The Sacramento Kings have hired Monte McNair as their new head of basketball operations, according to a report from Sam Amick and Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The Kings have hired Monte McNair for their GM position, sources tell myself and @ShamsCharania
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) September 17, 2020
The Sacramento Kings are hiring Houston Rockets assistant GM Monte McNair as new head of basketball operations, sources tell me and @sam_amick.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 17, 2020
As we previously profiled, McNair has served as Assistant GM for the Houston Rockets, under Daryl Morey. McNair has worked for the Rockets since 2007, and is known for having a strong analytics background while also being able to work with Houston’s coaching staff to apply analytics to game plans.
Many Kings fans had gotten excited for the idea of Sachin Gupta in recent days, but McNair has a fantastic resume and a wealth of NBA experience. Obviously time will tell how McNair runs the Kings, but the Kings have hired an exceptionally qualified candidate and Kings should be very excited.
We’ll continue to update as this story develops.
Ok…let’s do this.
Glad is one of the top candidates in the end. I am curious what kind of power he’ll be given. Hope this is the first step forward out of basketball purgatory and irrelevancy
He’ll have complete control
To do Vivek’s bidding.
Complete control… except for coach firing/hiring, scouting department, training staff, free agent spending etc.
I hope I’m wrong but with the grumblings about them being cash strapped it sounds like it’s going to be a bare bones operation for awhile.
I’m not going to pretend to know if this was a good hire but it’s not Vlade so for tonight we’re not taking the L.
Yeah that’s why I think Monte’s a consolation prize. Simon, Langdon, Booth all withdrew their names. Booth after interviewing. I would bet they wouldn’t promise Gupta he would have full autonomy. Monte agreed, because the Rockets ship may be sinking. Maybe this was his best opportunity at the time.
I think he’ll be a league replacement hire. Which is fine. But anytime most of the justifications on here are to the effect of “Well… he’s better than Divac” you know we’re just striving for mediocrity.
Hope I’m wrong and he’s awesome and we go win some championships.
The process was done right. I am happy with the choice. I really like his G-league background as well. He’ll utilize that aspect in our player development, I hope.
Let’s Roll!
McNair Jordan > Air Jordan
New beginnings.
Indeed.
I’m happy with this hire
Wow. Thought Vivek would’ve went with Gupta
If his resume is Houston’s recent moves I’m not that impressed. Have they made good moves around Harden?
he must’ve put his imprint on that interview
Everything Houston has done is on Morey.
The Westbrook trade I don’t attribute to Morey, Beard wanted CP3 gone and Russ in, I think the owner forced Morey to make that trade. That’s not a trade Morey would make. Anyways, I doubt our new man in charge had anything to do with it.
Why do you think that isn’t what Morey does? He has always been about collecting superstars.
I doubt Morey wanted to trade CP3. Seemed like Harden ran him out of town and his contract couldn’t have been easy to move. But nonetheless that trade looks pitiful right about now.
It could be Gupta already turned down the job offer so they go with the second best choice
I imagine Gupta turned the job down, which I would not blame him for in any way whatsoever.
Do we have evidence of this? I advise reading the Athletic article last night on Gupta. I am still a major fan of his, but he sounded way more soft spoken and tentative to move to a new role after I read that. Frankly I was shocked he even interviewed.
No evidence, that’s why I said I imagine. Sounds like you are onboard with this, which is great. I honestly am just happy it appears to be a legit good hire.
Gotta say reading Kraczynski’s article I’m led to the same conclusion you are. Gupta might not be as enamored of an opportunity as he wants to signal to other non Sacramento franchises he’s interested in an opportunity.
He has a personality that I wouldn’t associate w/a GM, but Idk what role that would’ve played. Him being newly married and him being comfortable in Minny could’ve played in anything that happened.
This is where it gets tricky. Can’t say I’m a fan of their team construction or style of play. But how much of that is McNair responsible for? Your guess is as good as mine.
Much better hire than the last one though. Infinitely more qualified so I’m at least encouraged.
Morey has been constrained by the unwillingness of the owner, Fertitta, to spend money into luxury tax territory. Rockets fans were upset about Fertitta’s unwillingness to bring in another veteran for the 2019 season when the Rockets lost to the Warriors in 6. So I wouldn’t put much of this on Morey and McNair.
