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Kings Pulse: Kings’ GM Vlade Divac stepping down emergency podcast

We give our instant reactions to Kings' GM Vlade Divac stepping down, including reviewing his time here and what should come next.
By | 33 Comments | Aug 15, 2020

Vlade Divac has officially stepped down from his role as General Manager of the Sacramento Kings and we gave our instant reaction to the news on the Kings Pulse podcast.

We also touch on the news spreading that Luke Walton could be “safe” next season, Joe Dumars is being considered for the longterm GM position, and review the job that Divac did during his time in the front office.

There is plenty of reason for excitement for the Sacramento Kings as they embark on a search for a new face to fill the position of general manager.

The Kings Pulse podcast is available on all major podcast platforms.

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TheFifthMookie
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August 15, 2020 9:42 am

I just want to say, it’s a change that needed to happen, so I support it, but maaaan, it leaves me just feeling sad, unlike any other management change the team has made, due to Vlade being a team icon.

I get a little sadder about it, especially when I think about what the next steps are going to be.

TheFifthMookie
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August 15, 2020 10:31 am
Reply to  Brenden

yeah, I’m not optomistic, based on the current news/rumors, that they are going to make the right hire(s).

But that worry is completely separate from the Vlade component. It’s just sad seeing him go this way. I respect the hell out of him for stepping down. I didn’t think it would happen, and he showed me a lot with this action.

Hippity_Hop_Barbershop
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August 15, 2020 10:42 am
Reply to  TheFifthMookie

For sure. Stepping down was the honorable thing to do and he didn’t waste much time. Good on him.

Hippity_Hop_Barbershop
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August 15, 2020 10:40 am
Reply to  TheFifthMookie

Agreed. It’s a change that needed to happen but I’m sad it needed to happen. There are gonna be even more shrewd moves ahead that are needed. There better be some onus on Vivek here. I hope he has learned some lessons. Hire smart basketball people and listen to them, ESPECIALLY when they disagree. Yes-people do not bring success.

Last edited 3 years ago by Hippity_Hop_Barbershop
Kosta
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August 15, 2020 11:10 am

Well said!

RobHessing
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August 15, 2020 10:40 am

I think that the team needs a complete re-boot. I just don’t see a way for this team to be a playoff contender next year. In fact, I’d bet that no one on the current roster is on the next Kings playoff team. I’d prefer to see an asset selloff, with a full rebuild being the focus. That said, my spidey sense tells me that we will spin our wheels for another season before a path to rebuild is established.

cbrody
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August 15, 2020 11:05 am
Reply to  RobHessing

No time to let up. They need to keep flushing.
comment image

Kosta
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August 15, 2020 11:15 am
Reply to  cbrody

Is that Matina?

Gregoryl
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August 15, 2020 1:02 pm
Reply to  Kosta

If anyone watched Dave’s periscope yesterday abt the move, a ton of people were asking abt matina and he wouldn’t touch it. It was very dodgy.

sonny
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August 15, 2020 11:10 am
Reply to  RobHessing

I don’t feel sad for Vlade. If he was really honest to himself, he shoukd have not really taken the job when it was offered to nim. He knows he doesn’t have the experience, so why take the job?

The Atlantic even mentioned that Vlade thinks the team is going on the right direction, despite the team’s poor showing in Orlando. What a bad assessment again! He wasn’t even thinking of resigning until that Friday call from Vivek proposing for Dumars to do co-GM’ing the team.

So happy that one big root of the problem is gone.

Kosta
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August 15, 2020 11:14 am
Reply to  sonny

I feel like the biggest problem root is still there. We’ve only gotten rid of one of the V’s.

And as long as that V is in charge, we are going to struggle as a franchise.

(V does not stand for ‘Victory’)

sonny
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August 15, 2020 11:25 am
Reply to  Kosta

Yeah, the biggest of the roots is still here – the controlling owner who thinks he is smarter than anybody else. The Matina who still meddles with team decisions, the coach who never learns from the tapes, and what is Peja doing anyway?

