The COVID-19 pandemic has put significant financial stress on most of the population, and Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is reportedly no exception. Sam Amick has detailed this on several occasions, most recently stating that “the Kings have suffered major losses tied to the real estate they control surrounding the Golden 1 Center, sources say, while having layoffs on the business side as well. There’s just no way that reality doesn’t come into play with any decision of consequence.”
One of the notable decisions of consequence Amick is referring to here is the future of Vlade Divac, the current vice president of basketball operations and general manager for the Sacramento Kings. Can the Kings, and more specifically, Kings ownership, afford to fire Vlade Divac despite financial stress? That’s really what we’re talking about here.
I will spare you the chronological rundown of Divac’s transgressions to prove that removing Divac from office is the right basketball decision. We’ve done this so many times, and quite frankly, I think that list is no longer pertinent to the discussion. There was a brief moment earlier this season where you could politely entertain the argument that Divac should still be making basketball decisions for an NBA franchise, but after Sacramento’s dreadful NBA bubble performance coinciding with the extension of the organizations NBA-leading 14-season playoff drought, we are healthily past that point. This story doesn’t have a happy ending. It’s over. Accept it. Move on.
Despite Divac’s failures, the prevailing thought among NBA reporters, speculators, and fans has been fairly consistent: Vivek won’t fire Vlade right now. Not with Ranadive’s current financial situation. Not during a pandemic. That notion, that report, while logical, is extremely shortsighted. If Vivek Ranadive is the forward thinking Silicon Valley maverick he wants you to think he is, he must know that.
Vlade Divac has already cost Ranadive hundreds of millions of dollars. The beat horse is long dead, but not drafting Luka Doncic is a several-hundred million dollar mistake on its own. Doncic is quickly becoming one of the most marketable young athletes across any sport. Once you get beyond obvious revenue streams like merchandise and ticket sales, the brand awareness you acquire from an athlete like Doncic is impossible to understate, especially for a ‘small market’ city like Sacramento. Drafting young stars is often the only way for an organization in this position to succeed in the modern NBA.
What is the monetary value of a decade of playoffs appearances, a decade of All-Star games, a decade of MVP discussions, and the ability to recruit other NBA stars? The Sacramento Kings might be at an all-time low with regards to fan interest and NBA relevance. They’ve already lost a significant portion of the fan base, and the ones dumb enough to stay (I put myself in that category) can’t look away from the car crash. Major publications barely acknowledge their existence, and the Kings did nothing to prove them foolish in Orlando.
Luka Doncic equals immediate relevance. Luka Doncic equals hundreds of millions of dollars in the pockets of Ranadive and minority ownership, and the financial stress Divac’s decision-making has caused Ranadive and the Kings doesn’t stop there.
Here’s quick list of Vlade Divac’s most expensive free agent signings. How many of them lived up to their contracts? How many of them made the team tangibly better?
Kosta Koufos: 4 years, $32.9 million
Marco Belinelli: 3 years, $19 million
Rajon Rondo: 1 year $9.5 million
Arron Afflalo: 2 years, $25 million
Anthony Tolliver: 2 years, $16 million
Matt Barnes: 2 years, $12.25 million
Garrett Temple: 3 years, $24 million
Vince Carter: 1 year $8 million
George Hill: 3 years, $57 million
Zach Randolph: 2 years, $24 million
Nemanja Bjelica: 3 years, $20.5 million
Yogi Ferrell: 2 years, $6.2 million
Cory Joseph: 3 years, $37.2 million
Trevor Ariza: 2 years, $25 million
Dewayne Dedmon: 3 years, $40 million
Harrison Barnes: 4 years, $85 million contract
Richaun Holmes: 2 years, $9.77 million contract
Buddy Hield: 4 years, $94 million contract
Vlade Divac has spent roughly (conservatively) $545,000,000 of Vivek Ranadive’s money in free agency alone. That’s over half a billion dollars on what amounts to a 31 win team (equivalent of 35 wins in an 82 game season) five years into his run. And this number doesn’t include Divac’s own salary, or the salary of other executives, or the salary of failed draft picks, or Dave Joerger and the money the Kings had to pay him to stay home, or Luke Walton’s contract. This is just higher profile free agents.
Divac’s tenure has been nothing short of a financial disaster for Vivek Ranadive, so I reject the idea that ownership cannot afford to replace Vlade at this time. Divac, with plenty of help from surrounding incompetence, has run this organization into the ground. New leadership is the only way Ranadive can save his bank account, and his basketball team.
