Sam Merrill, a guard, and the Sacramento Kings have agreed to terms for a training camp contract.
Sam Merrill, a free agent guard, has reportedly reached an agreement with the Sacramento Kings, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. This will allow him to contend for a position on the team’s 15-man roster for the 2022–23 season.
The Milwaukee Bucks selected Merrill, 26, with the 60th and final overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Merrill played in 30 games his rookie season, averaging 3.0 points and 1.0 rebounds on 44.7% three-point shooting.
Scores
The Bucks went on to win the NBA Finals that year, making Merrill an NBA champion after only one season in the league.
Merrill played in just six games for the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2021–22 season before being released by Memphis in January after being acquired in a trade for Grayson Allen’s previous offseason.
Sam Merrill averaged 22.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 46.7% shooting from outside the arc while taking part in two G League games with the Memphis Hustle, the Grizzlies’ G League affiliate, this past season.
Merrill is probably a G League player that the Sacramento Kings are interested in as he is a known threat to shoot threes out of Utah State in 2020.
The details of Merrill’s contract have not been made public, but according to Tony Jones of The Athletic, it is a two-year deal with a partial guarantee, which means he must be added to Sacramento’s 15-man roster.
The Kings have 14 players with “guaranteed contracts” for the 2022–23 season, not counting KZ Okpala and Kent Bazemore, who has not yet formally signed their contracts with the team. Keon Ellis, an undrafted rookie, and Neemias Queta, a second-round pick from the previous year, are occupying both of the team’s two-way spots.
Vacant spots
The Kings still need to fill three more roster spots, and the competition right now will be between Okpala, Bazemore, Merrill, veteran Matthew Dellavedvoa, Chima Moneke, and recently signed Quinn Cook. This is because Okpala and Bazemore’s contracts may contain non-guaranteed or partial-guaranteed clauses.
Sam Merrill may be just the kind of “end-of-bench” player that head coach Mike Brown and the Sacramento Kings are seeking because he is a young talent with recent experience on two playoff-contending teams and a legitimate three-point shooting threat. Whether Merrill makes the team’s final roster of 15 players for the upcoming season will depend on how well he performs during training camp.