According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Sacramento Kings Assistant General Manager Peja Stojakovic is expected to leave his role with the organization following the exit of former General Manager Vlade Divac.
Kings assistant GM Peja Stojakovic is expected to step down from his role, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 15, 2020
Stojakovic, a close friend of the recently departed Divac, has been with the organization since 2015, serving in several capacities, including the General Manager of the Reno Bighorns, Director of Player Personnel and Development, and most recently as Divac’s right-hand man in the front office under the title of Assistant General Manager. In this role, he assisted with talent evaluation and remained involved in oversight on the Stockton Kings.
With Stojakovic and Divac gone, Sacramento’s only remaining front office executives are the recently named interim Vice-President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars and Assistant General Manager Ken Catanella, who previously worked under Dumars with the Detroit Pistons.
There’s no doubt that ownership will not only need to find someone to take over the day-to-day General Manager duties should Dumars not remain in the lead spot, but that they’ll also need to find several qualified individuals to fully build out Sacramento’s new, and hopefully improved, front office.
The front office shakeup is, of course, a developing story and we will keep everyone updated as news breaks. For a rundown on Dumars’ track record with the Detroit Pistons, including how he built the team’s championship team and how things went south later in his tenure, click here. To get our instant reactions about Divac stepping down, what may be in store for Kings head coach Luke Walton and more, make sure you check out the latest Kings Pulse podcast.
Peja Thru.
This is good. Even if we flub the new hires, it’s hard to imagine finding someone less competent than the Vlade/Peja combo. Even Dumars represents a major step up. I hope we get someone truly great, but even mediocre hires are a step in the right direction.
Now we can go back to loving/appreciating Vlade & Peja, the way things should be.
Yeah I just can’t get on board with a mediocre hire (like Dumars). Just because “oh well, they’re better than Vlade”.
The Kings have an opportunity to completely overhaul their disastrous decision- making hierarchy. It could be their most important hire in decades. Another few listless, wasted seasons with no direction? I’m not sure even this incredible fan base would survive. The apathy is already pretty prevalent… the Warriors a couple hours away have already poached much of the younger fans… and MLS is coming to Sac.
They need (at the very least) to do a thorough search for a strong up and coming executive who can operate unencumbered by Vivek, Matina, or whoever the hell else thinks they know shit about basketball operations. If a comprehensive vetting process is complete, and Joe Dumars is your guy (I doubt it), then fine. But let it be because he’s the one who can truly turn this franchise around. Not just to raise us to mediocrity, but to actually be relevant in this league and even contend for championships (imagine that).
Don’t make the decision based on the fact it will save a few million dollars the team needs to recoup from previous disastrous decisions. Do it right. Vet the hell out of these candidates and pick the best one. And let that person work with full autonomy.
Depressing but true that GSW has poached a lot of the younger generations of fans in this area. Who can blame the kids? Curry and Klay are just a tad more fun to watch than Barnes, Jeter, Hill, Afflalo, Butler, Thompson, Stauskas, Fredette, Robinson, Randolph, Cauley-Stein… geez, why are WE still fans? This whole franchise deserves to fester in the most polyp-y, perforated bowel of Hell for the next decade.
The guy who drafted Darko is a step up? ugh……..
Step down; so his salary will be off the books?
What is the fascination with Divacs and Peja’s Salary. What are they 2-3 million combined. Cant imagine it is much more. Maybe stepping down means stretched salary? Does anyone know? Just doesn’t seem relevant considering the overall operating cost of the franchise.
The Yahoo write up of Dumar’s sounds like a decent plan… roll with Dumars, find a young guy/gal, work them in slowly. Kings could do a whole lot worse than Dumars.
It might matter if this team is at the salary floor next year. I really think the Kings are bleeding cash right now, especially with an empty arena for the foreseeable future and hurting real estate properties downtown.
I say let ’em bleed. Maybe they’ll reach M*loof levels of desperation and sell the team.