Anything less than replacing Divac and giving the new head of basketball operations full autonomy to put this train back on the tracks would be another financial misfire. Moderate success in the NBA is not nearly as hard as the Sacramento Kings would have you believe. Hire the right executives, develop clear organizational hierarchy, and let those people do their jobs. It’s really not that complicated.
The ball is in Vivek Ranadive’s court. He can set the new standard. He can hold management accountable. He can turn this franchise around. It’s going to take some serious self-reflection and some short-term financial discomfort, but it’s the only way out.
His organization can’t afford another season of the status quo.
No comments??? Must be a Kings win…..BUT ONLY IF THEY FIRE DIVAC THIS OFFSEASON.
7pm show is different than the 9pm get tickets to both.
Wow Peja AND Daddy Bags with the down vote.
It’ll get purple. Just you watch.
I’m going to do my best to upvote every downvoted comment and turn them all purple.
Good luck with this one! 😛
(on a serious note: it is not me doing any downvoting, except for that one as a joke)
How contrarian of you Rob!
That’s what she said?
Vlade did it JonBon’s way…
Seems Vlade kept his word.
But he was 1.5 years late after he said “after two years.”
That’s unfair!
But you have to deduct the money saved on less scouts!
Yeah, great points overall. The shortsightedness is mindblowing.
And how much were the Kings wasting on breakfast?
Klam has the receipts!
Love that Peja has been tasked by Vlade to be the down
vote guy.
I have this image of Vivek sitting in his office, grimly downvoting every critical comment and giving himself a shaka sign in the mirror after every successful downvote.
In the edge of the frameof the mirror are polaroids of all his shaka pics with B-rated celebs, and beside the mirror a big framed pic with Kelsey Grammer.
I think Vivek down voting gives Vivek too much credit. I see Vivek being more of the delegator to Vlade. And since Vlade has a pager and not quite sure how a computer works he feels this task would be perfect for Peja.
Throw in Matina and it has all the makings of a Threes Company reboot
…I’ve been to Santa Monica many times, and I’ve yet to find the Regal Beagle. I really wanna have a drink with Larry Dallas, Mrs. and Mr. Roper, and Greedy Gretchen.
Anyway, it also could be one of those media types who keeps enabling this front office. Or it could be some folks from that old VOX site who secretly come here for great articles about their favorite team written by actual fans of the team.
Chez Jay is still there. And an official landmark!
The Regal Seagull is further south in Leucadia!
Oh! as well. Road trip! (in the future)
Oh! I will check it out!
(once it’s safe)
Listen up I’m about to get doper,
They call me Mr. Furly but I’m more like Mr. Roper.
Serious question – Who was the better landlord?
This is a tough one. I love both.
The show was better when the Roper’s were on it, IMO. But I love Don Knotts. 🙂 His character was funny and sad at the same time. Mr. Roper had those funny jabs at Mrs. Roper as well as his signature smile and glance at the camera/
Has anyone watched the British original, “Man About The House”? It’s kind of neat to see, but I relate so much more to the California location in Three’s Company.
Furley for me.
And who downvotes this stuff…
Pictured, three people: who are not good at their jobs; have massive control over the Kings; and will probably never hold another job in the NBA with significant duties after they leave.
LOL. Classic episode.
I just recently started watching Cheers from season 1. It still holds up pretty well.
Yeah, Cheers!
I read that they originally wanted to set the location as Barstow instead of Boston. As in, Barstow…that little town you drive by on your way to Las Vegas and never think you’ll ever visit in your lifetime. But you’re curious so you google it and read up about it. And you know that DjRick is probably hanging out there, after a layover in Bakersfield.
Watch this one instead for Mojave drama:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095801/
Don’t re-sign Bogdan, and rebuild. Trade Buddy for savings etc
Divac would re-sign Bogdan to healthy contract and try to win meaningless games
money saved
I think letting Bogi walk for nothing is foolish. Even bad GMs shouldn’t let RFAs walk for nothing.
I agree letting Bogi walk for nothing is extremely foolish. We cannot afford to move him for Alex Oriakhi and cash either.
If he goes to Dallas, I would love a Dorian Finney Smith and salary filler, if possible.
Well stated, Tony.
Breaking Bad-Kings edition: Breaking .500
Coming to AMC in 2025.
I was told there would be no meth.
Meth, what meth?
id argue it wasn’t just a couple hundred million Vivek lost not drafting luka, we are looking at 1 Billion+ In the long run
At the end of his career, it might be a couple hundred million game victories it costed Vivek. Or triple doubles.
Well, maybe closer to 300 wins? Still a lot.
Whole-heatedly agree – fantastic article. You do a great job of laying out the costs of passing on Doncic and missing on free agents – so I won’t belabor that here.
