Lackluster SG Market: An Opportunity for the Kings to Shine

The Sacramento Kings have a lot of needs heading into the offseason. From point guards, to length and athleticism, and general all-around depth. But something they definitely don't need is more help at the shooting guard position.

While the Kings' roster desperately needs to be rebalanced, their abundance of shooting guard talent is something that could work in their favor in an offseason that has a lackluster shooting guard free agent market.

Spotrac's Keith Smith is doing a free agent ranking by position series, and just released the shooting guard list. Smith breaks the players down by tiers, starting at at All-Star tier, then starter, rotation, and finally fringe.

And unlike the point guard list, which had James Harden and Kyrie Irving in the All-Star tier, and high-level starters in Fred VanVleet and Josh Giddey in the stater tier, the shooting guard list leaves a lot to be desired.

Smith's All-Star tier for shooting guards is empty, and the top-ranked player is Malik Beasley. This is no shade to Beasley, who is one of the most lethal shooters in the game with averages of 41.6% and 41.3% from deep the last two seasons.

But Beasley is at best a (very) great role player. Someone every team would love to have, but he doesn't fit the mold of an offseason leading acquisition.

Now relating this back to the Kings. With the trio of Zach LaVine, Malik Monk, and Keon Ellis on the roster, Sacramento has a surplus of talent at the shooting guard position. I've written multiple times about how the Kings could look to trade one of the three, with the most likely candidate being Monk.

But both Monk and LaVine would likely be near or at the top of Smith's list if they were free agents. That can be said for many signed players, obviously, but not all of them are going to be available for trade like LaVine and Monk might be.

LaVine has the well-discussed large contract, but at the end of the day, he's a certified bucket-getter and two-time All-Star. Monk is a dynamic guard who can both score and facilitate, and has proven to be one of, if not the best, sixth men in the league. Or he can transition to a full-time starter with a new team.

And Ellis is listed as the sixth-best free agent shooting guard, but if the Kings do trade him, they would do so with his $2.3 million contract, which would skyrocket his value.

All of this is to say that things could be worse for the Kings. While things are bleak in Sacramento, with an extremely unbalanced roster and no clear path forward, it helps that they have a clear position of strength to move talent around.

Life would be more challenging if there were a bevy of talent on the market at the shooting guard position, but thankfully for Scott Perry, the Kings shooting guard depth could be their secret weapon of the offseason.