The Sacramento Kings announced Joe Dumars as the interim executive vice president of basketball operations on Friday after Vlade Divac stepped down as the general manager.
Though there are question marks swirling around how long Dumars may remain in the interim role, for the time being he appears to be the person in charge of making basketball decisions for the franchise. Dumars joined the Kings last year as an advisor to Divac.
Unlike Divac, Dumars does have experience as an NBA general manager. He spent 14 years as a player with the Detroit Pistons (where he won two NBA championships) and then another 14 years as the general manager, during which he won one championship.
Let’s take a look at his tenure in Detroit.
Building The Title Team
After he took over in Detroit in 2000, Dumars began putting the pieces in place for the championship Pistons team. He landed the team’s defensive anchor in Ben Wallace in a sign and trade that sent Grant Hill to the Magic. He brought on Rick Carlisle to coach the team in 2001 and a year later, drafted Tayshaun Prince (23rd) and signed Chauncey Billups, who was a free agent.
He also traded Jerry Stackhouse, a two-time All Star at the time, to the Washington Wizards for Richard Hamilton.
The Pistons won 50 games in 2001-02 and in 2002-03.
He replaced Carlisle with Larry Brown in the summer of 2003. And at the trade deadline in 2004, he landed Rasheed Wallace to stretch the floor for a future first-round pick, Chucky Atkins, Lindsey Hunter, Bob Sura and Zeljko Rebraca. ESPN ranked it as the best trade deadline deal of the decade.
The Pistons won 54 games in the 2003-04 season and took on the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals. Using great team defense and an unselfish offense, they won the title in five games. Billups was named the NBA Finals MVP. The Pistons would go on to return to the NBA Finals the next season, but lost the San Antonio Spurs. They would be a playoff team for four more seasons.
Dumars was named executive of the year in 2003.
The Downfall
In 2008, things began to unravel as Dumars never fully committed to a true rebuild and ran through a litany of coaches. (Though it was made worse by his 2003 decision to draft Darko MiliÄiÄ second overall ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade.)
In November 2008, Dumars sent Billups to the Nuggets for Allen Iverson, which didn’t work out. That same month, he gave Richard Hamilton a three-year, $34 million extension. The following season, he gave Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon hefty contracts (Gordon got $55 million for five years and Villanueva got $40 million for five years). Between the 2009-10 and 2011-12 seasons, the Pistons would win no more than 30 games. In June 2012, the Pistons traded Gordon to the Charlotte Bobcats for Corey Maggette. Tayshaun Prince signed a four-year, $27 million deal in 2011.
In 2013, Dumars spent $25 million on a three-year deal for Brandon Jennings (he sent Khris Middleton to the Milwaukee Bucks to get Jennings). That same year, he signed Josh Smith to a $54 million, four-year deal, but he was released by the team the following season. The Pistons were still paying him last year.
The Pistons would go on to never win more than 29 games the rest of Dumars’ tenure, which ended in April 2014 when he stepped down as president of basketball operations.
In 2017, Dumars spoke about his time in Detroit, including his decision to trade Billups for Iverson.
I thought that the Iverson deal was really a money deal. His contract was up after the season, Chauncey had a much longer contract.
So it was that as much as anything else, Dumars added, and that’s all a part of trying to do it on the fly. Okay, we make this move, in the summer we’ll have a lot of money, and then maybe we can make a couple hits that will get us right back on track.’ So that was the basis for the whole deal.
In the same interview, he discussed the decision to draft Milicic.
We probably didn’t do well, I know we didn’t do as good a job as we should have on background, just (as far as) personality, Dumars admitted. This is not to disparage him, but from that point on, man, our background checks were tremendously extensive in terms of who the person was. Are they going to fit? Will they be able to make this transition to play in Detroit? Who we are, who they are those things came into play in a major way after that.
He also admitted that he should have tried to go through a true rebuild. (The team never had a top-5 lottery pick in his tenure, other than the MiliÄiÄ No. 2 pick in 2003.)