Let me also just lay out that there is an additional cost to over overall ineptitude
According to estimates – for an NBA team, each playoff game is worth about $2M
Additionally, the difference between a 60% winning team and 20% winning team is about 20% of stadium capacity.
What does this mean? There is another direct economic cost to keeping Vlade versus hiring a new front office.
Now the one for winning is complicated, as ESPN has us at about 95% capacity and it would take a much deeper drive into the potential increase in pricing Vivek could charge if we were winning.
But the playoff calculation is easy. Even for one more season, if Vlade misses the playoffs that’s $0. If our new FO makes the playoffs, even a single 6 game series is worth about $12M to Vivek. Even if the $2M is only for home games – that’s $6M in lost revenue.
Even if we think there’s is only a 50% chance that a new FO is competent (there is risk, no matter how good a hire looks on paper) – that’s still a $3-6M difference in expected value and that is only for year 1.
If a new FO makes us a consistent playoff team for the lift of Vlade’s contract – the playoff implications alone could be worth far more money than the cost of replacing Vlade.
This should be an easy choice – Tony is right – the Kings’ cannot afford to keep Vlade Divac. It might save some money in the very short run, but it’s likely to have a negative financial impact even by the end of year 1.
Vivek: Okay, we’re losing money because less fans are coming to games. Not sure why.
Matina: Don’t worry. Just raise ticket prices. And let them eat cake.
Vivek: Hmmm, go on.
Matina: Well, I say we start selling cake at games. And we can charge $30 per slice to create even more income.
Vivek: You are the reason why we are doing as well as we are, Funky Cole Matina!
Matina: Thank you, Vivy. Right back atcha. 😉
Vlade: …Hi-five you guys!
“Did somebody say they are selling cake at G1C?”
The “19” in Covid-19 stands for how many pounds every one of us is putting on during this pandemic.
funky cole matina has me rolling
…I can’t remember who came up with it. I want to credit them.
WHOEVER YOU ARE, SHOW YOURSELF!
Hope do you forget a Tone Loc? A true legend….
Oh, I meant the site commenter who came up with the play on words of Tone Loc’s epic poetry!
Abject silliness is the spice of life.
this is my favorite KH post yet, bravo
I highly doubt Vlade made the decision to draft Bagley over Doncic. Vlade wanted high IQ guys and Bagley is not high IQ.
Who knows? But Vlade is the VP – so either he made a poor decision or doesn’t have the influence / fortitude to stop a poor decision.
The buck stops with him.
My butt-pulled guess? Vivek was leaning towards Doncic (shaka photo opp!), Divac wanted Porter until the medicals came back iffy on him (guessing that from the infamous white board), and Williams was all-in for Bagley (guessing the Williams dynamic based on how he kneecapped Joerger over Bagley’s playing time). After Porter went down, Divac liked Bagley over Doncic. Again, pure guesswork.
All. of. this
I agree with all of this and it’s clearly time for Vlade to go, but I think this turns on liquidity not fiscal impact. The Kings have a TON of equity and value. You are correct that Vlade is costing them large sums by negligently spending resources and lost ticket money (when … ya know … people can come to games). But, value and cash are two different things. For the second time, a bold real estate move by the Kings may present issue with cash flow. The Kings pay rent for the area. If they withhold or fight on that due to Covid, the city budget is totally screwed. They set up the arena plan so they control and rent twos block to the east and west of the arena with a decent hotel in the middle to: best case, to try to create a whole district they own / control; and (they assumed) worst case, collect a decent amount of rent and hotel guest rates along with basketball and concert revenue. It was a smart bet. But, K Street has been the white whale of Sacramento real estate for decades. A lot of people lots tons chasing it. It could also be amazing and reshape the city. Due to where the affluent people live, lack of easy parking (in the minds of some), shopping habits, it has not worked that way for a long long time. The Kings own, control, and rent 4 blocks … including what have historically and somewhat recently been several of the roughest blocks on K Street. The Kings own and presumably have some financing and owe interest on 700 block, their hotel, the mall, and the hole in the ground at 800 block. During Covid, a lot of tenants are not paying rent and/or getting rent deals. In many instances landlords are taking losses hoping to wait things out with good tenants for long term gains. It seems like a lock the the hotel is operating at a loss. Those losses requires either liquidity or more loans. Long term, the odds 6 months ago of a vibrant west edge of K Street are, not gone, but much less rosy than being weeks away from tourists coming to town for March Madness. It’s unclear whether Empress Tavern and Pizza Rock will come back to the strong middle of K Street. The new convention center on the other end will eventually get rolling, but business travel isn’t going to be back for a while and it’s unclear when Sacramento’s restaurant scene will be back to 2019 levels. The Kings wanted a lot of high end retail and store around the arena down to 800 block. Well, I don’t think Punch Bowl and other stores coming back and 800 is probably hole in the ground until the Kings spin it off for a fraction of what it was worth 6 months ago. All of that impacts whether they will eat 4 years of Vlade’s contract. Also, 2 decades ago, the Maloofs said to themselves “What is we were NBA owners, a casino owner, and started a huge condo development. It could be great!” They overspent on casino improvements and took huge losses on the condos. Before they tried several times to move (which isn’t in play now due to the lease), they made a lot of scared money moves with the Kings, and those moves were really bad for the Kings. The current ownership group asked themselves “What if we bough a team, bought most of the most high risk / high reward properties in the history of Sacramento, became landlords, and opened a hotel all at the same time.” That was a high risk / high reward move 7 years ago. During a pandemic, the shit could hit the fan. On the flip side, the pandemic may shake out all the small players and the deeper pockets of the Kings and City may provide them long term control of the new downtown. Honestly, nobody knows. But, right now, it’s a real and pressing strain on the Kings, who compared to other NBA controlling owners, do not have deep pockets.
