Vivek Ranadive Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Kings’ Perry Plans To Make Decision On Coach Within Next Week

April 23rd, 2025 at 1:49pm CST by Luke Adams

New Kings general manager Scott Perry told reporters during his introductory press conference on Wednesday that he intends to make a decision on the team’s head coaching situation within the next week, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link).

Perry will have to determine whether he wants to retain interim head coach Doug Christie for the 2025/26 season or launch a search for a new coach.

Perry praised Christie on Wednesday, noting that he has known the former NBA guard since he was a player in Toronto and has spoken to him since being hired by the Kings on Monday. However, Sacramento’s new head of basketball operations also said he has been receiving calls from potential coaching candidates who are interested in the job and that he still needs to consider his options.

Christie, who had been an assistant under head coach Mike Brown, was promoted in December when the Kings parted ways with Brown following a 13-18 start to the season. Sacramento’s performance was up and down the rest of the way and the team was unable to secure a playoff spot through the play-in tournament, but Christie did post a winning record of 27-24.

Anderson has reported that Christie has a good chance to hang onto the job, but has stressed that nothing’s official yet.

Here are a few other notes from Perry’s first media session upon returning to the Kings:

Perry, who briefly served as Sacramento’s VP of basketball operations in 2017, said he and Kings owner Vivek Ranadive have kept in touch since then, so when Ranadive decided to revamp the team’s front office, he and Perry had an easy conversation that developed quickly, according to James Ham of The Kings Beat (Twitter link).
Addressing the point guard position and adding length and athleticism to the roster will be some of the top offseason priorities for the front office, Perry told reporters (Twitter link via Ham).
According to Perry, Ranadive has “pledged his support and his resources” and empowered the new GM to make the personnel decisions necessary to build a sustainable winner in Sacramento (Twitter links via Ham).
Asked about comments he made during a 2023 podcast appearance questioning whether Zach LaVine is a winning basketball player, Perry responded that he’s “not worrying about it haunting me,” adding that has already spoken to LaVine and that his job will be to build around the guard’s strengths (Twitter link via Ham).
Sean Cunningham of FOX 40 in Sacramento has uploaded the full half-hour video of Perry’s Wednesday media session to Twitter. It can be viewed in full right here.

Scott Perry Considered Frontrunner For Kings’ GM Job

April 17th, 2025 at 9:14am CST by Dana Gauruder

Longtime NBA executive Scott Perry is considered the frontrunner for the Kings’ general manager job, Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic report.

The organization is looking for a replacement for Monte McNair, who mutually agreed with ownership to part ways after a five-year run. The Kings were eliminated from the play-in tournament by Dallas on Wednesday.

Perry was the Kings’ VP of basketball operations and has a strong working relationship with Sacramento owner Vivek Ranadive. Perry has a 25-year front office resume that has included stints with the Pistons, SuperSonics, Magic and Knicks. Former Nuggets GM Calvin Booth, who lost his job last week, is also expected to receive consideration.

While former GM Vlade Divac is still within the organization as VP of basketball and franchise operations, he’s not considered a candidate for the top executive job. Team sources tell The Athletic that Divac won’t be returning to the front office in any formal capacity.

As for the head coaching job, Doug Christie hasn’t been given any promises to have the interim tag removed, but he’s well-positioned to keep the job. Christie replaced Mike Brown in late December.

According to The Athletic, McNair didn’t want to fire Brown and he also recently clashed with ownership regarding Christie’s status beyond this season, with Ranadive backing Christie. The decision to acquire DeMar DeRozan in a sign-and-trade last offseason and deal for Zach LaVine at the trade deadline may also have been driven by ownership, per Amick and Slater.

McNair, who spoke with the team minutes after the loss to the Mavericks, may not be out of a job for long. He could return to the Rockets, where his former co-worker, Rafael Stone, is the GM. He also has close ties with Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey.

Booth’s potential candidacy and McNair’s potential reunion with Houston were previously reported.

