squad into the season.

As our list of free agents shows, Gabe Vincent, Cameron Payne, Lonzo Ball, and Aaron Holiday are among the other veteran point guards who remain unsigned.