Kings To Sign Elfrid Payton

The 10th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Payton has made 524 regular season appearances for five NBA teams, though he has been out of the league for three of the past four seasons. The 32-year-old last suited up for New Orleans and Charlotte in 2024/25, appearing in 24 games for the two teams and averaging 3.5 points, 6.9 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.0 steal in 21.3 minutes per contest, with a .328/.167/.571 shooting line.

As those numbers suggest, Payton is a talented ball-handler and play-maker who is a solid defender and rebounds well for his position, but he’s extremely limited as a scorer and shooter, which has impacted his ability to stick in the league. His career averages are 9.8 PPG, 5.8 APG, 4.0 RPG, and 1.2 SPG in 26.5 MPG on .444/.286/.623 shooting.

The Kings, who were said to be in the market this offseason for a veteran point guard to back up and mentor lottery pick Darius Acuff Jr., were linked to Payton in August. As Scotto points out, Sacramento general manager Scott Perry was in Orlando’s front office when the Magic drafted Payton out of Louisiana in 2014.

Payton figures to receive a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract from the Kings. While former No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons, who also signed a non-guaranteed deal with the team, is probably a better bet than Payton to make the opening-night roster, there would technically be room for both of them, since Sacramento is currently carrying 13 players with guaranteed salaries.

Still, it’s worth noting that the Kings were to take a full 15-man roster into the regular season, they’d be operating just $438K below the luxury tax line, so they may prefer to leave the 15th spot open this fall in order to maximize their in-season roster and cap flexibility.