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DeMarcus Cousins's new contract means a lot of things. But one thing that's relevant for 2014 is that Cousins's contract puts the Kings pretty close to the salary for the 2014-15 season, before you account for any trades or other signings.
Per the wonderful ShamSports.com, the Kings have $46 million tied up in 2014-15 before accounting for Cousins's deal. That number is based on the Kings declining the fourth year of Jimmer Fredette's rookie deal, a decision that needs to be made in the next month. If the Kings pick up Jimmer's option, the cap figure would be $49 million pre-Cousins. The Kings could (and probably should) drop $6 million from that figure by waiving John Salmons before June 30, 2014. If he's waived by then, he'll be paid just $1 million instead of the $7 million he's on the books for.
Projections have suggested a 2014-15 cap figure of $62.5 million, a nice little boost over this season. If Cousins' deal is a true max deal -- as in, his salary is 25 percent of the cap, and not a dollar amount set now -- it'll be about $15.6 million in 2014-15. Without Jimmer or Salmons, that'd put the Kings' payroll at just under $56 million, about $6 million and change under the cap. With Jimmer it'd put the Kings about $3.5 million or so under the cap. None of the figures include a first-year salary for a first-round draft pick, which should land somewhere between $2-4 million.
What that means in a practical sense is that the Kings wouldn't be free agent players in July 2014 at a large scale without making some trades. No Andre Iguodala post-script, in other words. But chances are that Pete D'Alessandro and crew will continue to remake this team in the interim, so we won't know until next year how next year is going to shake out. But right now, there is no major cap space prepared.
2015 is a different story entirely. The only players on the books: Jason Thompson, Chuck Hayes Carl Landry, DeMarcus Cousins and Ben McLemore.