Sacramento Kings assistant GM Ken Catanella will not return to the front office next season, according to a report from Sean Cunningham.
Monte McNair is restructuring the Sacramento Kings basketball ops department. Asst. GM Ken Catanella will not be back, sources tell me. His contract was coming to an end & will not be renewed after 6 seasons with the team. He is a valuable resource with a ton of experience
— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) April 12, 2022
Catanella was a prominent holdover from the Vlade Divac front office, and was known as the Kings salary cap and contracts guru. He was regularly credited for the team-friendly decreasing structures in the contracts of Buddy Hield and Harrison Barnes.
The Kings also are moving on from Head Athletic Trainer Joe Resendez, and Media Relations Director Alex Sigua.
In addition to Ken Catanella's departure, Monte McNair's restructuring of the Sacramento Kings basketball operations dept also includes Head Athletic Trainer Joe Resendez after 4 seasons, and Media Relations Director Alex Sigua, both let go today, per sources.
— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) April 12, 2022
No word yet on what the Kings will do to fill these positions.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with a GM wanting to surround himself with his own team from top to bottom. Catanella is widely respected, but is still a front office member who wasn’t hired by McNair. And for all we know, this could be Catanella’s decision since his contract was ending. He might simply be ready to look at new opportunities.
Whatever the reasons, we’ll keep an eye on any news about replacement hires in the days and weeks to come.
Love this framing, in case you weren’t sure whether Cunningham had a specific opinion about it:
And?
The other implied complaint I’ve read is that Catanella is a cap wizard, and, oh no, what will happen now?
Maybe they can hire a guy who worked at Daryl Morey’s right hand for many years. I’ll bet he’s pretty good with cap stuff!
Catanella was definitely more critical to have around to help Vlade with the cap minutiae. Catanella was also reported at being good with contracts. Not trying to suggest he’s irreplaceable, but that is a valuable skill.
VD & Walton (a natural combo if ever there was one) needed more sets of training wheels than a kindergarten full of…
I’ve failed at finding an end to this sentence that isn’t inappropriate, vile, and 100% ban-worthy.
Agree, Ken is valuable and will 100% have a role in another FO likely for next season. But given he was a holdover from the old regime and with the revelations in the article about the rotating gauntlet of power in the organization, I also don’t blame Monte one bit for wanting his people.
He seems to have hired a good staff and I prefer that he succeed of fail with his own decisions and be accountable instead of playing another odd game of the musical chairs of influence.
Agreed 100%. There is no other way to fairly evaluate a leader’s job performance other than to give them all the rope they need to hang themselves.
Let me know when he’s missed.
The framing is horseshit. I hate this kind of reporting.
New job openings for Gentry to serve out the final year of his contract!
Or Vivek’s kids …
I recently saw the daughter has put aside her singing career to join the staff as a social media millenial.
She certainly knows how to pay attention to her phone.
Ugh!
Please tell me that’s a joke?
IDK about that specifically, but I did see her post a pic of herself with Ron Metta World Peace Artest and the line “family business” or something like that.
She was on camera (don’t know if you saw the game) next to Ron Artest and the whole time she was on camera her head was in her phone. It would be funny if she was on the social media side of things.
Career?
“Career” in the same vein as Jason Mendoza’s amateur DJ’ing career.
The constant turnover of the Kings’ staff members…
If Catanella was here for six years, and stood mute or endorsed VD’s plans, which left the Kings painted into a corner, what’s the actual loss to the organization?
I think Pook is better at cap stuff than a lot of these so-called experts.
I think it’s quite the leap to just assume he endorsed or stayed silent about every move.
But the question remains: What value was he bringing to the organization? If people don’t listen to him, it isn’t his fault, but if that’s the case, then there’s no point in keeping him around.
See the article above. He was widely credited with the pro-team cap structures on Barnes’ and Hield’s contracts. This makes Barnes more affordable every year–increasing his trade value and insuring somewhat against decline in performance– and made it much easier to trade Hield, which the team did.
That said, it’s not like this was some kind of secret potion that only Catanella could concoct, but it was nevertheless good cap management, and Ken gets credit for it. My guess is Monte is good enough at the cap stuff on his own that Ken’s valuable skillset was somewhat redundant.
Good points, all, and I do think your last sentence is right on the nose.
Absolutely agree.