Sorry I went so long. I deserve and accept snarky comments about that.
Nah it was a well presented take. And youll probably only get some down votes from Peja.
Hey, it was so long the downvoters didn’t even bother with it! 🙂
I read it with bated breath.
Threw you a down vote, since no one else did. This is not Vivek!
I have never seen CoreyBrewersD and Vivek in the same room at the same time!
I just wish you added paragraphs.
Excellent points all around.
I think their ability to move on from Vlade financially will be proved in free agency, though. Can they spend 10s of millions of dollars on re-signing Bogdanovic, on using the full MLE, on paying draft picks – all things I expect them to do – and then claim eating Divac’s salary is too much? How about Amick reporting that they will continue to add to the front office?
It has to be all or nothing to some degree IMO. If they are *that* financially screwed, they can’t then turn around and spend another $30 million in free agency, draft picks, and new executives. Divac’s remaining salary is nothing compared to what I expect them to spend in the offseason, so it doesn’t really add up to me.
I’m glad someone smart has finally been able to concisely explain what I’ve been trying to say unsuccessfully since back in the ol StR days. We really should be looking at the Kings as a real estate developer that also happens to have a basketball team they use to increase demand for their various real estate ventures.
It’s worth noting how much construction has gone on in the parcel between E Commerce and I 5. That isn’t insignificant. Meanwhile, there’s a big ass hole on 8th and K.
This is exactly why Matina Kolokotronis cannot be part of the basketball or business operation of the Kings. Among other things.
Fans are forced on games with not fans but: the rent / interest; lack of rent payments; and lack of hotel guests are a bigger issue for them.
Taking a couple of steps back, we are 5 year into DoCo. The opening of the hotel, opening and leasing the mall, activating and leasing 700 block, and later moving any dirt at 800 block were all substantially behind their proposed timetables. Sometimes timetables are not met for a variety of reasons, but those can typically be corrected/are often caused by fiscal issues. There is no way the March 2020 development and leasing levels were anywhere near what they hopped or planned for 7, 5, or 4 years ago. They wanted that plaza full, hotel full with 800 block leasing during spring 2020 playoff games.
Instead for one reason or another, they moved away from a plan of massive quick change hoping for other development and profits to follow. There were some risks with that choice in March with K Streets history.
But now, who the hell knows. Downtown and midtown are different at this point and perhaps for a while. Between Covid closures and places closed by looting damage, nobody knows where this is going for the post Covid years. A lot of places are open to rent. Online shopping is becoming progressively more common and the primary way many people purchase good.
Turning around the Sacramento Kings is a massive and hard endeavor. Being the owner of a shopping mall, and a hotel, and a lot of retail properties at this point in Sacramento might be even harder and more perilous. At least the basketball team has national and local TV money. I don’t think the Vivek is up for ANY of that, let alone all of that.
At some point, they might have to sell one half or the other. For a while, it will be easier and substantially less painful financially to sell the basketball part.
I anticipate that, once again, real estate losses are going to have a big impact on what the owners spend on the basketball team.
The Kings were sued by a lot of contractors for unpaid hotel construction debts when the Kings were both profitable and a lot more liquid than now. They are not currently profitable or liquid.