Kings’ Monte McNair On Hot Seat

April 16th, 2025 at 2:54pm CST by Luke Adams

Kings general manager Monte McNair is on the hot seat entering the play-in tournament, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.

McNair, who was hired as Sacramento’s general manager in September 2020, helped the franchise end its long playoff drought in 2023, but the team hasn’t progressed as hoped since then. The Kings were eliminated in the play-in tournament in 2024 and will face the same fate this spring unless they can beat the Mavericks at home on Wednesday and the Grizzlies in Memphis on Friday.

After going 48-34 in 2022/23, the Kings won 46 games last season and dropped back below .500 with just 40 victories this season. DeMar DeRozan, Sacramento’s major acquisition last summer, hasn’t had the sort of impact the front office envisioned, while De’Aaron Fox time as a King came to an end earlier this season when the club decided to trade its star point guard after he made it clear he didn’t plan to sign an extension.

The Kings’ front office has already undergone some changes this year — assistant general manager Wes Wilcox left his position in Sacramento to become the GM for the University of Utah. Reporting at the time suggested it was a signal that the Kings’ top executives may be on shaky ground.

According to Scotto, if McNair is replaced this offseason, former Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth is considered by a number of people in league circles as a possible candidate to watch in Sacramento.

As for McNair, some of Scotto’s sources believe a reunion with the Rockets would be a possibility for him if he’s let go by the Kings. McNair worked in Houston’s front office for over a decade before being hired by Sacramento.

The Kings’ head coaching position is also in flux, with Doug Christie having held the job on an interim basis since December. Management’s decision on Christie could depend in part on which direction the franchise goes with its front office, but Scotto notes that team owner Vivek Ranadive is fond of Christie, who also has support from Vlade Divac.

Divac, Sacramento’s former general manager who was fired in 2020, returned to the organization in a team ambassador role in 2023 and has been around the club more frequently lately, as Sam Amick of The Athletic first noted and Scotto confirms. According to Scotto, Divac’s increased presence has league personnel wondering if he could return to a front office role in the event of McNair’s exit.

Kings Rumors: Sabonis, Fox, Ownership, Ranadives, Christie

March 7th, 2025 at 11:11pm CST by Luke Adams

After trading De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio last month, the Kings no longer have to worry about whether or not the star guard is confident in the direction of the franchise, but Fox wasn’t the only player in Sacramento with those concerns, according to Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

League sources tell The Athletic that Kings center Domantas Sabonis is expected to “seek clarity” this offseason about the team’s plans going forward.

Sabonis still has three years and $140MM left on his current contract after this season and won’t become extension-eligible until the 2026 offseason, so the Kings likely won’t have to make a decision about his future this year, like they did with Fox. However, like Fox, Sabonis and other members of the team’s core have questions about whose voices are loudest when it comes to key personnel decisions and whose counsel matters most to team owner Vivek Ranadive.

As Amick and Slater explain, Ranadive has frequently leaned on advisors outside of the standard front office hierarchy for advice on major team decisions. Former head coach Alvin Gentry is one such advisor, while John Calipari has also served as a sounding board. Veteran executives like chief operating officer Matina Kolokotronis and president of business operations John Rhinehart have had significant influence as well.

“What is the vision here?” a league source close to one core Kings player said. “It feels like it could be headed toward chaos.”

Here’s more on the Kings from Amick and Slater:

While Ranadive’s son Aneel Ranadive was heavily involved earlier in the earlier days of Vivek’s ownership, his daughter Anjali Ranadive is believed to have had more say in recent years, leading to speculation about whether she may be the “heir apparent” as the team’s governor. Anjali’s input was one reason why the Kings hesitated to sign head coach Mike Brown to a contract extension last offseason, team and league sources tell The Athletic.
Anjali Ranadive no longer has a formal basketball operations role in the organization after stepping down as the Stockton Kings’ general manager in January 2024, but she’s still believed to have influence throughout the organization, per Amick and Slater. She and former NBA player Jeremy Lamb “became a more visible part of the Kings’ decision-making tree early this season” after their relationship went public, though Lamb no longer seems as involved in organizational decisions as he was a few months ago, according to The Athletic’s duo.
It’s not yet clear whether Doug Christie, who was 19-11 in his first 30 games as Sacramento’s coach entering Friday, will have his interim tag removed and become the club’s permanent head coach. Team sources tell The Athletic that if the Kings continue to win at this rate, Christie would have a strong chance to land the permanent job. If the Kings go in a different direction, they’d be hiring their 14th head coach since Rick Adelman‘s exit in 2006.
Amick and Slater also dig in a little to the circumstances surrounding Fox’s departure from Sacramento, suggesting that the longtime Kings guard was worried about spending his prime years with a franchise that would be mired in “mediocrity and instability.”