I assume / hope they are trading away everyone by next seasons deadline. Taking on close to expiring contracts for picks.
Front office and coaching staff do not count against the salary cap. Ive read where the owners are responsible for FO and coaching salary. So not sure if that comes directly out of the owners profit which would be why the owners arent keen on the carousel of head coaches.
I could be wrong, but if you save 20 million in players salaries and lose 6 million in FO it is still a net 14 million gain?
On paper yes. But how is the player salary handled vs the rest of the operating costs.
I know youre not saying there is but I dont think there is just 1 big account that they pay people from.
It’s relevant to debunk the spin that Vlade did the honorable thing and stepped down. He got fired, keeps his salary and they call it stepped down.
It sounds like it was more of an ultimatum that had been brewing all season. Take a reduced role or youll be gone.
The Kings gave him the “honor” of saying he stepped down.
hari-kari !
The final straw was taking away Vlade’s and Peja’s breakfast privileges!
Is it too early to have Klam chowder for breakfast?
Is it because Klam is not a cat Meme and refusing adoption? Checking spelling clam .. not Klam..
considering all the poor decisions and awful moves they’ve made for the franchise, they don’t deserve breakfast anymore
I’m interested in it, as I don’t like the idea of a team just burning money in the fireplace. That dead blown money is going to get recovered somehow, usually by raising ticket/merch/concession prices, for starters.
Raising ticket/mercy/concessions for this team next season would be a bad idea…
Agreed. I’d actually say that raising prices before raising winning percentage to over .500 would be a real dick move.
A dick move? By this ownership group? Surely you jest BTB…..surely you mean an ownership group this phenomenal at building basketball teams and understanding this fanbase in a real intuitive fashion wouldn’t commit a sin like a real dick move of raising ticket prices……right?
Nah, they wouldn’t? Would they?
Apparently Vlade is keeping his salary, so it makes me wonder if Peja is keeping his.
They signed contracts. I assume they will keep their money agreed upon in the contract. Vivek didn’t need to extend vlade 4 years. Or Pena. He could have waited until now to think about extending them and this whole shift would have been free.
That’s on Vivek and I could give two shits.
Yes it was extremely premature to extend Vlade with a new coach coming in.
This has been an on going issue with the Kings, Vivek doing Vivek things and those things and paying the price.
As a fan I could not care less if Vlade and Peja keep their money. Im just glad theyre no longer part of the decision making process.
No. Vlade was fired. While they worked it out after they stated their intent to make a move. It Odds favor / seems like a lot he’s getting essentially all of his money. If he refused to resign, they would have fired him resulting in 100% payment on the contact. Peja isn’t being fired, he just doesn’t have to show up to get his checks. So he probably had to give up more but still over 80% probably close to 90%. Hell, they probably both got all their money.
for all intensive purposes, what really happened was Vlade was fired. Peja was told his services were no longer needed and he keeps his money without having to drag himself into the office for the duration of his contract.
Well, we finally know who was the decision-maker behind those awful red Kings jerseys:
Good.
New Subject:
Blow it up immediately or run the first 1/3rd and see what we have?
To Bogi or not to Bogi? That is the question.
Blow it up. Let the new GM come in with no lingering stank.
No “OH BUDDY YOURE GOING TO BE A KING”
And if Fox isnt happy with the current situation….trade him while he has value.
So what do we do with Bogi? Do you trust anyone to set up a sign and trade or just let him walk?
If they can sign and trade and get a draft pick, not sure if that is possible, great.
If not he walks. Either way Buddy is traded.
The Brogdon S&T got a 1st and 2 2nds
Now do the IT S&T. I think it all comes down to which teams signs him and how much they value him.
I feel the Pacers paid the heavy price of picks because the Bucks really wanted to retain Brogdon. If the Kings balk at wanting to keep Bogi, we may seem a return similar to IT.
It absolutely could be. That said, the Kings should be able to be in the same situation. The Kings (stupidly) wanted to be rid of IT.
