Sasha Vezenkov finally will join the Kings for the 2023-24 NBA season.
There is a lot of hype and anticipation surrounding the Bulgarian star, but Kings general manager Monte McNair further explained what he expects from the 6-foot-9 forward.
"A lot of people hear 'international' and they don’t know them, and then they come over and all of a sudden it’s [Nikola] Mirotic or it’s the Bogdanovics [Bogdan and Bojan] or [Nemanja] Bjelica," McNair said in an exclusive interview with The Athletic's Anthony Slater and Sam Amick. "Or you can obviously go back to [former Kings Peja Stojakovic and Hedo Turkoglu]. And once they’re over here, then people get excited about them.
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"But I think people will be surprised, just because they don’t know him very well and what he can do."
Both the Kings, coming off a historic, playoff drought-snapping season, and Vezenkov, the reining EuroLeague MVP, hope to combine their successes and continue them in Sacramento next season and beyond.
Vezenkov officially signed with Sacramento on Tuesday and per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed, but his agent confirmed to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Saturday that it was a three-year contract worth $20 million.
Sacramento acquired Vezenkov on draft night last summer, sending a second-round pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for his rights. The Kings had their eye on him for a while, and McNair revealed how they were able to get their guy.
NBA
"Colin Montague, who’s our Director of Analytics, has been probably the first one I remember [who was] on Sasha," McNair said. "He’s got a great eye for finding a lot of intriguing international players, both in the draft and potential free agency or trade targets. This was a couple of years ago, when Sasha was a guy that [Montague] had flagged.
"Per our process, we have some international consultants that have seen him, but our domestic scouts, on up to [Kings vice president of player personnel] Phil Jabour and [assistant general manager] Wes Wilcox, who do a lot of our personnel from the more traditional scouting side, started watching him more and were like, 'Yeah, this guy is really good.' So that was a multi-month, if not a couple of years [process], in the lead-up to just trading for him. At the time, we didn’t know if he’d come over."
The 27-year-old was named the 2022-23 EuroLeague MVP after he averaged 17.6 points on 55.3 percent shooting from the field and 38.3 percent from 3-point range, adding 6.9 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game in 40 contests for the Olympiacos. He also received the Alphonso Ford EuroLeague Top Scorer Trophy and was selected to the All-EuroLeague First Team for a second consecutive season.
Vezenkov also competed in the Greek Basket League for Olympiacos last season, posting averages of 16.7 points on 58.0-percent shooting from the field and 39.4 percent from downtown, with 5.7 rebounds and 1.0 steals per contest. Vezenkov was the league’s Most Valuable Player for the second season in a row and helped lead his team to win the Greek League Championship.
He dominated the EuroLeague, and now Vezenkov has the perfect opportunity to help the Kings build on their newfound success.