Report: Joe Dumars leaving Kings organization to join NBA League Office

Joe Dumars, who has worked with the Kings in various capacities since June of 2019, is leaving the Kings organization to join the NBA league office as Executive Vice President Head of Basketball Operations, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Sacramento Kings chief strategy officer Joe Dumars is departing from the organization and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer is joining the NBA as its Executive Vice President Head of Basketball Operations, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 2, 2022

Dumars’ new position is definitely more prestigious, so there’s nothing about this move that should be immediately viewed as a red flag for Kings fans. Although it isn’t ideal to be losing your chief strategy director in the middle of your coaching search.

That being said, it’s hard to know how big an impact, if any, this will actually have with the Kings. The specifics of Dumars’ role and responsibilities have always been nebulous. Perhaps he was part of the problem in Sacramento, or perhaps he was the voice of reason keeping things from being worse.

The departure brings to an end a very odd tenure with the Kings. Dumars first came on the scene as a consultant, who reportedly caught Vivek Ranadivé’s ear. Vivek then wanted to insert Dumars above then-GM Vlade Divac. Divac rejected the move and resigned, leading to the GM search that brought Monte McNair to the Kings. After Vlade’s departure Dumars went from Special Advisor to Chief Strategy Officer.

There’s no word yet if the Kings will attempt to replace Dumars.

Update:

The great Sam Amick of The Athletic published a new article around the Kings current coaching search (quite a bit of good information in there, be sure to check out the whole article), and in it he included some interesting news about Dumars’ departure.

Before we take a deeper look at what we’ve learned so far in the search, let’s go back to the Dumars component for a moment. To state the obvious here, it’s quite unorthodox to have a high-ranking team official head for the exits just days after his voice was taken into consideration during a coaching search. But Dumars’ contract was expiring, and I’m told he wanted more direct control over the front office if he was going to return. In Dumars’ desired structure, McNair would have reported to him rather than Ranadivé.

Ranadivé didn’t share an interest in that sort of setup, and now Dumars has opted for this prominent role with the league.

Amick also notes that Dumars’ role is not expected to be filled.

This gives us answers to a lot of the questions that were unanswered earlier today. How involved was Dumars? Very. Was he still angling for power? Yes. Was he involved in the coaching search? Yes. Was his role as nebulous and confusing to other GMs as it was to fans? Yes.

With this added clarification I feel even more comfortable with Dumars’ departure. One less cook in the kitchen, one less Wormtongue in Vivek’s ear, one less unorthodox part of the Kings organizational structure.