I disagree. That is the attitude of a farm team. Bogi is a good versatile player. He and Fox make an excellent backcourt duo. This roster is essentially the same as the roster that pundits predicted would go to the playoffs this year. This time last year, the young frontcourt combo of Bagley and Giles had objective voices complimenting its tantalizing potential, and I’m still holding hope that Giles may be resigned in Sac. Blow it up? Come on man. This is not the Rivercats.
I don’t remember many pundits saying the Kings would go to the playoffs this year. I could be wrong but as I recall most expected some regression.
It seems to me that based on falling salary cap, that deals like Buddy’s signed pre cap hit will be harder to move. I’d suggest that short of another team coveting Buddy’s skills he will be a King for the future.
Bogi I suspect could be moved in a sign and trade type move. That’s based on the logic of you don’t want are large part of your cap based on the back court, assuming you extend Fox to the Max. They could let Bogi walk but prudent asset management (not a term the Kings have been known for of late I will concede) would dictate them moving him for picks or other players
What a 24-hour stretch to step away from Kings basketball… I haven’t been able to read up on any details on anything, but I’d like to share my unsolicited initial reaction:
I’m glad some change is FINALLY here, but I’m upset it took until 2020, because our window to draft a generational talent has come and gone (I said I would stay off the Luka sad train, but I’m jumping on again briefly because I was just thinking about the odds of us jumping to a place in the lottery and someone like him was available there).
And then there’s the team’s financial situation. I barely understand that side of things, but it would affect our ability to attract free agents by overspending, right? Are the Kings no longer able to offer players the big bucks?
Also I wonder if Vivek has actually changed and is seeing things clearly now. I hope so.
5 years of futilty with Vlade/Peja combo. Former players of the past suckered Vivek to paying them a steady paycheck with no front office experience. A bad fit from the start for a team that has the longest playoff drought, 14 years and counting. Most ex-players get groomed to work in the front office. Vlade and Peja had none of that. Vivek fired them. They didn’t step down. Dumars is in charge. He needs to bring in Chauncey Billups and groom him to take over. Joe has won a championship with a team he put together. Drafting Darko and signing Josh Smith were his big flubs. But bottom line, he has a ring. The Kings don’t. Best move Vivek has made since he owned the team. They can only go up.
Eh, who cares. This might be important to some but it’s pretty insignificant in reality.
It’s significant if it’s a sign that they recognize their problems and are doing things to correct them. If Peja isn’t replaced by someone who is capable of helping this team win, then it’s same shit different day.
No it’s not R. Be real here man. This is just an extension of Vlade leaving. It’s not an important story. Without Vlade, Peja isn’t in the FO.
What’s important is how they handle this transition, how they handle the roster, and what kind of operating procedure they think is the best way to move forward. Presumably that would be done by someone who should be running basketball operations, not someone who thinks Matina’s opinion on basketball players has to be taken into consideration.
At the end of the day though, it’s just simply wait and see for me. Proof will be in the pudding as to how they proceed.
It seems like RORDOG & you said something similar.
Seems like it. But I don’t think Peja is a part of that conclusion either way.
Peja won’t be a part of that conclusion, but his successor will be a part of that conclusion (& I think that’s the point of RORDOG’s comment).
If Peja stayed, what was he going to be doing? Again, this isn’t a story unless it’s an extension of Vlade (which is how I view it). These two are not separate entities.
And the Vlade story is really a small part of all this in terms of ineptitude.
Nobody is convincing me that this is a big deal, I don’t know why I’m wasting time on it. AY AY AY!!!
So we agree: it doesn’t matter unless it matters.
Stop this you silly brat(z).
This story just is unimportant, period. It doesn’t deserve any traction.
I swear, you’re doing this on purpose. Just to irritate me. ME.
And you of all people should know it’s always about me myself and I.
Marcos with the Vlade interview:
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article244985675.html
(my favorite part of the whole Breton article)
…so again, he didn’t realize how talented Doncic was/is, and that Doncic’s talents would fit in on practically any modern NBA team. Instead, he went with an athletic guy who could run up the court for dunks.