We need new people with no ties to the old Kings. Most importantly, we need a revamped and bigger scouting dept that employs basketball-minded guys who can identify good talent and hidden gems (3 & D wings) as they travel the college circuits and international leagues.

RikSmits
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August 15, 2020 1:06 pm
Reply to  Kosta

Vunky cole Matina?

Kosta
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August 15, 2020 11:11 am
Reply to  RobHessing

No one on the current roster will be on the next Kings playoff team because they will all be retired by 2040.

Adamsite
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Nostradumbass 14
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August 15, 2020 11:32 am
Reply to  RobHessing

Go full Hinkie?

RobHessing
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August 15, 2020 11:47 am
Reply to  Adamsite

I would. It’s a function of where the Kings are compared to the rest of the West right now. I see no path to the playoffs next year, so that will be four years in for Fox with not a taste of the playoffs. My guess is that he will then negotiate a max extension with the Kings, the Kings will continue to be on the outside of the playoffs looking in, and he will demand a trade. This is Cousins all over again, sans the technical fouls. Might as well bite the bullet and get what you can for Fox before you have to pay max money to keep him.

It’s risk vs. reward. What would have to happen for the Kings to make the playoffs in the next season or two? Bagley will have to explode as a healthy, upper level player. Fox still needs to take another firm step upward. Hield needs to adapt to Walton’s system or Walton has to change his system for Hield (unlikely) or Hield needs to bring back value in a trade (unlikely). Bogi would need to become way, way, way more consistent to validate a new contract if he stays here, or a hole is created if he goes. And so on.

The draft is roughly 60 days away. That seems too short of time for a new GM to come in, establish him or herself, and begin to set the organization on a path in his/her image. So this upcoming draft is likely to be some meh players out of meh draft slots that will have a meh impact on the proceedings.

Not trying to be a buzz kill here. Just trying to look at it practically. If I were forced to place bets on what’s going to happen, it would be:

  • Status quo through the draft and maybe into the beginning of next season.
  • Walton is retained to coach next season.
  • No trades of note are made in concert with the draft.
  • A new GM is added only after the team continues to founder next season, with the new hire corresponding with the organization’s season ticket push for 2021-22.
  • An official rebuild begins under the newly minted front office in the summer of 2022.
  • Playoffs 4-5 years later if the Kings get lucky in the lottery and smart with their draft picks.
  • Playoff drought ends after 20 years (give or take a year).
Swish41
August 15, 2020 1:17 pm
Reply to  RobHessing

But would you trust anyone in the organization to handle such a trade regarding Fox (probably for picks)? And, even more importantly, are you confident that those high draft pick(s) will lead to all-star caliber players? Would you trust Vivek to hire a guy that has a good handle on this GM’ing thing to make this process work?

From a fan perspective, you might be better off rooting for an overpaid De’Aron than the next iteration of Tyreke (nothing against Tyreke – but starting as RoY and then not taking the next step is not really helping a rebuild).

Also, Hinkie did draft guys like Okafor or Noel (but he admittedly put himself in a position to have many bullets).

The Pelicans and the Twolves wasted years of superstar talent on their roster. Do you think that the Kings would do better (DMC was fairly similar)?

I guess Vivek needs a great asset manager – someone like Marks who did a fantastic turn-around with far more hits than misses.

RobHessing
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August 15, 2020 5:05 pm
Reply to  Swish41

Yep, that’s the rub. Can you trust the current “braintrust” to handle a complete rebuild? Probably not. And I sure don’t see the current braintrust dealing Fox. We’re probably going to have to wait for another season of not getting better to go by before the Kings hire the type of front office personnel that could oversee an overhaul of the roster.

Klam
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Nostradumbass 18
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August 15, 2020 11:17 am

Ugh, this does not give me high confidence in Vivek’s decision making going forward…(from Sam Amick)

Sources say Divac had a phone conversation with Kings owner Vivek Ranadive about the future of the front office, and a major shift to their agreed-upon structure was proposed: What if, Ranadive told Divac, Kings adviser and former Detroit Pistons player and executive Joe Dumars assumed a larger role in which he would have the final say on the roster and the two of them would work side by side?

