On Monday, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Bogdan Bogdanovic would be packaged along with Justin James to be sent to Milwaukee in a sign and trade deal that was to send Donte DiVincenzo, DJ Wilson, and Ersan Ilyasova to Sacramento.
Milwaukee is landing Sacramento's Bogdan Bogdanovich in a sign-and-trade deal, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 17, 2020
On Wednesday, the deal signaled it had fallen through when Sam Amick reported that Bogdan Bogdanovic had never agreed to join the Bucks in the first place, a stipulation that is imperative in a sign and trade.
More to come at @TheAthleticNBA, but an update here on the Bucks-Kings Bogdan Bogdanovic situation. pic.twitter.com/mN2GOaLoKJ
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) November 18, 2020
The wide-reaching speculation regarding this turn of events left NBA fans scratching their heads.
It seemed unlikely that Bogi didn’t want to go to Milwaukee considering that such a move would be a jump from the Kings to the best team in the Eastern Conference. So rumors began to circulate.
One rumor suggested that after the Bucks acquired Jrue Holiday from the Pelicans on the same night as the supposed Bogdanovic trade, the team lost the cap space to obtain Bogi on a larger contract. This blindsided the Serbian since he was naturally displeased with a pay cut.
Another suggested that since free agency does not open until 3 p.m. PST today, this particular deal wasn’t available to transact at the moment. This played to the fact that, in order to avoid tampering charges, the Bucks and Kings tried covering up this timing mistake with the narrative illustrating Bogdanovic’s disinterest in Milwaukee.
But now with new reports coming out saying that the Bucks are waiving Ersan Ilyasova, which removes a piece from the trade package, the deal is officially off as the Bucks have no way to match Bogdan’s salary in a sign and trade deal.
Milwaukee is waiving forward Ersan Ilyasova, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 19, 2020
This is a bad break and somewhat of an embarrassment for both Milwaukee and Sacramento. The Bucks looked to add reinforcements to their organization to convince Giannis to stay put in Milwaukee while the Kings looked to add assets rather than watch Bogdanovic walk for nothing in return.
Now with no trade in place, it has been reported that the Kings extended Bogdan a qualifying offer and he will enter free agency this afternoon as a restricted free agent as he will begin testing the market to see who offers the most lucrative deal.
League source confirmed, as expected, that the Kings extended a qualifying offer to Bogdan Bogdanovic. He enters free agency as a restricted free agent and the Kings will have the opportunity to match any offer.
— James Ham (@James_HamNBCS) November 19, 2020
So, what does this mean for Sacramento?
This scenario is yet another reason why the Kings have been a laughing stock around the league for more than a decade. There is nothing more “Sacramento” than trying to trade a player that isn’t even under contract and more so, didn’t agree to a sign and trade.
I was hopeful, for the sake of the organization and Monte McNair’s new legacy, that the story was just a cover up to distract the NBA from possible tampering, but as we now know, this is not the case. Nevertheless, the NBA will begin investigating the situation.
The NBA has opened an investigation of the reported transaction involving Milwaukee and Sacramento that was to send Bogdan Bogdanovic to the Bucks via sign-and-trade after Friday's scheduled start of free agency, @NYTSports has learned
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) November 20, 2020
Regardless, the Kings need to get assets in exchange for Bogi and cannot let him leave and receive nothing return. It doesn’t sound like Sacramento is willing to hold onto him considering he will come at a hefty price that will get in the way of De’Aaron Fox’s inevitable max extension. There are plenty of teams who view Bogdanovic as an asset, and just because the Kings don’t want to invest so heavily in the Serbian doesn’t mean Sacramento can’t get value in return.
This whole fiasco has left Kings fans with their faces in their palms as they so often do amidst the deluge of countless blunders. Waiting to see what happens with Bogi will bring about its own worries and frustrations, but at least we don’t have to drift in uncertainty knowing Vlade is fumbling around somewhere with the franchise’s nuclear codes.