Either way, they’ve been hugely successful. So, while it isn’t my favorite brand of basketball, Morey and crew are clearly doing many many things very very right. They’ve won their division 3 straight years, reached the conference finals and semi-finals multiple time in the recent past, have had like 2 sub-.500 seasons in the past 20 years, (and 6 in the past 40 years), have the second most wins in the NBA since Morey took over, etc.
Fun fact! The Houston Rockets have 11 losing seasons in their 50 year history. The Kings have more in the past, well yeah, 12 seasons. Obviously.
Great hire! But not sure how much it matters as long as Vivek is butting his head into basketball ops. Time will tell.
I guess we will know when it’s decided if McNair can fire Luke Walton.
If he can’t, this whole exercise was stupid and a complete waste of time and money.
If he doesn’t, my opinion of analytic knowledge as it relates to basketball has plummeted dramatically.
That’s why I just can’t get excited about any new hire, obviously it beats having Vlade as our GM, but the common denominator over multiple FOs is Vivek. Hopefully he gets out the way and lets Mcnair truly run the show.
Gotta go with whom you think is best….provided their qualifications are up to snuff. McNair and Gupta were the two best candidates the Kings could get at this point. They’re both qualified.
Now it’s all about whether or not McNair can do the things D’Alessandro and Divac failed at: Put together a winner.
Do I have to explain where proof is found by now?
Sacramento McLoves McNair!
Ipso facto – Walton is gone next year at latest
Right now, yesterday…never
This would make me immensely happy
I want to be excited, but I can’t bring myself to think that we’re ultimately going to be in the same boat. Just a new name that essentially does nothing more than implement Vivek’s basketball vision/orders.
Well then, if that happens then welcome to Kangz 4.0
Maybe 3.1.
4.0 is when we get a new owner.
I really, really, really hope you’re wrong BTB.
But I’ve also learned not to doubt your cynicism regarding this franchise.
I see it this way- Vivek is overbearing and naive, but he’s not dumb. And, we know he’s impatient. He’s been shamed. He came up with lousy ideas and interfered with a coach who now has a different team on the verge of the NBA finals, and allowed his hand-picked executive to survive fumbling the most obvious draft choice in maybe 10 years. Perhaps he’s finally realized he’s the team’s own worst enemy, and it’s possible savior. This could be his turning point. I certainly hope so.
In my humble opinion, Vivek is basketball dumb.
I’d really like for it to be a turning point, believe me. Until Vlade’s canning I had been having an internal discussion with myself about whether to finally hang up my tix after this upcoming season after 15 years. When the news broke, I immediately thought, “shit maybe now we have a fighting chance”.
Of course, I also remember thinking Charlie Brown might one day kick the football, too.
Is this a trailer for the new Matrix movie?
I’m skeptical that Vivek (and Aneel) will just kinda keep out of the process completely, and say “just let me know who to write the checks to and for how much”. I just don’t think that’s a realistic expectation. I do think it’s more realistic that the decision making process will be more along the lines of “show me why this is a good decision in a language I can understand”.
There was a line in the Amick/Shams/Jones article that stood out to me at the time, and I went back and found it:
I think it’s probably fair to say Vlade’s rationale to pick Bagley over Doncic was not based on any sort of analytical model that predicted Bagley would have more win shares than Doncic, or models that predicted Bagley was the player with the highest upside that also complimented Fox’s skillset. That’s just what Vlade believed and Vivek trusted him to make the decision. The difference between Doncic and Bagley ended up being so large that it finally caused Vivek to question Vlade’s decision making process.
I could see a situation moving forward in which it’s like show me how spending X amount of dollars, or making a hypothetical trade, would create value in excess of the dollars spent.
The key will obviously be can you keep his own biases out of the decision making process. McNair shouldn’t just be able to tell him a prospect “shoots like Steph, and he’s big like Klay” to get him to sign off on a move.
I went back and found excerpts from an interview Fertitta did with Colin Cowherd after the Westbrook trade and this part stands out:
its encouraging and worrying at the same time. It’s good to see that they went through the process and were able to establish odds of success. It’s also encouraging to me that they were willing to go all in on a system mid season that would maximize their odds. It is a little worrisome if the Kings make moves knowing they have a projected 5% success rate.
You’re scoffing at a 5% increase?
Lol. Wording is a little vague too though to be honest. They could’ve said this will give us a 5% chance of winning the championship. I would give my left pinky toe for those odds in Sac.