Divac, sources say, had zero interest.

One by one, they discussed the few highs and many lows of a season that was so tension-filled that there were signs of this kind of front-office change happening back in February. After the player interviews, sources say, the two spoke again.

But nothing had changed. Ranadive, who wanted Divac to remain in the diminished capacity, was intent on making this move. Divac, a Kings legend as a player who had made it clear all along that he needed full autonomy to complete this passion project, wanted no part of it. Their time together had come to a bitter end.

Kosta
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August 15, 2020 11:32 am
Reply to  Klam

This reminds me of the time a girl I was with told me she couldn’t be with only one person.

I should’ve been like Vlade and stepped down.

Last edited 3 years ago by Kosta
RikSmits
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August 15, 2020 11:47 am
Reply to  Kosta

Vlade did not step down.
 
Why do people swallow this spin?
 
If you step down, you lose your right to salary. Vlade is getting paid two more years.

Kosta
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August 15, 2020 11:57 am
Reply to  RikSmits

-Okay, I should have been like Vlade and got paid two more years to be with her.

Last edited 3 years ago by Kosta
RikSmits
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August 15, 2020 12:02 pm
Reply to  Kosta

Wasn’t directed specifically at you. 🙂
 
People repeat this stuff everywhere.

Kosta
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August 15, 2020 12:39 pm
Reply to  RikSmits

I know you don’t trust me, Rik!

You said so in a previous comment. 🙂

RikSmits
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August 15, 2020 12:45 pm
Reply to  Kosta

Did I say that out loud?
Oops.

Kosta
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August 15, 2020 1:15 pm
Reply to  RikSmits

Hey, we are both in the red club now! 😀

Or the 500/1000 club. Is that a good assist/turnover ratio?

RikSmits
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August 15, 2020 1:49 pm
Reply to  Kosta

Are you calling me a Communist?
i knew I could not trust you!

Kingsguru21
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August 15, 2020 11:40 am
Reply to  Klam

Yeah I read that and went “here we go again.” I’m not optimistic at all, not even a little. It’s the same repeat of 2015. The same screwy dynamic with Vivek and Matina isn’t going anywhere, either.

Kings are going to be irrelevant for a long time because, and this is no offense to Joe Dumars, he’s not going to get Chauncey Billups in a steal FA contract, draft Tayshaun Prince in the 20’s, hire an up and coming coach the caliber of Rick Carlisle, pull off a steal trade for Rasheed Wallace, and draft Rip Hamilton all in a matter of 2 years. While being in the playoffs the entire time to boot in a crappy Eastern Conference no less.

Let’s not use part of Dumars tenure in Detroit as the basis of what he can accomplish in Sacramento. His tenure in Detroit is very mixed in actuality, and his FA record post Billups trade sunk the Pistons for quite some time. Unless you think signing Ben Gordon to a big deal was just being unlucky or something.

I’m not anti Joe Dumars. But unless it’s a precursor to an actual move where you bringing in a young GM on his first job to work with Dumars and create a front office properly funded and what not. There’s possibilities still, at this point, but I have long been at the point I’ll believe it when I see it with the way things are being run at the top. Especially since the ownership is bleeding money with both the Kings, Golden One Center and the properties they own.

Did I mention I’m not optimistic?

Kingsguru21
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August 15, 2020 11:43 am
Reply to  Kingsguru21

And I forgot about Ben Wallace and the ridiculous Sign and Trade that Orlando gave up to get Grant Hill in 2000. This just isn’t that era anymore is my point.

Kosta
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August 15, 2020 11:43 am
Reply to  Kingsguru21

BINGO
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RobHessing
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August 15, 2020 11:49 am
Reply to  Kosta

comment image

Last edited 3 years ago by RobHessing
sonny
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August 15, 2020 12:12 pm

Vlade, if he was really smart and honest to himself, should have not taken the job when offered to him. He knows he does not have the experience. He should have just deferred to some other capacity if he wanted to bevpart of the Kingsvorg. But not as a GM.

i blame him then and I blame him now.

good to see him gone.

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