When you’re trying to rebuild on the fly, you’re probably putting yourself in a position to make decisions that have more risk in them. If you completely break it down, it’s easier to make decisions that you know don’t have to manifest themselves in six months or a year. You’re looking at three, four years (in terms of) what it needs to look like. When you’re doing it on the fly, you’re looking for immediate returns, right now, because you don’t have time to wait.
The success came under three coaches: Carlisle, Larry Brown and Flip Saunders. From 2008 to 2014, Dumars went through Michael Curry, John Kuester, Lawrence Frank, Maurice Cheeks and John Loyer.
The Draft Picks
Some of the highlights of Dumars draft history beyond Mehmet Okur (37th pick in the second round) and Tayshaun Prince (23rd pick in the first round of the 2002 draft) early in his tenure, include:
- Aaron Afflalo with the 27th pick in 2007;
- Rodney Stuckey with the 15th pick in 2007;
- Greg Monroe with the 7th pick in 2010;
- Brandon Knight with the 8th pick in 2011;
- Khris Middleton with the 39th pick in the second round in 2012;
- Andre Drummond with the 9th pick in 2012;
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with the 8th pick in 2013.
This is a big transition point for the Kings with Dumars assuming power. He certainly had his missteps in Detroit that can’t be ignored, but the good news is the team hired someone with general manager experience who has NBA championship experience under his belt.
If you’re searching for something encouraging, I would focus on his alleged learned lesson of not rebuilding on the fly.
Agreed. Admitting a mistake is an underrated quality that Dumars seems to bring.
He had one of the worst 6 year runs as a GM we’ve ever seen (and that’s saying something). But at least he admits it! … man our bar is so low here.
More than likely the game just passed him by.
I’d at least like a thorough GM search please.
By “…take a look at that…”, do you mean “take a look at the tape”?
Asking for a fiend.
Somewhat encouraging to hear that he admitted some mistakes and looked for ways to correct them.
Also:
Not afraid to trade away an oft injured high draft pick. Hmmm.
Grant hill showed enough before he was injured to get something back. I don’t think bagley, by himself, gets you anything.
This is absolutely revisionist. Grant Hill killed himself playing for the Pistons. It’s probably what led him to bring hurt for Orlando so often. That and the ankle never healed correctly because Orlando played him too soon after the surgery.
Put another way, I wish Marvin Bagley were as good as Grant Hill in his Detroit years.
Well, trading a corpse for a perennial defensive player of the year is still a huge (albeit somewhat morbid) win in my book.
I’m going to ignore your silly joke Dutchman.
My point was that Hill was a star level player for Detroit before that horrible ankle injury. Unless you really believe Bagley was on Hall of Fame trajectory as Grant Hill was, I don’t see anything comparable here.
Also, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
I like how he is able and willing to own up to his mistakes as Detroit GM, especially his decision to try to rebuild on the fly instead of do a full blow-up. It hopefully indicates he won’t make the same mistake in Sac.
Oh, so it’s just the flu, huh? 😉
(Edit – I see you used your sorcery magic to ruin my joke!)
How do you love Vlade as a GM, 1951???
(Edit – wow you edited after I commented!!)
Timmy, you’re going off to join L*ker nation, WHAT????
(Edit-oh, you edited your comment after I commented!!!)
So, it’s a mixed bag of some really good stuff, really bad stuff, and meh stuff.
Not surprising and I appreciate that he does have experience in this league.
That said, my preference would be for Dumars to hire a GM with FO experience and let that person go to work!
Even a mixed bag GM is a hue upgrade over Vlade. Of course, I’d like more than a mixed bag, but I’m happy to take it.
I wouldn’t mind a Hinkie Dumars combo running the FO.
Hinkie probably would mind though.
At first it seemed trendy to trash this hire, but Dumars actually did some good stuff in Detroit. Not many GMs have won an NBA championship in the last 20 years. True there were misses, but this article credits him for at least admitting those mistakes.
Article credits him for at least admitting those mistakes.