I’m pretty conservative in these things, but when you get to the “competitor” level, the marginal utility of potentially just adding a couple wins goes way up. So I can see a team like the Rockets being willing to take that kind of swing (even though I personally wouldn’t have) for the chance to push themselves over the top.
Totally agree. This looks like a good first step. But the way out of the ravine is a long and steep one, fraught with dangers.
Let’s see if he’s got budget to build a FO team around him, budget to set up a scouting department, will have the freedom to fire Walton, won’t have Vivek/Dumars/Matina interfering or undermining him.
And although this hire looks great on paper, so did the hire of Pete D. Someone who started as video-coordinator under Carnesacca at St. Johns, worked at a sport agency, then worked his way up the ranks at GS, then was handpicked by Ujiri and was seen as his potential successor at Denver, with strong analytical skills and knowledge of the salary cap.
So Monte looks good on paper. Let’s see what happens next.
Welp, hopefully he’s better than advertised. If he’ll fire Leaky Luke and hire Mike D’Antoni then I’d say he’s already a success.
Hell, firing Leaky Luke is already a success.
Or…OR Billy Donovan. I can’t remember who I was engaging with, but I was on board with D’Antoni too. Still am to a certain degree. I think Donovan will be able to actually coach and guide our team to be consistently competitive and more complete team. He did a pretty decent job with OKC even after Westbrook and Durant.
HEY MONTE, CONGRATULATIONS!
Here’s to hoping Monte McNair is the Holy Grail
Celebrate!
Milli Vanilli 2 months before their breakout hit…?
Get us to the playoffs and you’ll be a Titan!
So.. what are the chances we think he fires Lose and hires D’antoni? Would be a decent hire for how we want the team to be ran, as currently constructed of course.
D’Antoni can maximize the lineup if he signs here but I want Billy Donovan more with what he did with the funky pieces he had with OKC.
Billy D would be another solid for sure that I would be happy with. I’m curious to see how McNair wants to build/re-build this team, because right now what’s currently in place isnt going to cut it. Wonder if he tries to blow it up from the jump and just lets Lose waste this upcomming season or not for a tank year haha
We’ll see if the ability to maximize THIS lineup is even an issue. More likely he’ll be looking for the coach that can maximize the future lineup he envisions.
I mean, those pieces in OKC actually fit pretty well. Paul, SGA, Galinari and Adams skill sets complement each other really well. More than a few people were saying that, while we expected them to try to unload some of those guys, if they kept them they had a pretty good team.
And as much as people dislike him, a healthy Chris Paul raises almost any teams floor significantly.
Can’t we at least have a banner?
At the start of this process, I had 3 hopes: that the Kings would hire someone with an extensive background as an executive; that said person would preferably come from a winning organization; and that the person they approached was, ideally, currently employed.
They hit each of those marks. I have no idea what the future holds, or whether McNair will be more Petrie or Pete D, but I couldn’t be happier with how the team went about this search, and who they targeted.
He seems to be a Princeton guy… That might be good.
Begs to differ.
Dumb question. But What is the difference between a GM and President of Bball opps? I always considered GM the decision maker.
It’s variable team to team. Some have CEOs. Some have Presidents. Some have VPs of BB Ops. Some have GM’s under said BB Ops heads. Vlade was VP of Basketball and Franchise Ops, which included his GM role. Others (frankly, most) break that role out. An example was, say, OKC last year, where Presti was the head of Baskeball Ops and Weaver was GM. Weaver then went to Detroit to get the lead role. Fairly common progression.
Got it. Its hard to keep with tr he positions. Especially when you dont know whos pulling the strings in Kangz land.
Just look at San Antonion:
CEO (and former GM) R.C. Buford
Team President: Gregg Popovich
GM: Brian Wright
Coach: Gregg Popovich
McNair bout to get Matina’d.
I wish she was gone like yesterday, but she’s been with the Kings, what, like 26 years? How much longer can she be here? It’s beyond absurd to me how she’s basically emerged as this mythical consigliere while the team has been mostly abjectly awful during her tenure. It’s the most obvious deductive leap a person could make.
I don’t know man. I know in life you can rarely wash away a decade of bad behavior with one good decision.
It’s been Kolokotronis this whole time, damnit!