Kings Rumors: Fox, Brown, Ranadivé, Johnson, Ellis

January 2nd, 2025 at 8:00am CST by Luke Adams

In the wake of Mike Brown‘s dismissal, there has been plenty of speculation that De’Aaron Fox played a role in the Kings‘ decision, given that Brown was often critical of Fox when speaking to the media, including in the final days before he was let go. The Kings star was asked by one reporter over the weekend whether he felt “pressure or guilt” about Brown losing his job.

However, Fox has adamantly denied any involvement in the move, telling ESPN that he was on good terms with Brown and liked being coached hard by him. According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, team and league sources have backed up Fox’s account.

Brown himself is known to believe that Fox had nothing to do with the decision, league sources tell The Athletic. While general manager Monte McNair claimed responsibility for the coaching change, Amick writes that team owner Vivek Ranadivé was actually the “driving force” behind Brown’s ouster. Ranadivé has not spoken to the media.

Here’s more on the Kings:

The decision to fire a well-respected coach and then not adequately explain the decision to reporters is a textbook example of how to turn Fox into a “sympathetic figure” and perhaps make him more justified in seeking a change of scenery sooner or later, Amick observes. Fox has not asked for a trade, per league sources who spoke to The Athletic, but potential suitors are monitoring the situation closely. Among those teams, there’s a belief that the Kings point guard is more likely to become available in the offseason than prior to the February 6 trade deadline, Amick reports. Fox will be extension-eligible again next summer after passing on a new deal this past offseason.
According to Amick, the Spurs, Heat, and Lakers are atop the list of teams most frequently discussed as possible suitors for Fox if he becomes available via trade. The Magic and Rockets are among the other clubs thought to be considering the idea of pursuing Fox, though “the Spurs noise is the loudest,” Amick says.
For the time being, the Kings are focused on upgrading their current roster and don’t intend to entertain inquiries on Fox, according to Amick, who confirms that Nets forward Cameron Johnson is high on the team’s wish list, as Michael Scotto of HoopsHype previously reported. Sacramento has had “extensive” discussions with Brooklyn about Johnson, Amick writes.
The Kings moved to 2-1 under interim head coach Doug Christie with a 113-107 victory over Philadelphia on Wednesday. Defensive ace Keon Ellis earned a start and played a season-high 38 minutes, with Sacramento outscoring the Sixers by 17 points during Ellis’ time on the court. “He’s amazing,” Kings center Domantas Sabonis said of Ellis, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “He’s a professional. He stays ready, and he’s always there when we need him, especially on defense.”

Kings Notes: Trade Talks, Brown, Fox, Carter

December 30th, 2024 at 4:21pm CST by Rory Maher

As the Kings began to slide down the Western Conference standings over the past several weeks, the front office contemplated making smaller trades “just to change things up,” and also discussed larger deals involving Bulls wing Zach LaVine, Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram, Nets guard Cam Thomas, and Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma, league sources tell Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.

According to Shelburne, the Kings consulted with former head coach Mike Brown on whether to make roster or coaching staff changes prior to parting ways with the 2023 Coach of the Year.

“Nobody wanted to fire Mike,” one Kings source told Shelburne. “He’s a good coach. People here really care about him. Until the very last moment we were trying to make it work.”