It gets back to the whole pitch the city made when working on the public financing scheme to keep the Kings in Sacramento. They made it seems like a downtown arena would just completely revitalize the area. I stayed at The Sawyer back around Christmas for a few days (got to see the Kings lose in person for a change). It was the first time I’ve had a chance to spend more than like a night in that area since I lived there over a decade ago. I was pretty underwhelmed. It’s not like I wasn’t expecting a Staples Center/LA Live type of vibe either. I guess I just figured if you pump over a billion dollars into area, then it would transform the area. I just didn’t get that feeling walking around. But as Rob likes to say nice arena though.
Empress is closed; probably forever. Ella is closed; probably forever. My favorite restaurant, Mother, is definitely closed forever. K st. is dead. The franchise bought a damn bridge before passenger jets were invented. It all looks dead.
It’s just amazing to me these guys continually extend management contracts before it’s necessary. That’s probably a significant issue now.
There are more important things in life than money: like having a buffer with an emotional connection to the masses with the pitchforks!
I will pay non-matinee ticket prices to watch Trading GM’s, starring Vivek Ranadive, Vlade Divac, and Eddie Murphy/Dan Akroyd.
Vivek Ranadive must know that he is NOT a maverick. And he surely won’t ever forget that Luka Doncic IS a Maverick.
I want to take this as an opportunity to remind everyone of this classic moment in Kings history:
https://twitter.com/Vivek/status/618116731727278080?s=20
Vlade’s free agent haul at that point was Kosta, Marco Belinelli, Rajon Rondo and Caron Butler. He gave those players something like $60 million in guaranteed money. He was only able to make (most of) those terrible signings because he made the even more terrible Philly trade.
And remember, that was only possible because Wes Mathews with a blown out achilles refused to take his max offer.
Let’s not forget, the Kings could’ve just waived and stretched JT and Landry’s contracts to afford to offer Wes Matthews the contract he refused.
* only able to make those signings because he opted for the indefensible at the time 76ers trade instead of using the stretch provision on two expensive but useless players and flipping a prospect they’d already given up on for a second (his value). I get your point, but some people (probably not yourself) do not realize they could have made ALL of those shitty signings and not made the 76ers trade if they knew how smart and well funded teams use the CBA.
Vivek should have a James Harden beard by now.
Sorry I down-voted this.
Because you made me look at Vivek’s stupid face and now all I want to do is punch something.
LOL
Ownership is likely responsible for Vlade’s full contract dollar amount.
What about hiring a new GM/President of Ops and demoting Vlade to a lesser role? I wonder if a) Vlade’s contract allows that and b) if it is better to just release Vlade altogether.
Although I can’t find it published anywhere, Vlade’s salary is likely minimal. From what I can tell, the highest paid GMs (Riley, Buford, etc.) make around $10M per year. I’d wager Vlade is somewhere between $2-3M per year.
Basically he makes per year what some contracts that he’s cut are worth. His salary is not even the equivalent to releasing Anthony Tolliver. There is no financial reason to keep him.
All this talk of finances got me thinking. How has the NBA pulled this bubble thing off from a financial standpoint?
1) Who paid for the Disney resorts? The league coffers or the 22 team invites? That couldn’t have been cheap and likely put a solid dent into any tv revenue they generated.
2) How are they pulling revenue other than TV deals while paying salaries and not getting ticket sales?
3) What about the other 8 teams? Is there revenue sharing within and outside the bubble?
From a financial standpoint, I just don’t see how the Kings made money while in the bubble. Their TV deal is not that lucrative and with not other revenue from a live venue, how did they stay in the black?
Anyone got the financial goods on this? Is there some article out there that details the financials on the bubble?
It’s about avoiding losses. The NBA is presumably paying for all of these rooms at deeply discounted rates (because Disney isn’t filling these 3 hotels during Covid during peak humidity) because that’s a tiny fraction of the cost of the 2020 national TV money that would otherwise be clawed back by the networks. For the Kings, there are no extra TV dollars. They got to 70 games to avoid having to pay money / give credits to Comcast.
The owners are paying a lot to avoid much larger losses. I anticipate they will tear up the CBA as soon as the Finals are over and the following negotiations will be rough and perhaps long. The union extended the deadline for that to happen, so that’s at least in play and probably going to happen.
That makes sense. The bubble wasn’t profitable, it just lessened the damage.
Disney also owns ESPN, so it’s in their best interest to get games on TV if possible.
By the way, with no game today – here’s a fun game for TKH junkies.
