Sacramento–the Kings‘The two highest earning players, Domantas Sabonis And zach lavineBoth underwent season-ending surgeries on Wednesday, league sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Sabonis had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. He suffered the injury in mid-November, missing 27 games in an effort to rehabilitate it and was relatively productive in his eight games before the All-Star break.
But the Kings’ season is going nowhere. They have a league-worst 12-44 record and have lost 14 consecutive games. After being out of the playoff race for a long time, Sabonis is opting to have surgery and a full repair on his left knee, and is setting his sights on next season.
LaVine is in a similar situation. He averaged 19.2 points in his 39 games before the All-Star break, but missed five of the last 10 games and is opting to have surgery on a tendon injury in his right hand, ending his season.
LaVine has a $48.9 million player option for next season and all indications are that he will opt into the final year of his current Kings deal. Sabonis has two years and $94 million remaining on his contract.
Sacramento explored the trade market for both before the deadline, but a deal could not be reached. It is anticipated that new Kings general manager Scott Perry will revisit those discussions over the summer.
