Yesterday’s introductory press conference from Monte McNair was largely vague and a little underwhelming. There will still some takeaways from it, but it didn’t give a big impression of McNair as a person or his approach as a GM.
But now it seems that may have been a byproduct of the setup dictated by COVID-19. Taking questions via Zoom while sitting in a big empty room with a camera on you is pretty awkward. McNair joined Jason Ross and Doug Christie for an interview on KHTK yesterday, and seemed much more at ease and forthcoming.
You can listen to the interview here (skip to the 18 minute mark) or watch the interview here (the video should be queued to the start of McNair’s interview).
It’s a fantastic interview with great questions from Doug and Jason, and McNair talked in a lot more detail about his intended approach as a GM. He obviously doesn’t go into deep specifics, but he gives a much better insight about how he intends to run the team. I’d highly recommend giving it a listen.
McNair was also on Carmichael Dave’s show this morning. We’ll add the link here when it becomes available.
UPDATE: Here’s the interview with Dave from this morning
Hmmmm. He is just so… normal. I like it. He has some humility and humor, and you can tell he is easy to talk to. He has a blueprint in his mind… and that is a good thing. I like how he handles interviews. He isn’t so politically polished that he is a turn off – he comes off as just a guy – but a smart guy. I like how he discusses how he uses analytics. Learned more in 5 minutes about his approach than in several years of trying to figure out what Vlade was trying to do.
This is great Greg. I appreciate the team here at TKH posting items like this, as someone who lives out of state and not tuned into local Sacramento media, I would not have found this on my own.
From an honest objective standpoint, the coverage here blows the pants off that one-other-website.
That was pretty neat to watch Jason and Doug while they were interviewing Monte, seeing them interact. Doug is just like his old player self, standing up, full of energy and ready to go. Thanks for sharing that video. 🙂
Doug needs to cut out the LUUUKE. No one calls him that.
Yeah, doesn’t he know it’s LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLuke?
Needz Moar L’z.
I like the synergy between Jason and Doug. I think that I could enjoy that dynamic during a game.
They asked some good questions, and yeah McNair without giving really anything specific still comes across as someone who knows what he’s talking about. Can’t believe it’s so refreshing to have a person in a position of power to actually have ability and knowledge. I loved Vlade the player but Vlade the GM was horrific.
I actually have tingles of hope. Or heartburn. Can’t tell yet.
Every time he mentions about “flexibility and when big opportunities come and be just ready” first thing comes to my mind is this guy is ready for a BIG TRADE. Probably for a superstar (just like what they did when they acquired Harden from OKC) or gutting this team which also could mean potentially trading Fox if an offer is out there that is too good to pass up.
Yeah, this was a good interview and I came away a bit less sceptical.
But talk is cheap and compared to Vlade, it is hard for someone to not sound intelligent.
For sure. I’m still waiting for actual decisions that we can evaluate, but it feels like the Kings at least hired someone competent and that makes me happy.
“I’m here to talk to you about my little friend, here, Buddy.”
Is Buddy the one on the left, given he’s older than he actually is?
I like this guy. He’s gonna trade you!!!!!
One or two stars
Two or three well-paid role players
99 cent bin
It’s coming!
On a related note, Doug Christie has come a long way. He was awful with Grant and maybe being in Grants shadow was always going to be difficult From never listening to that show its now much improved and worth a listen and its great to get his perspective that’s better than most ex-players
The things that Doug notices during games, the small tells, are just outstanding. A few years ago when he pointed out that LBJ always glances down at the ball when he’s about to shoot from distance, I was shocked. I’d not heard anyone point that out before. He mentions things like this all the time, both with opposing players and our own.
DC would make an incredible assistant coach, focusing on defense. I’m pretty sure that he prefers to stay in his current role, it’s got to be a lot cushier than having to grind with the team all the time. Can’t say I blame him, and Doug has more than earned it.
Sam Amick mentioned on one of the shows that DC is pretty involved with helping out on the development side. Christie has also made it pretty clear that he wants to get into coaching at some point.
Agree, I think he would be someone that could succeed as an assistant coach, or player development in some capacity. The fact that he still has such obvious passion for the game, this franchise, and when I’ve listened to the show and game broadcasts the constant demand to play defense is great to see from someone. But yeah, if I was him I would totally stay in his current spot. He gets to somewhat voice his opinion and knowledge with limited repercussion, I’d imagine a better schedule, and get’s to talk to most anyone he’d probably want to anyway.
Why are you guys always hating on me??
Just watch next season, you’ll be nostalgic for If you don’t like that, you don’t like NBA basketball.
Now back to my whole somewhere in Folsom
I absolutely love Doug as a commentator when he discusses those things. He gets caught up doing schtick a little too often but he’s gotten a lot better with it, and when he’s actually analyzing the game he’s awesome.
The other day DC went on for a couple minutes on how to attack zone defenses that I hadn’t heard anywhere else. He’s maturing into pretty good analyst who can explain in a very understandable way.
So much to discuss! ð¤ª
While I still have some lingering heartache over Dumar’s position being ‘a little of this and a little of that and reporting to Vivek’, I’m really liking what I have heard from Monte so far, up to and including his words around Walton – it’s not like a competent GM heading into a new organization is going to demand major changes in his first few weeks on the job.
cautiously optimistic!
Buddy.
https://twitter.com/simmons_szn/status/1308867950322089991?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1308867950322089991%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fsports%2Fbuddy-hield-fuels-76ers-trade-170313356.html
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/buddy-hield-fuels-76ers-trade-170313356.html
If Buddy gets traded the entire KH staff is going to have to physically restrain me from using this as the photo for the article
LOL, can’t wait to see Buddy’s reaction when Sixers fans boo him.
So far I think his interviews with Jason, Doug, and Dave have been pretty vanilla, but I find that encouraging. He said all the things that he was supposed to say and didn’t make waves, so I’m cautiously optimistic. If it was Vlade talking he would tell Dougie that we have a good bunch of kids and they love each other.
It’s a blueprint that BHE (among others) have touched on in the past. If you are a small market team (and especially a bad small market team), free agency is not your friend. You must find your edge via the draft and deft trades, and then maybe source the free agent bargain bin after the first and second wave of annual free agency comes and goes. Successful small market teams can do a bit more spackling via free agency, but by and large these markets will always need to overpay (above and beyond the overpay that is already baked into most top-line FA contracts) to secure free agents.
If McNair’s approach is more towards putting a premium on draft picks and assets that can be gained at the expense of better teams that are willing to part with them to fill their own near-term holes, I think it is big step in the right direction. Not one that will see this team in the playoffs next year (or perhaps not even the year after that), but the right direction.
It will be interesting to watch all of this play out. It does not sound like a complete tear-down is coming, and I’m OK with that as long as De’Aaron Fox can be sold on the timeline.
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