Who said it – Luke Walton or Michael Scott – good luck
Do I need to be liked? Absolutely not. I like to be liked. I enjoy being liked
And I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do
I am intense and focused, but at the same time relaxed
I absorb information from the strategies of the winners and the losers. Actually, I probably learn more from the losers
So I don’t think that I’ll get over that in this lifetime, but I look forward to trying to get back on the other side of that
Ok, too many different words from coming at me from too many different sentences
Granted, maybe this was not the best idea, but at least we care
I guess the attitude that I’ve tried to create here is that I’m a friend first
My mind is going a mile an hour
I think they are both two of the best professionals at what they do
All I try to do is stay off my feet
The best and only way to really learn that lesson is to feel that pain
We’re going to put our stamp on the culture that we want. It’s going to be joy
Guess what, I have flaws. What are they? Oh I don’t know
If it’s fun for us and what we really want to do, the he’d say to work as hard as you can to be successful at it
This is gonna feel so good getting this thing off my chest
There are little things like this that we can do to keep things fresh and keep the guys constantly entertained
It’s not that you have to pick one or the other, but we have to continue to challenge ourselves mentally
Sometimes I’ll start a sentence, and I don’t even know where it’s going

I gave some nice hugs to people. But most of that was about the pain we were feeling
That’s hard, but this one is definitely Luke, right?
This is friggin’ tough! I give up. 🙁
Last night one of my contacts broke in half when I was taking it out. I searched for the other half that would be on my eyeball still–I poked and prodded for it. My eye started getting really red and the pain, I was sure, was from the broken half that was still in there.
After awhile I said out loud to myself, “Maybe it’s not in there. Maybe it’s red and in pain because I keep poking and prodding it.”
.
.
.
I’m not sure how this relates to the Kings front office, but for some reason it came to mind.
Lasik surgery if you can swing it. If you have an option for FSA or HSA its the way to go. Corneas too thin? You can get PRK surgery.
I heard that a drawback is your night vision is affect by Lasik?
Does it help with that thing where as you get older you can’t focus on things so close to your face and you need to pull it back to read it, or get bifocals or something like that?
I don’t know if my corneas too thin or my skin is too thin. I just remember seeing sharks with lasers in Austin Powers and figured I’d try to avoid both sharks and lasers.
I had PRK and my wife had lasik…neither of us have had issues with night vision haze.
Im about 10 years in and no problems and same with my wife. I will say that you shouldnt look for the cheapest place to do it.
I paid about $3000 for both eyes.
I did lasik about five years ago, and I’d say I noticed a difference at dusk, that it was a bit tougher to see. But the change was minimal.
You may still need reading glasses as you get older, but getting rid of contact lenses was pretty life changing. As to the process, it’s a bit nerve wracking when you get in the chair, but it was quick and painless and recovery was pretty easy.
So Luke is the contact… Vlade is the finger?
And we are all the eyeball!
!!! I think you’re right!
For me the real question is whether a competent exec takes this job. Not whether it would pay dividends.
I would guess any competent execs out there see what has happened to all the people who have come through this franchise and left with a worse mark on their resume’. And then these competent execs say to their competent selves:
“Not worth it.”
It’s a good question, but as odd is it sounds – I’d have to imagine the answer is yes.
+ If you look at our franchise, we have ownership willing to spend money and go over the cap to win.
+ Vivek seems to have backed off of personnel decisions (even around the draft there are rumors he preferred Doncic) and is letting his basketball people run the franchise.
+ And as bad as they are, Vivek’s given the FO a lot of time and leeway. No other franchise could have given Vlade 5 years + an extension for winning 39 games.
+ The fans are starved and will welcome the next GM as a hero and he will have an extremely easy act to follow after Pete D and Vlade. He could win 45 games in 2 years and we would build him a statue.
This isn’t the most attractive opportunity in the league – even once you get past the biggest markets. But I am hoping this isn’t seen as poisonous either. I think there are a lot of appealing elements for a candidate.
And, of course, there are only 30 GM jobs. And only a handful turn over each year. The Kings probably have a few choices:
Experienced ex-FO that may deserves another chance (ie. Hinkie)
GMs that are mostly GM in title but may not be making the final decisions and want more autonomy (ie. Langdon, Webster). Now, convincing them they would have autonomy under Vivek is another issue.
Industry insider with FO experience (ie. O’Connor, Hollinger, Marks, Abdur-Rahim)
Young up-and-comers that are a bit farther away. (ie. No idea). They likely don’t have a shot at the high level GM prospects that can wait for a good option (ie. Zarren) but there’s always the bold choice of plucking someone before others think they’re ripe (cross-sport ie. Theo Epstein)
They aren’t going to get a proven successful GM, but there are always avenues. All of which have more experience than Vlade.
Agree with everything you just said. And would still be happy with a lot of the names you mentioned. All would be an upgrade over the current VP and many would be cause for genuine excitement.
Good list of names here.