Eh, in my opinion that doesn’t hold much weight. He would have to be and idiot to not own up to it. What would you expect a normal person to say? ? Say no? I still stand by my wrong decisions?? Doesn’t make any sense. Of course he’ll say it’s a mistake…..Just like Napear will about Luka eventually lol
I don’t understand the hype behind winning a championship in 2004. That’s cool and all on the resume. But we are talking 16 years ago. The game a change A LOT since. Does he have what it takes to compete with the best GM’s in the game in the PRESENT and future? In my opinion I don’t think so. Championship 16 years ago is overrated. Its like Kings fans saying ‘hey, we are a championship team’….back in 1951. That’s cool… but what does it have to say about the team today and the future?
I see Joe as one of the old school GM’s. I maybe wrong. But that is my perception of him. I’m okay with him having some advisor role, but not the man to call the shots. To be competitive in this league you need to cutting edge and being innovative. I would love Hinkie here in or someone of that like.
I listened to a podcast and his approach to the game….it’s hard not to like him. (posted it in another thread, but ill post it one last time here) . The only problem I see with Hinkie is actually getting him to come here.
http://investorfieldguide.com/hinkie/
Words related to the Kings that I really hate:
Interim
Transition
from the time being
rebuild
reset
Lottery
Drought
Grant
Just
Have
Patience
Remember Adamsite’s old sig for the longest time on that-one-other-website was Relax and Patience.
Hahaha! Truth be told, that was related to relocation saga. I knew Mastrov was going to be a whale and the Kings had a very good chance at staying.
Who’s the one who had a scale with the motel 6 and other shit hotels? haha
That’s HeuristicLineup 🙂
Cringe
I’m glad he admitted trying to rebuild on the fly is a mistake. Lets gut this team of its role players, trade Buddy for an overpriced contract and decent/maybe limited young talent, I would try to S&T Bogi for something in return, Idk if Barnes amd Joseph have any value.
Big minutes to your young guys, Bagley, Justin James, Daquan Jeffries, draft picks, Give Fox free reign to get comfortable jacking up threes and pick and rolls.
I would definately look for veterans who have a work ethic, my ideal target would be Isaiah Thomas as a bench scorer. Give us a chance with another high pick in ’21, maybe Bagley establishes himself, James or Jeffries may be in a 9 man rotation but we have to try to change course this year.
Sorry, but I am sick and tired of veteran mentors.
Do your homework on the young guys you pick or trade for and be as sure as you can be about their work ethic and BBIQ.
ElRon is the only veteran mentor we need.
EDIT: Wrong reply
I’m down to trade for markannen or Carter jr. since they’re injury prone too. Give me jonathan isaacs. I’m up for an entire roster makeover.
This is a good look at the tenure of Dumars, but most of this is from a league almost unrecognizable to the present. We are talking about successes that are nearly 20 years ago. There is nothing above that reflects the pace and space reformation, and analytic data based league to which is the modern NBA.
Sadly this is simply congruent with our temperamental owner. A new version of Vlade strategically picked the Kings with a GM in dispute, and worked his way to the chair. Vivek yet again is bamboozled to simply trust someone else without any semblance of a job search that could add context to how outdated the decision makers of this team are. And again demonstrates his adherence to ignore the overlap to his own fortune in relation to on the court decision makers being analytically minded.
This is a poor decision. Anyone can surprise one, but the rationale to hiring Joe Dumars in 2020 is an idiotic rationale. If it is interim so be it, however my suspicions are likely that wont be the case. I see just a new era of dysfunction.
Sacramento Kings: talking about successes from almost 20 years ago
Insert Jason Williams video highlight.
Or Mike Bibby game 5 winner.
Chris Webber encouraging the crowd to stand on their feet with a cutaway to the 6th Man jersey hanging in the rafters works, too.
I’m glad Kings fans (incl me) are finally just about over reminiscing about the glory days (translation: the few years this franchise hasn’t sucked since it moved to town). It’s long past time for us to stop looking backward for good vibes, and start demanding results in the present and future or else (or else we stop buying merchandise, attending games, watching on TV, etc). Chris, Vlade, J-Will, Bobby, Doug, and Mike have been our heroes for the past 15 years. We need new heroes.
