SEPTEMBER 17: The Kings have officially announced the hiring of McNair as their new general manager, confirming that he’ll be responsible for basketball decisions and will report directly to team ownership.
“Monte is one of the NBA’s top basketball minds who has played an instrumental role in building several winning teams in Houston,” Ranadive said in a statement. “I am excited to bring his extensive experience and vision onboard to lead our basketball operations department, and it is my pleasure to welcome Monte and his family to Sacramento.”
Meanwhile, the Kings announced in a separate press release that Dumars has been named the club’s chief strategy officer and will “drive strategy” across several areas of the organization, including both business and basketball operations.
SEPTEMBER 16: The Kings are hiring Rockets assistant general manager Monte McNair as their new head of basketball operations, according to Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic (Twitter link).
McNair has worked for the Rockets under general manager Daryl Morey for over a decade, having originally been hired to the basketball operations department in 2007.
After initially working as an analyst and spending time with the franchise’s G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, McNair was elevated to a director of basketball operations role in 2013. He became the Rockets’ vice president of basketball operations in 2015 before being promoted to assistant GM in 2018.
Following the dismissal of general manager Vlade Divac, the Kings made Joe Dumars their interim executive vice president of basketball operations, but had been on the lookout for someone to run the front office on a permanent basis.
McNair was one of six candidates identified by Sacramento as the team sought a replacement for Divac. Pelicans GM Trajan Langdon, Nuggets GM Calvin Booth, and Heat assistant GM Adam Simon withdrew from consideration, leaving McNair, Timberwolves executive VP Sachin Gupta, and former Hawks GM Wes Wilcox as finalists.
While we’ll have to wait for an official statement and more details from the Kings, the expectation is that McNair will have the final say on basketball decisions and will report directly to team owner Vivek Ranadive.
This represents the second consecutive year that Houston has lost a top executive to a rival organization. Gersson Rosas left the Rockets to become the Timberwolves’ head of basketball operations in 2019.
Best of luck to him from a Kong’s fan has almost given up hope in the franchise
Kings
Was he hired because nobody else wants the job? I like his resume as he as this thing called experience in the FO prior to this new role which is a plus.
Coming from one of the best teams in the NBA you would expect him to improve things for a franchise that hasn’t had much success for a long time.
Happy they aren’t taking Gupta away from the wolves.
Trainwreck 2.0. I’m like Michael Jackson eating popcorn right now.
Joe Dumars is there as an assistant GM？
Disrepect him？
Dumars was there just to fill the gap between Divac leaving and the new hiring. He was overseeing the transition but never a candidate for the job. A job that no one wanted.
Should have gone with:
David
K——————–A——————H—————N !!
Which is the worst job in the west?
Wolves
Kings
Suns
Right now HOU, followed by the LAC!
Some teams make big payment to GM and the job is easy，others are not