Fit?
For fuck’s sake.
The guy is a fit nightmare.
I’m having a fit just thinking about his fit!
hold on there. Bagley might turn out to be a good player.
He’ll never be as good as Luka. He probably won’t even be a good player if the Kings don’t hire a new coaching staff who can help him w/his weaknesses.
When he’s able to play.
…Would love to have seen Doncic find Buddy for lots of open big shots.
Doncic has bigger upside, and he’s already proving you wrong, Vlade. He doesn’t need more time.
LOL “People don’t have patience but I’m OK with that”
Yeah, you are right Vlade. It’s OUR fault for not having patience. Vlade is dumber than I thought. Vlade now playing the victim card?
Luka is doing unheard of things in the league at his age, and you’re still on “I still believe Marvin has big upside? This man needs help. I don’t think he realizes how much he whiffed. Take injury out of the equation and Marvin would still need to take a quantum leap to be anywhere close to Luka.
agreed!
This team has never had any player close to Luka.
It’s been marginally serviceable players for 35 years, and Vlade had the opportunity to get us a bonafide superstar, which basically fell into his lap.
Instead he chose the dismissive little chap strategy and destroyed the single chance this franchise has had at a possible MVP candidate. I’ll never forgive him for being so smug, especially when he doubles down on his selection on his way out. ð»
Yeah it’s baffling. I wish it were like a band aid. You can just rip it off and move on. But this Luka kid will hurt for a long time. At this point I wish we stayed at our original projected draft position and never had a shot at the kid. Knowing we had our chance is the worst.
Only way I can be “okay” with passing on Luka is by some sheer dumb luck we somehow build a contender without him. I know I have better odds of being struck by lighting. But the KANGZ fan inside of me still clings to that hope, how ever small it is.
Vlade doesn’t seem to admit mistakes in that article….more like trying to excuse or justify his god-awful decisions.
Yup. Good riddance.
I didn’t take it that way at all. Rather, I took it as Vlade simply believing he made the right choices. Making excuses only happens when you realize that you screwed up. As we have all learned, Vlade is not that great at talent evaluation (to put it lightly). From the article, Vlade feels that, for the most part, he has made largely correct decisions throughout his tenure as GM/President of Basketball Operations. To me, not recognizing that he has made some rather egregious and franchise-altering decisions is a far bigger red flag than trying to cover up for his mistakes. In my opinion, he has yet to get to the latter and continues to exist in the mindset of the former.
He can’t be that dumb can he?
[checks notes]
Oh, yeah.
Great personality, though!
You wont meet a nicer guy.
He was a nicer guy two drafts ago.
I actually don’t mind that Vlade interview.
It seemed honest. I don’t think he is being negative/blaming toward the fans.
He has been judged by current performance and he accepts that. He was giving his justification on the moves he made, and where he was envisioning the team.
I agree with him on the Buddy point as well. It is not Buddy’s fault that he has been asked to do too much by handling the ball, but souring for not starting, and still having so many defensive holes in his game, that is something he can reflect and come to terms with himself.
Not a lot of interview quotes, but enough for now.
Off topic as far as the interview itself, however I am thinking him and Peja are paid, because they too probably know a lot of behind the scenes stuff, that the FO doesn’t want exposed, so the current situation is probably a Win/Win for both sides. So far…us fans have for a long time, so I don’t feel sorry for them.
It’s no coincidence Buddy’s play dropped of this year. It all points to one common denominator. Mr. I’ll watch the tape.
Good coaches put their players in position to succeed. He knows their strengths and weaknesses. Everyone should be disappointed by Buddy’s season. But I’ll chalk this one up on the coach. Buddy was great in Dave’s system.
I do have to say, I’m getting tired of the praise that Vlade got for selecting Fox. I mean, he was BPA possibly in debate with Jonathan Isaac.
I don’t think for one second, had PXH selected Fox, Vlade would have drafted Josh Jackson, whom at the time was #2 on many big boards.
