Flailing Kings Fire GM After Losing Play-In

Vivek Ranadive is making another key hire—again. 

The Kings parted ways with general manager Monte McNair immediately after their season ended Wednesday night in the play-in tournament with a blowout loss to the injury-plagued Dallas Mavericks. The news was first reported by The Athletic. 

The decision came after the team surprisingly fired coach Mike Brown in December after a sluggish start. The Kings traded star guard De’Aaron Fox to the Spurs in February. 

The Kings join the Nuggets and Pelicans among the teams that fired their GM in recent weeks. The Pelicans have already replaced David Griffin with longtime NBA executive and Hall of Famer Joe Dumars. 

The team has still not officially confirmed McNair’s firing, but ESPN reported Thursday that former Knicks GM and longtime NBA executive Scott Perry will replace him. 

McNair was hired by the Kings before the start of the COVID-19-shortened 2020–2021 season that went 72 games and inherited a franchise that had the longest postseason drought in North American sports at the time. The Kings hadn’t made the playoffs since 2006, and McNair quickly helped end the drought. 

In 2022 he made a number of moves that helped the Kings emerge from years of mediocrity. He traded Tyrese Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers for Domantas Sabonis in a rare deal that both sides won. Sabonis became an All-NBA player in Sacramento. That same year, McNair also signed Malik Monk, who emerged as a key role player for the Kings, and drafted Keegan Murray, who has been an impact starter in the first two years of his career. 

The Kings ended their 16-year playoff drought in 2023 after they finished with a 48–34 record, which was third in the Western Conference. McNair’s numerous moves helped him win Executive of the Year for the 2022–2023 season. But the Kings fell to the Warriors in a seven-game series and haven’t been back to the playoffs since. The past two seasons have ended in the play-in.

While McNair helped get the franchise out of the conference cellar, he couldn’t get it any further. The decision to fire Brown months after signing him to a three-year, $25.5 million extension ultimately led to Fox requesting the trade that returned Zach LaVine from the Bulls. 

McNair reportedly never wanted to fire Brown, according to The Athletic, which also reported there were questions about whether he ever wanted to sign DeMar DeRozan this past summer or acquire LaVine in the Fox trade. Ultimately, the Kings’ new pieces never fit together with the rest of the roster. 

There was also recent “tension” between McNair and ownership over the fate of Doug Christie, who went 27–24 as interim head coach after taking over for Brown, with Ranadive wanting to keep Christie for the permanent role. 

Christie was asked about his future after the Mavericks’ loss and said he had no update on his future. 

“This is where I want to be,” Christie said. “I think you guys know that. I need to finish what I started.”

Ranadive is used to making big hires. Since he bought the team in 2013, the Kings have had five different executives run their front office and nine head coaches, including interims. The Kings have had a losing record in 17 of the past 19 seasons.