For someone so “NBA 3.0”, it is amazing how behind the curve Vivek has been. You’d think he would be heavy into analytics and whatnot.
My thoughts exactly. I think Kings fans are so beat down that they’ll be fine with just about anyone as GM. Because hey, they’re better than Vlade…
But that’s not how teams get good. There are probably several forward- thinking executives with their best years ahead of them (as opposed to behind them) who would take this job if Vivek will just get out of the way.
But he won’t. So we’ll get someone who likely wouldn’t get this job from any other team. Since the prerequisite seems you have to be willing to work under a dismissive little chap who can’t seem to stop himself from keeping the experts from doing their jobs.
Someone like Hinkie would make this team relevant again. But there’s a reason it’s reported he doesn’t want it. He knows he’ll get his chance again. Not gonna blow it on a no- win situation under a shaka- wielding buffoon.
So round and round we go. Vivek hits the reset button (again) and likely doesn’t do the proper search (again) and gets enamored with a former player with past glory. And we are all so happy he’s not the previous guy (like Pete) we give him a long leash and have to “wait another 3 years” before we can judge any decision they make. “Vlade fucked it up so bad, give him time”.
Meanwhile, competent organizations like the Grizzlies, Mavs, and even the fucking Phoenix Suns lap us yet again on our umpteenth rebuild.
We need to do this right. Do a thorough search for a GM. Interview several candidates. Pick the best one. And give them all the power.
I don’t really like Dumars either, but he did bring in Rasheed Wallace when everyone else was still trying to post up their centers, so it seems he does think outside the box sometimes. He track record is a lot of ups and downs, but it’s better than the all downs and a fluke up with Vlade.
We hope he’s not the long term solution, but having him in charge will at least stop some bleeding instead of having Vlade continue to torture the franchise with is bad decision making.
He’s growing on me. I don’t mind someone who has had success learning from their failures over a newbie, necessarily.
I don’t love him, I don’t hate him. Which is also pretty much my feelings about the franchise itself for over a decade now.
You guys realize Dumars basically has two paths forward here:
There isn’t going to be a full rebuild. This team also isn’t a couple of pieces away from a playoff team so if that’s the path, it won’t work. Unless there is going to be a coaching change, which it sounds like there isn’t.
That means we’re probably looking at a rebuild on the fly which Dumars admittedly didn’t do a good job of last time….
Let’s hope he pulls of some sort of miracle.
There is no “rebuild on the fly” because this team isn’t built. You “rebuild on the fly” when you have a successful them that is aging and you want to KEEP winning. That isn’t the Kings. This is a sub-.500 team that hasn’t made the playoffs in 14 years and doesn’t have a single player that could be considered a top 30 player.
I was wondering if that path Dumars took to remain relevant was more of an ownership directive than a Dumars method. It kind of reminds me of the later Petrie years. It takes some serious balls and a supportive owner that allows a full rebuild in the way Philly and Memphis have done.
Ending up with Dumars as the long term GM would be fine. Not inspiring or exciting. But a solid option. Honestly, the Darko pick isn’t my biggest strike against him. I think people tend to forget that the scouting reports on Darko were absolutely glowing. Dumars gets the brunt of that mistake, but highly respected guys like Carlisle and Robinson were also absolutely on board with that pick.
To me, the most concerning strike was trading Billups for Iverson. Though at least, according to above quote, that at least was part of a longer-term plan than just adding Iverson.
I agree with this. I do recall the Billups was grateful to be traded to Denver, which is is home town. Maybe it was more about a cap room decision and a solid move to a champion vet.
A+
Peja out
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1294720659717853185
I’m cool with this. It means we may truly get an overhaul of the front office and not just a bandaid on a gushing wound.
I truly don’t even know what he did, TBH.
Maybe someone had to carry Vlade’s bags?
Someone had to laugh at matina’s jokes.
Who’s going to break this to Ailene?
Jim Crandall will.
Next week.
Crandell: BREAKING: Kings hire Vlade Divac as VP of Basketball Operations.
Crandell: BREAKING: Mr. and Mrs. Toro–proud new parents of baby ElRon.
