Team: Sacramento Kings · Age: 28 · Position: SF/PF · As of: 2026-07-18
2026-27 median projection
| GP | MPG | FG% | FT% | 3PM | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 68 | 28.0 | .438 | .852 | 1.9 | 14.8 | 4.5 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.6 |
Nine-cat: top-125 to top-155. Points: C+. Dynasty: 4.5/10; better for contenders than rebuilders.
Correction 2026-07-18: GP raised from 64 to 68 and MPG from 25.0 to 28.0. The prior figures carried a deduction for unresolved eye clearance; Hunter announced a complete recovery and clearance for basketball activities in April 2026 (Hoops Rumors), so the deduction no longer has a factual basis. 28 minutes sits at the low end of his 26-30 MPG career norm, which is the appropriate discount for age, Clifford's presence, and a tanking roster.
Role and evidence
Hunter totaled 13.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.7 steals, and 1.7 threes in 26.1 minutes across Cleveland and Sacramento in 2025-26, shooting only 41.5% overall (ESPN statistics). He played just two games after the February 1 trade.
Hunter suffered a detached retina on February 6 and underwent season-ending left-eye surgery. NBA.com reported that a full recovery was expected and an update would follow in about eight weeks (medical report). That update arrived in April: Hunter said he had made a "complete and successful recovery," had been cleared for basketball activities days earlier, and could go through his usual offseason routine (Hoops Rumors, April 2026). He should enter camp without restriction. ESPN lists him first at small forward, with Clifford second (depth chart).
Range
- Ceiling: 17 points, 2 threes, good FT%, and 31 minutes if LaVine is moved at the deadline.
- Median: low-upside scoring streamer with weak blocks and only average steals.
- Floor: Clifford wins the job outright or a March shutdown arrives early, reducing Hunter below 24 minutes.
Career record
Pre-NBA: Virginia, 2016-19. He redshirted 2016-17 after a broken wrist, then played two seasons: 9.2 points and 3.5 rebounds on 48.8/38.2/75.5 shooting in 33 games as a redshirt freshman, winning ACC Sixth Man of the Year and All-ACC Freshman honors; then 15.2 points and 5.1 rebounds on 52.0/43.8/78.3 in 38 games as a redshirt sophomore, taking NABC Defensive Player of the Year, ACC Defensive Player of the Year, first-team All-ACC, and second-team All-American (NABC). He scored 27 points with 9 rebounds in the 2019 national title game, including the game-tying three with 12.9 seconds left in regulation. Career line at Virginia: 12.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 71 games. Draft: 2019, first round, 4th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers — traded on draft night to New Orleans and then to Atlanta, with Solomon Hill, for picks 8, 17, and 35.
Traded seasons are shown as separate team rows rather than a blended row, because ESPN publishes verified per-team shooting splits but no combined percentage.
| Season | Age | Team | GP | MPG | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | 3PM | FG% | FT% | TO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | 22 | ATL | 63 | 32.0 | 12.3 | 4.5 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.7 | .410 | .764 | 1.6 |
| 2020-21 | 23 | ATL | 23 | 29.5 | 15.0 | 4.8 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.3 | .484 | .859 | 1.3 |
| 2021-22 | 24 | ATL | 53 | 29.8 | 13.4 | 3.3 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1.4 | .442 | .765 | 1.3 |
| 2022-23 | 25 | ATL | 67 | 31.7 | 15.4 | 4.2 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.5 | .461 | .826 | 1.2 |
| 2023-24 | 26 | ATL | 57 | 29.5 | 15.6 | 3.9 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 2.1 | .459 | .847 | 1.5 |
| 2024-25 | 27 | ATL | 37 | 28.8 | 19.0 | 3.9 | 1.5 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 2.6 | .461 | .858 | 1.6 |
| 2024-25 | 27 | CLE | 27 | 25.0 | 14.3 | 4.2 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 2.2 | .485 | .821 | 0.9 |
| 2025-26 | 28 | CLE | 43 | 26.2 | 14.0 | 4.2 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.7 | .423 | .869 | 1.7 |
| 2025-26 | 28 | SAC | 2 | 25.5 | 7.5 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | .211 | .833 | 2.0 |
| Career | 372 | 29.6 | 14.7 | 4.1 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.8 | .447 | .825 | 1.4 |
Weighted 2024-25 combined: 64 games, 27.2 minutes, 17.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.2 blocks, 2.4 threes. Weighted 2025-26 combined: 45 games, 26.2 minutes, 13.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.7 threes — which reconciles with the line already in this dossier.
Fantasy history: No season-end 9-cat rank from Basketball Monster, Hashtag, or the ESPN Player Rater was retrievable for any season, so no year-by-year finish is stated here rather than estimated. What the box score establishes is the shape: he has never averaged even 0.5 blocks in a season outside 2020-21, his assists have topped 2.0 only once, and his rebounding is thin for a forward playing 30 minutes. The value that exists is concentrated in threes, free throw percentage (.825 career, above .845 in three of the last four seasons), and low turnovers. Points leagues treat him materially better than categories do, because scoring at 15-19 per game with 1.2-1.7 turnovers is a clean points profile while the same line is a three-category contributor in roto.
Durability: 63, 23, 53, 67, 57, 64, 45. He has cleared 65 games once in seven seasons. In February 2021 he had arthroscopic surgery on a lateral meniscus tear in the right knee, missing 22 games, aggravated it on return, and then tore the same meniscus again before the 2021 second round, requiring a second surgery that ended his postseason. On November 8, 2021 he injured a tendon in his right wrist against Golden State; surgery cost him roughly 25 consecutive games into January 2022. In 2025-26 he took a right knee contusion in the October 14 preseason finale against Detroit, missed the first two games, and debuted October 26. He was traded to Sacramento on February 1, 2026 in a three-team deal with Chicago that sent Dennis Schröder and Keon Ellis to Cleveland, played two games, then suffered a detached retina and had season-ending left-eye surgery on February 6.
Trajectory: The scoring arc is real but was bought with efficiency and role rather than volume growth — his minutes have declined every year since 2022-23 while his points per game rose through 2024-25, which is the signature of a bench scorer with green light rather than an expanding offensive player. The 2024-25 Atlanta stretch, 19.0 points on 2.6 threes in 28.8 minutes, is the outlier season and it came with the ball in his hands on a bad team; the Cleveland half of that year, 14.3 points on better efficiency in fewer minutes, is the more honest read of what he is in a functioning offense. Peripheral production has actually eroded as he has aged: blocks went from 0.5 in 2020-21 to 0.1 in each of the last two seasons, and 2025-26 was his worst shooting year since his rookie season at .423. At 28 he is past the point where a leap is plausible, and the two structural facts — a seven-season pattern of missing 15-plus games and a category profile with no blocks, no assists, and thin rebounding — mean the 2026-27 case rests entirely on minutes. The eye injury looked like a genuinely unmodeled variable — detached-retina recovery has no useful basketball precedent base rate — but the April clearance removes most of that uncertainty and leaves the ordinary questions of role and durability.
Career sources: ESPN career stats · Wikipedia · Virginia Cavaliers official bio · NBA.com trade report · ESPN 2021 wrist surgery report · NBA.com eye surgery report
Open questions
- He was cleared for basketball activities in April; does any protective-eyewear or contact restriction surface at camp?
- Does he start and close, or is the depth-chart lead merely an offseason placeholder?