Sacramento Kings fire general manager Monte McNair

Sacramento Kings fire general manager Monte McNair

After the Sacramento Kings’ season-ending 120-106 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the 9-10 play-in game on Wednesday, the franchise has decided to part ways with general manager Monte McNair, ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania first reported Wednesday evening.

The Kings’ gig now becomes the second gig to open up leaguewide. The Nuggets parted ways with Calvin Booth earlier this month, while the New Orleans Pelicans replaced David Griffin with Joe Dumars. It’s worth noting that assistant general manager Wes Wilcox left to become the general manager for the Utah men’s basketball team this spring, so this isn’t the first departure from the Kings’ front office.

McNair has spent the last five seasons as the Kings’ top executive, winning the league’s Executive of the Year award after the 2022-23 season after the organization snapped a near-two-decade-long playoff drought.

However, really nothing has come good since. The Kings failed to make any substantial improvement after their postseason run. Just this year, they gave a 35-year-old DeMar DeRozan nearly $90 million last offseason while trading a future first-rounder (swap), fired head coach Mike Brown, alienated their franchise player in De’Aaron Fox and then got an underwhelming return for him (even though they didn’t have much leverage).

Sacramento also hasn’t drafted that well, either, outside of Keegan Murray. I love Devin Carter, but he’s yet to show much (so far) since returning from his shoulder injury–though he was better toward the end of the season, for what it’s worth. They gave up way too early on Davion Mitchell and Neemias Queta is now contributing in a crowded big rotation in Boston. Sacramento really hasn’t addressed the wing rotation (outside of Murray) or frontcourt via the draft since McNair took over, finding stop gaps in free agency that … didn’t work.

Additionally, with the interim tag off coach Doug Christie, it’s smart to clean house and allow the next general manager to hire his own guy. Though the roster doesn’t lend much hope, so there will be more that will need to be done to get this team back to where it wants to be.

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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.

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