After waiving Kent Bazemore and Quinn Cook, the Kings have to cut one more player
The Sacramento Kings are closer to getting to their opening night roster, as the team announced today it waived Kent Bazemore and Quinn Cook.
According to a league source, the Sacramento Kings have waived Quinn Cook and Kent Bazemore.
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) October 13, 2022
Neither guy played a ton for the Kings in the preseason, with both totaling under 20 minutes each, appearing in two of the three games. Both Cook and Bazemore were signed to non-guaranteed deals in August, which didn’t become official until September.
Cook being waived likely means that Matthew Dellavedova has made Sacramento’s roster as the team’s third point guard. Compared to Cook, Dellavedova has a better defensive track record, but hasn’t shown the same success from three-point range Cook has. For the Kings, keeping Delly might have been the decision because he’s more of a natural point guard and has experience playing under Mike Brown from his Cleveland days.
Waiving Bazemore is a bit more surprising considering Sacramento’s lack of small forward depth and his success with Sacramento at the end of the 2020 season. Bazemore also could have regressed athletically since then, after he was pretty much a non factor on an uncompetitive Lakers team last season.
After the dual transactions, Sacramento has one cut to make before it gets to its final 15.
The candidates for that final cut seem to be either Sam Merrill or Chima Moneke, although the Kings could decide to keep both and cut someone else.
Expect that decision to come down the pipeline in the next few days as Sacramento wraps up the preseason.