Kings To Waive DeMar DeRozan

This outcome had been expected for DeRozan, whose $25.74MM salary for the 2026/27 league year had only been partially guaranteed for $10MM. Sacramento, working with DeRozan and his representatives, explored the trade market but didn’t find a workable deal, Charania adds.

If the Kings opt to use the stretch provision to spread DeRozan’s $10MM partial guarantee across the next three seasons, it will generate more than $22MM in cap savings for ’26/27, taking the team well out of apron territory and below the luxury tax line. Sacramento doesn’t have to determine right away whether to stretch that salary, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, who notes (via Twitter) that the decision simply must be made before the end of August.

Keeping his full $10MM on their books for 2026/27 would leave the Kings slightly above the tax threshold, observes Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype (Twitter link), but it still could make sense to take that route if the club makes additional cost-cutting moves, since it would keep DeRozan off the cap for the following two years.

If the Kings stretch DeRozan’s partial guarantee, he would be ineligible to re-sign with the team, though that’s highly unlikely to be in consideration anyway. The expectation is that the 17-year veteran will seek out an opportunity where he can play a role on a playoff team.

DeRozan will turn 37 in August, but he remains a productive and durable player and one of the league’s best crunch-time scorers. He appeared in 77 games in 2025/26, averaging 18.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 31.2 minutes per night. He has spent the past two seasons with the Kings after being acquired from Chicago in a three-team trade in the summer of 2024.