I my heart of hearts, PXH gifted the Kings Fox more than Vlade made found a gem in the draft.
It should also be noted that said PHX GM who took Jackson AND Ayton has long been fired by the Suns.
Im not the first to say this but Ill repeat it…Vlade took a consensus top 5 player with the 5th pick…….WOOOOOOOOO </sarcasm>
Yet the defenders will point to Bogi and Fox like those 2 have put the Kings as a middle seed playoff team.
It’s pretty simple: oh for 5 playoff appearances. No NBA has missed the playoffs for the past 5 years & retained his job, and in Divac’s case he has zero history of success in the job.
He passed on Doncic for Bagley. That’s the kind of shit that gets a person fired
It’s a results-based industry. In the end, Divac got what he earned.
I can 100% confirm that if Fox had been taken before #5, Josh Jackson would have been the pick.
Source: point blank asking Vlade at a Kings event.
Had Fox been picked before the Kings, I wonder who they would have picked in his place?
Had they picked Jackson then the pick swap to Philly might have really been salt into the wound as that gets forgotten as the Kings fans were so happy with the Fox pick
WTF?
Bagley’s always been an awful defender. JJJ was easily the best big in that draft class in terms of defense. I haven’t seen Bagley create physical problems for opponents under the basket. Even if that happened frequently, post ups are generally an inefficient to score & not that important in the modern NBA.
Additionally, Giles didn’t look out of shape at any point this season.
Also, Bagley has a hard time fitting w/a lot of players & he’ll need to improve a lot of his weaknesses just to become a good player.
it’s actually laughable…
Practically every draft pick Vlade made was a duplication of assets as most were big men, but none are playmakers who can handle the ball and facilitate the offense. Inexcusable
Watching the Grizz-Blaze game gave me franchise envy!
Yeah, Ja looks legit. Grizz are gonna be good for a while. I’m also kind of glad PDX won. I think #1 Lakers vs. the #8 Blazers is gonna be the best 1vs8 we’ve seen in a very long time.
As much as I like Dame and the Blazers, if LBJ and AD are healthy and locked in, this series could be over in 5.
He’s just Vlade’s friend. Nobody else would’ve hired him before, nobody is interested him after. He was not going to be retained one minute longer than the duration of his current contract. He could show up and punch the clock and earn every dollar remaining on the contract, or he could take most of his money and leave now.
There is no way he didn’t walk away with at least 80% of his money. It’s just about him not having to come into the office. It makes a ton of sense for both sides.
Pictured: Peja has retrieved all the bats from the cave and putting them back in their proper home….behind his ear.
I know I’m so juvenile.
A summary of the above picture:
Peja: So I says to her, I says, no, you’re a bad AGM!
Vivek: Yeah, that’s great, Peja, not like it’s the 15th time you’ve told me. *whispers* Why did I hire this man…
I wonder what Bobby Jackson thinks about all this.
If I don’t answer my phone, they can’t fire me!
I really don’t have any respect for Vlade and have a genuine dislike for him after the Breton interview. Vlade comes across as smug, arrogant, and blameless for this complete mess. Instead of displaying humility, accountability, and regret. I am glad Vivek finally woke up and kicked him to the curb.
If Vivek is really woke up, he need to clean up ALL his Front Office, and the whole roster (try all players to try to grab as many 1st round pick as posssible)….and have a fresh start !!!….
One thing you always heard with respect to Vlade is he knows he doesn’t need this job. People said it as a compliment, but I always thought that is at least part of the problem. I want someone who at least requires some sort of validation for the work that they’ve done. You should probably have a GM that is at least a little bit concerned if they will be hirable in the future.
Portland or Dallas… I’m on the Dame train!!
How bout you?
Dallas…some Luka Salt in Vlade wound.
Yeah I hear ya! But I get to root against Le Bron, and AD! I cant hate the Clippers, I like the core before the adds.