Found this on HoopsHype.com about her –
Sources say that Kolokotronis saw Divac’s predecessors in management, Pete D’Alessandro and Chris Mullin, as driven by self-interest and prone to cracking on Ranadive on background to the media. League sources say that after the NBA’s vice president of basketball operations Kiki Vandeweghe declined an offer from the team following general manager D’Alessandro’s departure in June 2015, the Kings turned to Divac in the name of finding someone who would be loyal to Ranadive at a moment when the franchise’s favorability ratings needed a boost. 4 years ago via ESPN
If she was instrumental in removing Pete D., then she can’t be all bad. Unfortunately, we went from having people who recognized Vivek’s naivety (and were taking advantage of it) to a guy who was naively loyal to Vivek. Hopefully McNair falls somewhere in between and gets the job done for a change.
One great qualities about Houstons Bball Ops is that they don’t sign role players to massive contracts. The Corey Jo/Barnes/Dedmon type of deals should be in the rear view mirror. Now im anxiously awaiting the draft.
This draft coud be the start of a new page we have to nail it if we want to save part of this long rebuild. Glad he has been scouting this draft class because we have 4 picks and we’ve seen what a good draft can do for a franchise all those undrafted gems never land here lets hope we can find some this year.
If you want to show some Sac, you’ve got to go full Monte.
SACRAMONTE!
Haha! Granada, Spain. The gypsies live there in caves.
How long does it take to dangle your Bagley after you go full Monte?
Now we can appeal the 2018 draft on the grounds of inadequate representation and get a do-over.
This is in jest I know but I wonder what Bagley’s future here in Sac is
I mean is he gone? Do they keep him another year to see if he can get over the injury bug?
Marvin’s only been here 2 years despite it feeling like a lifetime ago so I still think there is value in him if we wanted to trade him
If he’s going full Rockets on Sacramento the Bagley’s gone, ASAP probably with 2nd round picks attached. I’d trade Bags for Markannen in a heartbeat as it’s lookin’ like he’s losing his place in Chicago and really needs a change of pace in a different team.
Depends if they go full tank. I’m not sure how much the flatter lottery odds change the tank approach, but they must have some affect.
Also, we might be bad enough to finish last with the current roster, so then it’s a matter of maximizing a return for the current players. I think Bagley will restore some value if he can actually gets on the court next season.
It’s a fair question based on his credentials.
If Hinkie disciple Gupta was hired, I’d have thought there was a non-zero chance he would’ve hit reset on everything up to and including Fox. This roster has shades of the ’13 Sixers and Fox has shades of Jrue Holiday.
With Bagley, I don’t know if there’s a spot on this team for him under a Daryl Morey student. And that’s whether they go all in on extreme Moreyball and basically use no big like this year’s Rockets, or whether they use 4 out/1 in like with Capela. If a Moreyball style winds up using a big as part of their gameplan, it sure as shit ain’t going to be Marvin Bagley.
The analytics aren’t on Bagley’s side, the way the game’s trending is not on his side.
You didn’t need to be an analytics type to see that he is not very well suited for today’s game.
D’antoni’s play style was small. I think Mcnair will learn from the All small experiment and have a more filled out roster. Imo the big man may not be as valuable but some cheap Vet bigs are always good to have.
I’m going full GM. Monte…get out of my way.
Trade Bagley and the 12th pick to GS for the 2nd pick. Attach a 2nd rounder. Just get his ass outta here. Trade Buddy and Barnes to Philly for Harris and Richardson AND their 21st pick because Harris’ contract is crazy ridiculous. But, he immediately becomes our go to when we need baskets. We need some bad asses. Richardson is a badass on defense. Resign Bogi. Take one or both of the last 2 second round picks (we have 4) to pick up a glue guy to come off the bench. I’m thinking maybe Denzel Valentine. We draft Wiseman at 2 and Achiawa at 21. I think Achiawa slides, but he has great upside. We send Achiawa and Guy to the G-League. Let them tear the league up together. Sign Jeffries…period. Some of the current players will walk. Some I hate to see go.
FIRE Limp Walton immediately. Bring Donovan to man the following:
Fox, CoJo, Guy
Bogi, Valentine, James
Richardson, Bazemore, Jeffries
Harris, Bjelly, Parker, Achiawa
Holmes, Wiseman
Parker and Bjelly can get mins at the 5 when there’s foul trouble. Harris as well. The idea is that in a few years, Fox will be entering his prime, Wiseman and Achiawa have developed and “should” be our starting 4, 5. We will start the cycle of finding the best SG & SF to build around Fox, Wiseman, and Achiawa. We need a plan. A vision. If one doesnt work, we pivot, but the foundation is here.