This isn’t true. I appreciate the sentiment, but Catanella knew the cap. So did Pete D’Alessandro for that matter. I’m not Bobby Marks or Eric Pincus, for example. Or Keith Smith. The latter two have never worked in a FO to my knowledge.
I make plenty of mistakes in interpretation. But it’s also not my job and I spend less time on this stuff than you guys think.
This could be good or bad depending on what the deal is. But Catanella was good at the cap stuff and it showed.
He’s not also the only cap guy in the league worth hiring. Either you get to hire your staff, or you don’t. I think the bigger news, personally, is the medical staff was let go.
You articulated my shrugging gif in words. How guru of you.
It’s too early to know! Do we always have to assume there’s a problem? LOL
I mean, other orgs do this stuff too. Why do we have to react like the sky is falling?
Didn’t the sky already land on us?
Too many many small chickens squawking loudly out of reflex, staring at the sky when the details are on the ground.
Now you offend me. I think chickens are less defensively reflexive than Kings fans personally.
And probably poop less.
If you’re saying Kings fans should wear diapers, I’d agree.
Only the ones who crap their pants about pretty much everything.
You’re right, plus Catanella was probably over paid. Especially since they are able to do the cap situation with algorithms. He could be a victim of new technology.
Lol
What’s Pete Youngman up to these days?
I’ve had no faith in the medical staff since they let Kevin Martin play two games with a broken hand. “Malpractice” is the word that leaps to mind.
Any Kings player who doesn’t seek out a second and third opinion about their own physical condition is doing himself a serious disservice.
I’ve had no faith in the medical staff since they let Marvin Bagley play with a missing right hand.
OH SHIT!!!!!
???? ⬇️
Meanwhile on the coaching front…
***BREAKING***
NOTHING HAS HAPPENED
Sort of like the team’s upward progress the last 16 years.
Waiting for the inevitable “Bobby Jackson Hired as Kings Head Coach” red banner of doom on TKH homepage
Seems like a black crepe would be more appropriate. Let Bobby learn in Stockton.
My hope is that a new HC sees value in keeping Christie around, but he shouldn’t be considered for first chair until he has a lot more experience. I do think DC is a natural coach, though.
Been waiting for a good time to comment on this. I am probably guilty of looking at this through purple glasses, but I hope Doug gets a real shot at HC. I get the whole “experience” thing, but I think its overrated. Steve Nash had NO (repeat nada, zip) coaching experience and he’s doing o.k.. Same with Kerr, Steve. Now the talent level of these teams is better, but looks what Spoelstra did in his first go around with Miami (pre Lebron). I think there are a handful of really good coaches (Pop, Spoelstra, Monty Williams now, maybe some others) and all the rest are replaceable. Budenholzer gets fired in ATL, wins a ring with Milwaukee, Jason Kidd keeps getting rehired. Vogel, wins a championsip, then can’t make the play-in. Etc. If the guy (or woman for that matter) has it, then he/she has it. I think Doug knows basketball, and defense in particular, and can relate to people. I’d be totally fine if he gets the job.
It also helps that those first year head coaches Nash and Kerr had Steph Curry and Kevin Durant on the roster for their first year. Probably helps when you have a guy you can just give the ball to and let them cook as the best option versus having to run stuff that works.
I hate that I wouldn’t hate it. Only because I too feel like Doug “gets it” and has the potential to be a good coach. However, it’s a super risky move with Sabonis on a soon to be expiring contract.
I think that given the talent Nash was handed, and the middling results, using him as a positive example of what an inexperienced coach can do falls a bit flat.
Outside of being a likeable rah-rah guy, I’m just not sure what value Doug has brought to the team. He was brought in to help with the defense, which remained terrible. Granted, it did give the organization their “glory day player” that we wax nostalgic about. Aside from that, I’m not really sure what he contributed that would get him a shot at staying (or taking over).
solid point on the defense still sucking complete ass. Not a good pitch at the the interview.
Hopefully the new coach will let them all go.
The coaching staff can and likely will be adjusted when a new head coach is hired. There’s no news there. No need to fire anyone if the new guy or gal wants to keep one or two or all. It’s not an inexperienced or unqualified coaching staff. Whoever the head coach comes to be should hire a lead assistant. After that, if everyone else from this lists sticks around it’s 100% fine with me.
“There’s certainly nothing wrong with a GM wanting to surround himself with his own team from top to bottom.”
Maybe someday a Kings GM will once again actually know what that’s like, VIVEK…
EXPECTED
Badge Legend