Sources tell Shelburne that general manager Monte McNair, assistant GM Wes Wilcox, team president Matina Kolokotronis and owner Vivek Ranadive had “several calls and meetings” to discuss Brown’s future with the organization during Sacramento’s recent 0-5 homestand. McNair ultimately called Brown to inform him of the decision as Brown was driving to the airport to board a team flight to L.A. — the timing and execution of the move drew criticism from around the NBA.

After speaking to Brown, McNair and Wilcox called De’Aaron Fox, DeMar DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis to let them know, but none were consulted beforehand, Shelburne reports.

Shelburne also confirms a report from The Athletic stating that Kings players had grown weary of Brown publicly bashing the team in post-game press conferences.

For what it’s worth, Marc Stein writes that it’s a “struggle to find anyone around the league” who thinks the firing of Brown was justified (Substack link).

Here’s more on the Kings:

There has been some speculation that Fox may have been unhappy with Brown, in part because of the way the veteran coach criticized him for committing a disastrous foul in the closing seconds of Thursday’s loss to Detroit, but the former All-Star tells Shelburne he enjoys being coached hard and was on good terms with Brown. “I feel like there’s this perception that people thought that we were at odds,” Fox says. “You can ask anybody in this organization: me and Mike have never even had an argument. We could disagree with something. We talked about it and it was gone.”
According to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, there have been “grumblings in NBA circles” suggesting that Fox will ask to be traded before the February 6 deadline. With that in mind, Pincus comes up with a hypothetical deal that sees Fox land with the Rockets.
Rookie guard Devin Carter made his NBA G League debut with the Stockton Kings on Saturday and was recalled prior to Sunday’s matchup with the Lakers, though he didn’t end up playing in what would have been a back-to-back (Twitter link via Sean Cunningham of Fox 40 Sacramento). Still, it’s obviously a positive development, as Carter is inching closer to making his NBA regular season debut following offseason shoulder surgery.

Kings Players React To Sudden Coaching Change

December 28th, 2024 at 7:53pm CST by Arthur Hill

Interim Kings coach Doug Christie stressed the need for unity as he addressed the team following Friday’s surprise firing of Mike Brown, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Christie, who served as an assistant to Brown, will be in charge of trying to salvage a season that is spiraling out of control after an 0-5 homestand. Sacramento is 12th in West at 13-18 and needs a quick turnaround to climb back into the playoff race.

Christie spoke to his players before their flight departed Friday for tonight’s game against the Lakers and again at this morning’s shootaround, according to McMenamin.

“To come out and stick together, fight and just be us, be who we are and turn this thing around,” Domantas Sabonis said in sharing his new head coach’s message.

Malik Monk said “all the vibes were high” at the shootaround, as the team feels a renewed energy from the sudden coaching change. Sabonis exhibited that by arranging for his own travel to Los Angeles. He was considered questionable to play because of an illness that forced him to miss Thursday’s game, but he wanted to be there to display his commitment to Christie.

“I got here and went right onto the court,” Sabonis said. “We’re all focused on winning the game. But we obviously know we haven’t been performing at our best. And we have to do a better job. Me, as one of the leaders of the team, I got to make sure that that happens. We got to win all the games that we can.”

Brown appeared to have a long future in Sacramento after leading the team to the playoffs in 2023 and narrowly missing another playoff appearance in last season’s play-in tournament. He was rewarded with an offseason extension that runs through 2026/27 and gives him an extra $20MM in guaranteed money, but management quickly lost patience with the slow start. The offseason addition of DeMar DeRozan hasn’t work out as planned, and there was skepticism that the Kings could move up the standings with Brown in charge.

Sabonis and Monk expressed shock over the sudden move, while De’Aaron Fox told McMenamin that he was notified “a minute before everybody else.” Fox also pondered the players’ role in the coaching change when he was asked if he felt any “pressure or guilt” over Brown’s fate.

