Kings officially extend Qualifying Offer to Isaiah Thomas

In what is essentially a formality, the Kings just sent a press release confirming that they have given Isaiah Thomas his qualifying offer, making him a Restricted Free Agent.  This means that the Kings will have the right to match any offer sheet he may sign this offseason.

Thomas has had a great start to his career in the NBA after being taken with the 60th pick in the 2011 Draft.  This past season he averaged 20.3 points on 45.3% shooting along with 6.3 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals a game.  Our own Tom Ziller ranks Thomas as the 14th best Free Agent this summer, with the only PGs ahead of him being Kyle Lowry at 9th and Eric Bledsoe at 4th.

Last season the Kings were faced with a similar decision with regards to Tyreke Evans and famously decided not to match New Orleans' offer sheet of 4 years and $44 million, choosing to do a sign and trade instead which brought back Greivis Vasquez and a couple second rounders.  Jason Jones recently tweeted that the Kings are expected to match any reasonable offer for Thomas, which they would consider to be in the $6 million a year range.