It took less than an hour after the Kings were summarily dismissed from the postseason by the Mavericks — an ugly ending to the end of a season that saw Sacramento take a step backwards — for the franchise to move on from the only plan that has really worked for a couple of decades.
The Kings and GM Monty McNair have agreed to part ways, a story broken by Sam Amick of The Athletic and confirmed by multiple reports, and eventually by the Kings themselves.
“I want to sincerely thank Monte for his leadership and the invaluable contributions he made during his time in Sacramento,” said Sacramento Kings owner and chairman Vivek Ranadivé. “He helped build a strong foundation for continued success here, and we wish him and his family all the best in their future endeavors.”
McNair had been voted NBA executive of the year by his peers in 2023, the year he helped shape a roster around De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis that had a real identity, and with that won 48 games and snapped the franchise’s NBA-record 16-year playoff drought. Under McNair, the Kings had a .488 winning percentage, which is not ideal but looks good compared to the .362 win percentage they had in the 15 years prior.
McNair’s exit is the latest example of how fast things have fallen off in Sacramento. In 2023, the Kings were one of the best stories in the NBA. However, while the Kings stood pat after that season (betting on internal growth that never materialized as they had hoped), the rest of the West made moves, improved, and leapfrogged the Kings. Sacramento still won 46 games in 2024, but that only earned it the No. 9 seed, and the Kings did not advance past the play-in round.
This season was a massive step back for the Kings. They had entered the season with internal expectations of returning to the playoffs, and last summer inked coach Mike Brown to an extension, a move made with the support of All-Star guard Fox. However, Fox himself didn’t sign an extension, keeping pressure on the organization to win and be consistent (the things that mattered to him). Those wins did not come, and after a 13-18 start to the season with a number of clutch losses — and Brown throwing his players under the bus in several press conferences — McNair decided he needed to do something. So he fired Brown. While McNair stepped up and said this was his decision, the sense from league sources had long been that impatient owner Vivek Ranadive and his supporters and family in the organization pushed for the move over the objections of McNair.
Fox and Brown had a strong relationship, and the firing did not sit well with the star guard, especially since nobody from the organization met with the media about it. As a result, the press turned to Fox as the face of the franchise, and he had to deny that he had pushed for the coaching change. Also, the Kings were not winning or showing consistency — the standards Fox had set — which led to him requesting a trade and ultimately being sent to San Antonio. Doug Christie took over the head coaching job, and although the team’s luck improved in a few close games, the overall situation did not change. Particularly the defense, which was exposed by Dallas when Sacramento was eliminated from the Play-In Tournament on Wednesday night.
Now McNair is gone, too.
Former Knicks executive Scott Perry, who spent time in the Kings front office, is considered the strong frontrunner to get the job, reports Amick at The Athletic. Just fired Denver executive Calvin Booth is also mentioned.
That leaves owner Ranadive and Perry — or whoever he chooses to run basketball operations — facing some big questions this offseason: Should Doug Christie have the interim tag removed and become the full-time head coach, or is it time to bring in a new coach from the outside? Christie was 27-24 as the head coach, and Amick reports he has support in the organization to keep the job. Do the Kings want to extend Zach LaVine’s contract? Additionally, All-Star Domantas Sabonis wants to meet with management because he has questions about the franchise’s direction and his future within it. If Sabonis asks for a trade, where does that leave players such as Malik Monk or DeMar DeRozan?
All of it sucks for Kings fans, who thought they had seen their team come out of a long dark ages to light the beam and make the playoffs, only to have the whole thing fall apart within a couple of years. The clear identity and path forward are gone, and with that, it’s going to be a long summer for Kings fans in the California capital.