I’m so glad Vlade/Peja are out. A wasted 5 years with only Fox to show for it. Joe Dumars has won a championship keeping a Shaq/Kobe team from getting a 4th championship, something the Chris Webber teams didn’t while having better talent. Yes, Dumars did screw up the Darko pick. But I could go on and on with all the Kings draft busts, Jimmer over Klay, Thomas Robinson over Lilliard, McLemore over CJ McCollum, drafting another shooting guard Stauskus the following year, and center/power forward Willie Cauley-Stein after that. Do you get my point? None of these guys are with the team. Dumars is the best GM the Kings could hope for that is willing to come and work for this owner. You have to be able to evaluate talent so you can draft and trade to build your team. Dumars has done that with Chauncey, Richard Hamilton, Rasheed, Ben Wallace, and Tayshaun Prince. I’ll live with that roster even with the Darko mistake because they won a ring with him on the roster. Dumars is proven and I was glad Vivek brought him in as an advisor. Divac was no match for Dumars in talent evaluation. For those of you knocking Dumars for picking Darko as the main reason not to let him run your team, you need a reality check. Joe Dumars would be the best Sacramento Kings GM since Geoff Petrie. I’ve lived here almost 20 years since moving from Oakland and the last few years have been tough to watch. If it wasn’t for my Warriors rebirth, I would go crazy watching the Kings’ futility. The West is so tough with Dallas, Memphis, and Phoenix on the rise, not to mention the Warrors will be back next year. Kings’fans should be elated if Dumars wants to build this team. But it will take time becaue the West is stacked. I would love for the Kings to be relevant as it is the only pro sports team in town and I like going to games in that fabulous arena. They could have been in Seattle. Sacramento should be grateful that Vivek bought and kept the team here. After 2 big blunders (drafting Darko and signing Josh Smith), bringing on Joe Dumars is the best move he has made since he bought the team. Kings’ fans need to be realistic and be happy to get someone with Joe Dumars credentials. He has a championship, the Kings don’t. This team has a 14-year playoff drought. What do you have to lose by going with Joe?
What is amazing about Dumars tenure as GM for Detroit is that one decision (drafting Darko) changed the course of his career.
If he had selected Anthony, Wade, Bosh, or even traded that pick for solid assets, the Pistons would have had a very different trajectory, and maybe even more championships. There would have been no need to “rebuild on the fly” the lead to more questionable decisions. His later years as Pistons GM may not have ended.
It makes you wonder if Vlade had simply drafted Luka, he might have been on the short list fo Executive of the Year, instead of packing up his office.
Following up Fox with Doncic? Playoff drought ends & Vlade gets a suit hung in the rafters next to his jersey.
Yup, it likely would have been close to the very same team the Kings had in the bubble, but with the addition of Luka. Who knows, the Kings may not have traded for Barnes and spent that money elsewhere. Julius Randle perhaps? He was my desired signing if the Kings had drafted Luka.
Yeah, the butterfly effect is crazy. No need for Hield to be anything other than a premiere shooter, the Barnes trade never happens…jeebus, this organization was so close…
Definitely would not be able to hire Luke Walton because Dave would have made the playoffs with Luka
To the extent people say we couldn’t have hired someone better, there were no interviews which is the easiest way to negate any opportunity for choices of comparison. And there are 30 jobs, people will take the risk.
If indeed this team couldn’t have done better its because they hire people like Joe Dumars in 2020 with no formal job search (granted its on an “interim” basis but I have my doubts). And I feel fairly assured I would have had a preferred option if it was just the assistant to an assistant of multiple FO’s who put their name in for consideration (doubtful).
Truth is I doubt 2/3rds of the league would ever have his name on a sheet.
I don’t think the other 29 teams would have him on a sheet. The guy hasn’t been in a front office position in 6 years. Maybe there is a reason for that?
Anybody have any promising, uh uh, leads, on a better GM than this?
I know we’re the Kangz, but we can do better than this, right?
Can we hire Zach Lowe to be a GM? I’d trust him over Dumars.
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