When Vlade Divac resigned from the Kings front office, the team made it clear that there was no hurry to find new leadership. The Kings were comfortable letting interim general manager Joe Dumars run operations until they could find an alternative. That meant that Sacramento might not even have a new GM by the NBA Draft.

That timeline has now been expedited significantly.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports that the Kings expect to hire a new head of basketball operations this week, and that the search is officially down to three people: Sachin Gupta, Monte McNair, and Wes Wilcox. All three have interviewed with the team in person.

Kings decision on a hire is expected this week among other finalists – Minnesota’s Sachin Gupta, Houston’s Monte McNair and former Hawks GM Wes Wilcox, sources tell ESPN. Those three interviewed in Northern California in recent days. https://t.co/ivvWf3P5mu

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 16, 2020

Wojnarowski also noted Calvin Booth, the current Denver Nuggets GM, has removed himself from consideration after participating in the first round of the interview process. Booth was an assistant GM in Denver for three seasons before recently being promoted to GM after the departure of Arturas Karnisovas to Chicago. The timing of this announcement is unsurprising, as Booth’s current team just advanced to the Western Conference Finals, which makes it tough to want to leave.

As an aside, Booth is responsible for one of my all-time favorite childhood NBA moments. Like many other Western Conference fans, I thoroughly hated the Utah Jazz, so Booth’s game-winning layup to help Dallas knock out Utah after being down 2-0 in the first round felt like a miracle. My brother and I were so raucous running around the apartment that the neighbors told us to calm down. I will always root for Calvin Booth.

Even without Booth, the Kings still have three quality candidates on their list, and two apparent favorites. Hopefully, they’re able to convince one or more them to come to Sacramento to change the direction of this franchise.