Lotsa good stuff here Junkie. But I hope you’re right on this:
The Kings or the Knicks? I choose Sac personally. But I don’t think another GM gets 5 years due to the fact that they don’t have a jersey hanging in the rafters. But I would certainly demand a 5 year deal to come to Sac. Especially knowing that probably gives me a 2 year curve/grace period and 2 years beyond that to make it work. That’s an extremely rare situation in of itself.
Also, the Kings situation isn’t dire. They don’t spend thst much money, either. It’s not like they are rapping the tax line with their knuckles.
It doesn’t take much to believe that a reasonable GM would come here. What does concern me is why that GM believes they could be successful and the proof is in the pudding on that one. I guess we’ll find out.
Agreed and hope you are right.
competent coaches too. I’d imagine some Becky Hammon supporters are telling her to stay the hell away from the shitty franchises like Sac, Minny, Chicago, Cleveland, etc. It’s bad enough to have the pressure to be the first successful female coach, and she probably would prefer that to be in a positive situation.
I’d imagine if you solve the GM issue well, the coach won’t be a problem.
Yep – one reason why I think there’s more pressure to get rid of Vlade than Luke.
Many GMs will keep the old coach in place for a year. First because usually right when they are hired they wind up being very busy hiring FO staff, preparing for the draft, FA, etc.
However, it also gives them a year to make some good moves and get the infrastructure in place and the talent in place to start becoming more attractive to top flight coaching canidates.
If money is an issue for the franchise – I have no problem replacing the FO this season. Giving them a year to start reshaping the franchise infrastructure and roster and then in a year (assuming Walton doesn’t have an much improved second season) replacing Walton when he has less time left on his contract and we are a more attractive destination for someone like Atkinson or Hammon..
I would hope any new FO would at the very least have an interim Head Coach for the first year. Even from our existing staff. Roy Rana, anyone? I’d rather not go through another year of watching players regress. Walton sucks.
Bingo BHE.
Vlade needs to go, and will based on his basketball decisions at some point. The effects of COVID might delay that inevitable, but it’s an inevitable nonetheless.
But with that the case I also want to stress that a replacement is not inherently an upgrade. I have been a negative Nancy on STR for years at times unwarranted, but one large reason is my belief things are symptomatic, and if the fabric of the franchise didnt act from a sound ethos likely all was for not a lot. It is why even in our decisions that ended well, I felt the need to express that the Kings rationale to those decisions have been collectively garbage like 90% of the time.
Being experienced in dysfunction, collectively we need to understand this, if this franchise does not contemporarize, be heavily analytically motivated and hire with that being the basis of the rationale things wont change in seismic fashion. Everyone has a few successes thats the nature of throwing darts, but considering Sacramentos inherent disadvantages that wont ever be frankly relevant to garner eve marginal success.
If Vlade is fired which I doubt, say Dumars takes the helm we shouldnt feel obliged to post lets wait and see. It’s dumb no smart team would do it. And likely that will be true for multiple alternatives. We would be better off admitting that more from the start.
Good post. I’ve always wanted to ask what is a non-striped zebra? Is it a donkey?
Great breakdown Tony. Ugh.
Can we also acknowledge that Matina K. has been making decisions longer than both Vivek and Vlade and somehow she still has her job. I know she’s not the GM but she’s been with the Kings 22 years and the last 14 have been crap. She should be out the door with Vlade….
My guess is she has local connections since her husband is a developer. A real developer not a “Joe Maloof IMMADEVELOPER”
Ya but Vlade has local connections too and that doesn’t make him exempt. She was in organization when Vlade was a player and has to be at least partially responsible for him becoming the GM. I gues my point is that she’s seen the team steadily decline over the past 14 years and deserves her share of the blame along with Valde and Vivek. It’s a trio of ineptness.
Man I need to improve my spelling
The remarkable thing about focusing solely on the wasted free agency money from a purely financial perspective is that it doesn’t even address the stupidity of trying to team build in Sacramento through free agency in the first place!
This isn’t just about Vlade’s bad execution as a GM. It’s about downright awful vision, understanding, and planning only then followed by terrible execution!
How many times have we heard “Sacramento isnt a free agent destination”?
Yet over the last 14 years the Kings have claimed victory on free agent over pays. Only to end up traded the coveted free agent savior before their contracts end.
The list in this article doesn’t look that bad if the Kings don’t keep passing up superstars in the draft. That is a great list of role player signings supporting an all star or two in a playoff run.
I’m sure Dumars feels empowered to take on the role.
‘He who has the gold makes the rmaker. And Vivek has a lot of gold.
Vivek has made this mess with his hires. Getting rid of Walton and Divac is warranted.
