Will the Sacramento Kings make the same old mistakes?
Joe Dumars, the Sacramento Kings new Executive President of Basketball Operations, says he isn’t interested in being the long-term solution at the top spot, according to Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic.
He recently acquired the top job with the Kings after Vlade Divac stepped down from his role as General Manager, according to the team. The team also announced that Assistant GM Peja Stojakovic has moved on.
But this seems a little too similar to the last time the Kings’ front office changed hands in 2015 and Sacramento has failed to put together a truly competitive team at that time.
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Pete D’Alessandro had full autonomy with the Kings when he joined in 2013 (outside of picking the freaking head coach of his basketball team, a decision which was made before D’Alessandro joined the team), but he went back to Denver after owner Vivek Ranadivé made Vlade the “lead basketball voice” according to ESPN.
Vlade joined the team under a broad title of vice president of basketball and franchise operations and was shortly the loudest voice in the room.
At the helm, Vlade oversaw some nightmares for Kings fans including the Willie Cauley-Stein pick, giving up a 2017 first-round (Jayson Tatum) and 2019 first-round pick (Romeo Langford) for the ability to sign Kosta Koufos, Rajon Rondo and Marco Bellinelli, trading out of the Zach Collins pick to get Harry Giles and Justin Jackson and signing George Hill and Zach Randolph when nobody else was offering them as much as he was.
To be fair, he also drafted De’Aaron Fox and managed to turn Marquese Chriss into Bogdan Bogdanovic, a move that looks great in retrospect.
Some might argue that a broken clock is wrong twice a day and drafting Fox was a no-brainer while drafting Marvin Bagley III ahead of Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson Jr and Trae Young might’ve been a no-brainer too.
Would this have happened if the Kings went through a full interviewing process in 2015? As opposed to just hiring the person who just made his way into the organization and into favor with the owner?
Dumars joined the Kings as an advisor, but Sam Amick of The Athletic (subscription required) also reported that his influence within the organization has grown considerably in recent months.
An additional report from The Athletic says that Vivek approached Divac with the idea of both he and Joe working together in the front office role. Vlade wasn’t interested in this and promptly left.
It’s a mess, isn’t it?
If we take Joe’s quotes on face value, that he doesn’t want to be the lead person in Sactown, they should move quickly to find a new decision-maker because before we know it, it’ll be draft time and decisions Joe makes at the draft could be completely different to what the next person would want to do.
In the 2020 NBA Draft, the Kings will have the 12th overall pick. In one of the more unknown drafts (possibly ever, thanks COVID-19), we might see more moves than ever before if the teams at the top of the order want to move out of their spots for a lower-risk decision.
But on the other side of the coin, if the draft is such an unknown with teams having less data than usual, maybe these late lottery picks (read: 12) hold more value than usual as teams will be drafting early enough to pick a highly-coveted player that others are missing/undervaluing.
If Joe doesn’t want the top job, he’s certainly in the driver’s seat to take it.
Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that he’s the best guy for the job. Vivek should try to avoid his mistakes of the past and interview around, get the brightest minds in basketball in front of you. After looking at candidates, if Dumars is the best option, that’s awesome, you know that for sure now.
While the Kings have been a laughing stock for many years, they aren’t without their upside and at the very least, De’Aaron Fox is looking like the real deal and the next person in charge should have at the least another six years of him under contract if they play their cards right.
All I’m asking is that the team does their due diligence. They didn’t last time, promoted a guy who was angling for the role from the inside and while he built a “super team, just young”, the Kings still haven’t made the playoffs.