“Any pressure or guilt? I mean, obviously we all know the job that we have,” Fox responded. “You can be traded at any point. Released. Cut. Fired. Whatever it may be. I mean, I wouldn’t use the word ‘guilt.’ But that’s the nature of the job that we have. But I mean, obviously him signing his extension this summer, we felt like we would be together a whole lot longer but that’s the decision that they made. But at the end of the day, too, he’s still being paid. A great part of being an NBA player, being an NBA coach, is those things can happen, but these contracts are guaranteed.”

Although Brown’s dismissal seemed to come out of nowhere, there were already rumors about “waning confidence” from ownership even before he was given the extension, Jake Fischer states in his latest Substack story. Sources tell Fischer there were “internal disagreements” regarding the team’s starting lineup and the tradeoff in playing time between Keon Ellis and Kevin Huerter.

Fischer reported in 2022 that Mark Jackson was the preferred candidate of owner Vivek Ranadive before Brown was hired. Jackson was head coach of the Warriors when Ranadive became a minority owner of that team, and several NBA sources have told Fischer that Ranadive seems to prefer having a former player in that role. That may explain why Christie was chosen to run the team, although it’s not clear if there’s any commitment to him beyond the end of the season.

Kings Notes: Monk, Brown, Ranadive, Offseason, Vezenkov

April 22nd, 2024 at 4:07pm CST by Rory Maher

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Sixth Man of the Year finalist Malik Monk made it pretty clear that he plans to test the open market in free agency this summer, tweets Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee.

“I can go somewhere else with a lot more money and be in a worse situation, so you never know,” the Kings guard said. “I’ve got a great agent who’s going to do his job. I think my job is done.”

Sacramento holds Monk’s Early Bird rights, so the team is somewhat limited in what it can offer him this summer. Monk said in a perfect world, he’d “definitely” like to return, but he’s not sure what the future will hold, as Anderson relays (Twitter links).

“I came here, (played with) one of my best friends, turned the organization around, turned the city around,” Monk said. “The city loves me and I love the city, so the emotions are everywhere right now.”

Monk added that he would prefer a starting role, but he’s willing to come off the bench if it’s better for whichever team he signs with, per James Ham of ESPN 1320 and The Kings Beat (Twitter link).

Here’s more on the Kings:

Even though they lost their second play-in game in disappointing fashion, the Kings have undoubtedly played much better under 2023 Coach of the Year Mike Brown the past two seasons. Sources tell Anthony Slater and Sam Amick of The Athletic that Brown is essentially entering the last season of his contract (2025/26 is a mutual option), and he hopes to sign a long-term extension that includes a raise. However, owner Vivek Ranadive hasn’t presented an extension offer to this point, and it’s unclear if he’ll be willing to commit to Brown going forward, per The Athletic.
Anderson of The Sacramento Bee recently released an offseason preview for the Kings, with Monk’s future the biggest question mark.
In a feature for The Ringer, Howard Beck wonders if Sacramento will be able to escape NBA purgatory as a good-but-not-great team. “We knew the expectations were coming for us right away,” GM Monte McNair told Beck. “That’s what we’ve seen this year. And that’s the reality of the NBA. For us, it’s trying to figure out: How do we continue to take those next steps? And that means getting back into the playoffs and eventually winning a round or two.”
Despite dealing with injuries and inconsistent minutes, rookie forward Sasha Vezenkov said he had no regrets about coming stateside last summer, Ham tweets. “I made the right choice, no doubt about it,” last season’s EuroLeague MVP said. The 28-year-old will earn $6.7MM next season, with a $7MM team option for ’25/26.

Pacific Notes: Curry, Ranadive, Suns, Frank

May 25th, 2023 at 10:06pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

All-Star Warriors point guard Stephen Curry has been named the league’s 2022-23 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion, the NBA has announced in a press release.

Curry’s efforts in the social justice sphere of late include promoting voting initiatives and building awareness about community safety. He and his wife Ayesha Curry run a non-profit, Eat. Learn. Play., focused on ensuring nutritious foods be provided to children in underserved Oakland communities. Curry also runs a lifestyle brand, UNDERRATED, and Unanimous Media, a multimedia company, which are designed to create opportunities for underrepresented athletes and creators, respectively.