But why wouldn’t Vivek just put in another inept FO? The partners need to remove Vivek as the decision maker.
You have all of TKH ears as well as a good portion of the Kings ownership group, allegedly, if you have a way to get rid of Vivek.
Isn’t it true that if say Walton gets fired and signs somewhere else as an assistant coach, then we are off the hook for at least part of his salary?
Because although I know Vlade won’t get signed anywhere should he get fired by the Kings… there’s a pretty good chance Walton would get picked up as an assistant. Maybe even by Kerr.
I figured it out! I figured out the reason for all the bad moves. It’s the farm team mentality. The entire organization has been duped into being a farm team for other franchises. Why didn’t we draft Doncic? because he was NBA ready. Why did we draft Bagley? because he needs years of losing seasons to learn the fundamentals. Why did we not resign Giles? because he proved he is past his knee injuries and can really ball. The solution is to ditch the farm team mentality and disregard voices that push us in that direction. Our purpose is not to endure losing seasons, developing players who will need a change of scenery before they make a net positive impact on the court. Bagley said it himself when drafted “this is a good place for me to work on my game.” That’s all he saw in the Kings. A farm team. Why did we fire Malone? because he was a good coach. We’ve been changing the coach every year or two so that team growth is stunted while young players get experience before other teams poach them off the roster. For the last decade or more, the Sacramento Kings have been a farm team. Answer. Truth hurts.
The list of folks that left Sacramento and went on to flourish elsewhere would be a pretty short list, wouldn’t it? I mean, out of the 10 coaches that the Kings have fired since Adelman, only one (Malone) went on to succeed elsewhere. Out of all of the players drafted by the Kings during the playoff drought, only Isaiah Thomas went on to really flourish elsewhere.
Farms are run better than this organization. That is the more painful truth.
And worth noting that IT flourished here as well. We just made a mistake getting rid of him because Pete wanted a different style of play.
But worth noting that in ’13-14, IT was #32 in the league in RPM at 2.75 and #23 in VORP. He had a TS% of 57% and 32% assist rate, while averaging 20-3-6.
To put that in perspective btw – that RPM is higher than any King the last two season except for Fox two years ago who was at 3.36.
So even IT’s problem was not our inability to develop him or to move on too quickly before he developed. He had developed into a bright young star and we simply decided not to retain him because we are the Kangz.
it’s because they don’t draft nba ready players. farm teams don’t draft nba ready players. good franchises grab those guys. here is the list of nba ready players the Kings drafted. (1) Tyreke Evans – they let him go. (2) Demarcus Cousins – headache, traded. (3) Isaiah Thomas – lucky pick – let him go. (4) De’Aaron Fox – still on his rookie contract. That’s it. Bagley was not NBA ready because he couldn’t dribble, couldn’t pass, couldn’t play D, couldn’t shoot the 3, no court awareness, and he thought he was better that Lebron James, meaning he needed a reality check. Solution: Sacramento Kings, Best farm team in the NBA.
Maybe it’s semantics. Your comment seems to be predicated on the Kings being a “farm team” for the rest of the NBA, but they are not forwarding any real talent to the league, as a farm team would do. Other than Malone and Thomas, no one has really left Sacramento and taken the next step. Hell, many of them regress or wash out of the league entirely after leaving Sac.
Small market team? Check. Run atrociously? Check. Not going to be good anytime soon? Check. But I don’t see them as a farm team for the rest of the NBA. Doormat, perhaps. But not a farm team.
This is the whole kit-and-kaboodle, right here. It wasn’t like Doncic wasn’t an obvious pick, Vlade just felt he needed to buck conventional wisdom. When you do that, and it costs your employer tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, ya gotta go.
Yep.
The Philly Trade (to take a team-building short-cut via FA in Sacto).
The drafting of 1st round big (WCS) after big (PapaG) after big (Skal) after big (Giles) after big (Bagley) (in the age of the perimeter game).
Selecting Bagley (when Luka was yours).
It’s one trend-bucking scheme after another. If everyone says X, Vivlade will do Z just to show everyone how much smarter and different they are!
don’t forget the brilliant mid season trade, being forced to get rid of the player you just signed that offseason. That’s the Vlade special!
Vlade just stepped down. Dumars serving as interim GM as the franchise searches for a new VP / GM via Sam Amick.
https://twitter.com/sam_amick/status/1294396652803878913?s=19
HE JUST RESIGNED!!!!!
Let’s clean house baby!
Gulp.
Do you mean resigned, or re-signed?
Great article Tony! I wish that every excellent critical article of the Front Office decreases Vivek’s confidence in them. I’m tired of Vlade. I’m just tired.
Badge Legend