Days after the Kings playoff drought hit 14 seasons – the second longest in league history and just a year behind the Donald Sterling Clippers – the repercussions hit GM Vlade Divac. Is out.
Divac has stepped down as general manager of the Kings, the team announced on Friday. Joe Dumars, the former Pistons GM who had worked as a consultant with the team, will speak during the interim.
“This was a tough decision, but we believe it is the best way to go as we work to build a winning team that our loyal fans deserve,” Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé said in a statement. “We are grateful for Vlade’s leadership, commitment and hard work both on and off the pitch. He will always be part of the family of our kings. “
That “interim” Dumars will be in office for at least a year, reports Vincint Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. If that’s true, then let’s call Dumars GM and move on.
While there are legitimate questions about the quality of the work Luke Walton did in his first season in Sacramento, his work is safe, something first reported by The Athletic’s Sam Amick and ever since confirmed by James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area. The Kings also said there will be no other major moves until a new GM is established.
“Joe has become a trusted and valued consultant since joining the team last year, and I am grateful to have taken on this role at an important time for the franchise,” said Ranadivé.
Divac was a member of the best Kings teams ever (during the Chris Webber era) and is in the Hall of Fame as a player. Playing and being a GM, however, are two very different skill sets. Divac signed a contract extension with the Kings a year and a half ago, but worries continued to build up.
The NBA’s reboot bubble was not kind to the Kings, and Divac eventually condemned.
After a promising result as a ninth seed a season ago, playing a quick style that suited young star De’Aaron Fox, Divac made a move to change coaches last season and fired Dave Joerger to take on Walton. However, under Walton the Kings played slower and their defense got worse. The Kings got sane and started finding a rut right before the championship was closed, going 7-3 in the last 10, but once in the Sacramento bubble it was a disaster again with a bottom-10 defense in Orlando, and they finished 3-5 in the seeding games.
The salt in the wound during the restart – and what Kings fans really eat – has been Luka Doncic’s elite game in Orlando, and all season.
Divac – which he had explored in Europe and has deep connections there – chose to use choice no. 2 in the 2018 NBA Draft about Marvin Bagley on Duke instead of Doncic. While the Kings had explored Doncic extensively (Ranadive even went to Europe to see him play and supported Doncic’s catch), Divac and the front office staff thought Bagley’s athleticism gave him a greater advantage than Doncic. (Scouts were split over Doncic – no one thought he would be bad, but some questioned his limitation because he already had so much polish in his game and isn’t an explosive athlete by NBA standards. Divac and the rest of the front office of the Kings fell into this field.) Also, Divac liked the idea of a big man to pair with their point guard Fox, rather than bringing another ball handler to Doncic.
Doncic will almost certainly drop an All-Seeding Games team in Orlando, and in his second NBA season he’s an MVP nominee (he’ll be last in the polls). Bagley did not play any series games due to another injury, this one in the foot.
Switching to Divac may be the right move for the Kings, but it raises the question: what direction does their new GM want to take for the team? And will it have the power to do so, or will Ranadive maintain its reputation as an owner who likes to meddle in basketball operations?
Kings need a change, but they need the right change. This will be the hard part.