As a condition of Curry’s win this year, the NBA will donate $100K to the social justice cause of Curry’s choosing, the University of San Francisco Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice.

Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr., Spurs reserve point guard Tre Jones, Suns starting point guard Chris Paul and Celtics power forward Grant Williams were the other four finalists for the award. All will earn $25K from the league, to be donated to the charity of their choosing.

There’s more out of the Pacific Division:

Kings majority owner Vivek Ranadive was among seven finalists bidding for NHL club the Ottawa Senators, but has since fallen out of the running, per Randy Diamond of The Sacramento Bee. Each of the seven finalists had reportedly been proposing purchase prices north of $800MM. Ranadive’s ownership group bought Sacramento a decade ago for $533MM. The club’s valuation is currently estimated at $2.5 billion.
The Suns’ interviews for their head coaching vacancy might conclude this weekend, reports John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Phoenix (Twitter link). Former Raptors head coach Nick Nurse and Kings associate head coach Jordi Fernandez interviewed on Thursday. Ex-Lakers head coach Frank Vogel and ex-Sixers head coach Doc Rivers, who coached Phoenix starting point guard Chris Paul on the Clippers, are set to meet with Suns executives on Friday.
Clippers team president Lawrence Frank released a statement thanking and congratulating former Los Angeles GM Michael Winger on his new job as team president for the Wizards (Twitter link). “Michael is one of the NBA’s brightest team-builders, a strategic and creative thinker who is always a step ahead,” Frank said in part.

Pacific Notes: Ham, Lakers, Kings, Warriors

May 29th, 2022 at 1:52pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Newly-hired Lakers head coach Darvin Ham is earning high praise from those who know him, according to Broderick Turner and Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times.

Ham, who was a Lakers assistant coach from 2011-13 and won a title against L.A. as a player on the Pistons in 2004, has served as an assistant under head coach Mike Budenholzer with the Hawks and Bucks for the past nine seasons. The Bucks won the 2021 NBA championship with Ham on Budenholzer’s staff.

“His work ethic in practice and when we put him in the game, he always seemed to deliver,” former Knicks head coach and current Indiana University coach Mike Woodson said of Ham. “So, you knew that the fact he got into coaching, I knew it would work because that’s a big part of being a good coach. You got to work.”

Metta Sandiford-Artest, who played on the Lakers teams where Ham first cut his coaching teeth as a development assistant under Mike Brown, also had high praise for Ham. “He definitely understands modern basketball,” Sandiford-Artest said. “He also is capable of communicating in a way where you can receive it the right way.”

There’s more out of the Pacific Division:

The Lakers held workouts on Saturday for six NBA hopefuls, per Matthew Barrero of Lakers.com. Baylor guard James Akinjo, Connecticut guard Tyrese Martin, Syracuse forward Cole Swider, USC guard Drew Peterson, Texas A&M guard Quenton Jackson, and Alabama guard Keon Ellis all got a look from the L.A. front office brass. Though Los Angeles does not possess a draft pick this season, the team could trade into the second round or sign an undrafted rookie as a free agent. “There is a good side to it if you’re able to choose your team,” Ellis said. “Even if it happens to be myself, you can’t get too down on it or overthink it. There’s been guys who have gone undrafted and come back with great stories.”
The Kings, who possess the fourth pick in the 2022 draft, had at least two key representatives take a look at several high-level prospects during recent pro day workouts in Southern California, writes Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee. Team owner Vivek Ranadive and GM Monte McNair attended a CAA pro day workout for Purdue shooting guard Jaden Ivey and Duke small forward AJ Griffin. McNair attended an additional pro day with another top-10-level player, Arizona shooting guard Bennedict Mathurin, Anderson notes, examining the potential fit of each player.
Injured Warriors role players Gary Payton II, Otto Porter Jr. and Andre Iguodala will be gradually included in team practices ahead of the 2022 NBA Finals this week as they continue to recuperate from their respective ailments, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN (Twitter link). The club has leaned on 2021 lottery picks Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody for help in the absence of Payton, Porter and Iguodala.