Bucks – Love Giannis
Raptos – What a story to overcome losing Leonard
Nuggets – Malone
Portland – The underdogs
I’d like to see the Bucks as well. It will help to keep Giannis in Milwaukee. I’m getting kind of tired of stars leaving for larger markets. To double down on that, I absolutely do not want the Lakers or Clippers winning it all for the reason I just mentioned.
Yep. I like Leonard & Beverley & how Doc Rivers has them playing, but I can’t get past how the Clips were put together.
At least they trade for Paul George and completely leveraged their future for him. I mean…4 unprotected firsts, 2 pick swaps, and an additional protected first is quite a haul for OKC.
Yeah that’s a lot. It is a shame that West likely did that with the idea his Buddy Vlade would trade a few #1’s for even more #2’s.
I could really see West giving Vivek the thumbs up on Vlade’s extension.
Welp, TBH, I don’t have a single ounce of insight as to what Peja did for the Kings, or if he was any good at it or not. For all I know, he has an amazing skill set and will find another job. I doubt it highly, but I could not assert that. I’d just be talking out of my rear end.
What I DO imagine is very likely to be true though… is that he agreed with most if not all of what Vlade said. It’s kind of hard not to agree with your boss, especially when he is a close friend, and the guy who gave you the job. You are going to back that guy up no matter what. And THAT is the key issue with cronyism. You don’t get any voices of dissent, which can be very valuable in getting to the best solutions for problems. One guy (who is not all that good at his job) says “this is what I think” and everyone agrees with him by default.
It’s also likely that those very voices of agreement are one of the reasons Divac still thinks he was right to do some of the crazy things he did. If EVERYONE in the FO was like “Oh hell no Vlade, you are nuts. Take Luka!”, things might have gone differently. Vlade probably gained strength from Peja’s support, which probably came more out of loyalty than free analytical thinking of his own.
In the end, whether or not Peja has skill for this type of work is irrelevant for me. This entire front office failed miserably, and the entire front office needs to go away. No leftovers please. Clean out the fridge, bleach it, scrub it, rinse it, let it dry for an hour, and then go shopping for all fresh stuff. Preferably at a store you don’t normally visit.
V
Been gone for a couple days did I miss anything?
No. Vivek is still managing owner.
Sad face…
This says it all actually…
My lady friend came over right when all this news broke, so I was a little occupied In real time. I just want to say it’s such a chicken shit move to not fire someone, but tell them they no longer have the responsibilities associated with their job. It’s like a husband telling his wife I don’t want to get a divorce, BUT, moving forward, I’ll be banging this other broad.
…and the “other broad”s name is Joe Dumars.
Or, more accurate: I’ll be banging our marriage counselor.
Don’t let that counselor be Greg.
Oh, also, I wanted to say this a victory for local journalism. People held Vlade to account, and ownership responded. We don’t know yet if the response will fix the issues, but it’s still worth noting that if journalists are willing to express our frustration, then we can ensure our voices matter.
And a victory for local billboardism.
I gotta start a gofundme for a billboard to get back with my ex-wife!
(jk never married)
#GregReleaseHer ?
Please, Greg, she’s my wive.
I read your comment in Borats voice
Call me a conspiracy theorist but the timing of the sudden interest in calling out Vlades flaws from local journalism is a bit too coincidental.
I think there may have been 1 or 2 in the FO know that were feeding the media. My reasoning? The local media has been reluctant to be critical of the Kings unless they (the media) know they wont be burning bridges.
Honestly I just think local media knows there’s money to be made by being honest and accurate. I’ve decided to devote some of my income to sac bee and the kings herald. I do that because they provide insightful content and deserve to be rewarded for it.
This story might also be code for Ownership being pissed off at the Front Office and maybe suggesting they take a different approach. and Vlade maybe said no I’ve got this, then the front office said you need help and still no change, then help got mandated then he resigned. I’m not to concerned with what exactly happened more that it has happened
Good god can you imagine if Peja was promoted to GM after Vlade leaving? That would be the ultimate Kangz move
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