Thank you all for your time. Vivek, give me a call. Monte and I will work well together.
You’re planning on building around two non-playmaking bigs and nobody that projects to be a decent floor spacer? Well, zig when they zag, I guess.
Either way, PHI doesn’t have enough picks to make me happy about taking on Harris. That’s in the upper tier of the worst contracts in the NBA. Really, Harris should be making Barnes money. And Barnes should be making Oubre money.
I do like Oubre. I think we should have picked him up a couple of years ago. That would be a nice pick up.
As far as the bigs, it’s a projection like anyone else. I’ve seen those kids in person. I went to the same school they did years ago. YEARS AGO. So I follow the university from time to time. They might just work. Or…OR, we pivot.
My question to you is, are you against the line up presented for the 20-21 season?
Yes, trading a guy after he’s missed nearly an entire season with chronic injuries is bound to maximize return.
He’s got two more non-guaranteed years at rookie scale. There is no reason at all to worry about moving him unless someone offers something ridiculously good.
You have a huge task, Monte. I’ll be rooting for you. Let’s turn the page.
Not gonna lie but I was hoping it would be Gupta. He was the favorite throughout the entire process.. Damn! Now I’m wondering why Gupta didnt get the job or did he turned down the job? Time will tell.
Anyhow I’m pretty sure Mcnair is an upgrade over Divac so that is a plus.. Will see how he constructs this roster and hopefully our owner does not get involved in any shape or form and let Monte do his job.
Happy Sacramonte day, King Fans!
Now if we can get rid of Dumars and Lose Walton asap….
I honestly know very little about these guys. But I think it’s fair to celebrate good process, first with Divac and then with this seemingly thoroughly vetted hire.
This is where I’m at. I don’t know if Monte is the right guy but at least it seems like they followed the right process here and I hope that’s a step in the right direction. So for right now, good move and let’s where we go from here.
I think he definitely has the qualifications for the job. Hopefully he can fix this mess.
I’m cautiously hopeful about this news! Which is a feeling I have not felt about this team in at least 2 years, since before the flubbed Doncic draft.
LETS GOOOOOOO
EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT FROM THE KINGS!!!!
He may not of been Gupta but
a) He is a real gm candidate and
b) he is a promising hire that any other franchise would be happy to land
I’m so excited I somehow started typing in Italics but who cares????? Best bit of kings news since the pick that won’t be named.
Really not often the king’s do Jack shit for my Birthday but let’s goooo
Here’s to hoping that McNair can lead us in the right direction. Not an easy task by any means but he’s probably better suited to do so than anybody this town has ever seen (besides Petrie). I fully expect him to move a lot of these pieces around and I’m excited to see him do that.
Apparently, his analytics were behind the decision to play PJ Tucker at Center. I wonder if that means we’ll see Bagley playing there more.
It would come closer to suggesting we’ll see someone like Barnes playing Center more.
He’s not Hinkie, but he’s worked with Hinkie. Maybe Will will consider this a consolation prize?
Plenty of reason to be optimistic. It will be nice to have someone who knows what analytics are making decisions.
I was hoping someone from a winning organization would take the job. So I guess Im very optimistic, Im sure ill look back on this day and think of how foolish I’m being again. Please save us Mr. M. McNair
Not my ideal pick but it’s good. My top-5 was: Adam Simon, Simon Gupta, Monte McNair, Calvin Booth and Wes Wilcox. So I’m not disappointed.
Good luck Monte!
So Joe Dumars will still have a role:
That’s definitely something. The specific inclusion of real estate makes one wonder about MK.
Professional writers, y’all. Very frustrating.
Welcome, Monte! If anyone makes fun of your name, I will whip their ass.
Im not keen on Dumars being named chief strategy officer. I feel like it leaves room open for a power struggle between him and Monte when I would just want Monte to be the main decision maker answering to Vivek. Let’s hope he sticks to his advisory role and doesn’t try to oust Monte a few months into the season
There’s a report that Joe Dumars will remain to “advise” Vivek. I don’t find that reassuring.
Yep. Chief strategy officer
Lame Silicon Valley title…
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