Vivek, time to extend Monte!
- Thread starter King Baller
- Start date
In the words of the great Winston Wolf
“Let’s not start [patting each other on the back] just yet”
Kings have reached .500 or slightly above before in these last 16 years. I like the moves Monte has made since he got here but I agree with above, no harm in waiting a few more weeks to know it’s real. Even if it turns out to be business as usual, I still like his moves and think he’s a competent GM..but maybe wait.
“Let’s not start [patting each other on the back] just yet”
Kings have reached .500 or slightly above before in these last 16 years. I like the moves Monte has made since he got here but I agree with above, no harm in waiting a few more weeks to know it’s real. Even if it turns out to be business as usual, I still like his moves and think he’s a competent GM..but maybe wait.
I've been beating the "extend McNair" drum for awhile now, but it's useful to take stock of the landscape now that some games have been played. In the offseason, the Minnesota Timberwolves traded several useful rotation players (including KF.com fave Jarred Vanderbilt), their 2022 draft selection, a 2023 first-round pick, a 2025 first-round pick, a 2026 first-round pick swap, a 2027 first-round pick, and a 2029 first-round pick to the Utah Jazz for Rudy Gobert.
The Wolves mortgaged an insane amount of future draft capital for a 30-year-old center who, while a defensive dynamo, is incredibly limited offensively and seems lost outside of the cozy spread pick-and-roll that the Jazz built around him. It remains early, but the Timberwolves are currently 6-8 against a soft schedule and they look like they hate playing with each other. Even if they turn things around and are in the mix for the playoffs this season, their surrendering of that many first-round draft picks for anything less than a legitimate two-way superstar is general management malpractice.
For comparison's sake, before last year's trade deadline, the Kings traded Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, and Tristan Thompson to the Pacers for Domantas Sabonis, Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb, and a 2023 second-round pick. Monte McNair secured a 26-year-old all-star big man without surrendering a single first-round pick. He even managed to snag a future second-rounder in the process. The loss of Haliburton surely stings for many Kings fans, but the trade for Sabonis continues to be massively underrated amongst Kings fans, amongst NBA fans at large, and certainly amongst NBA pundits.
The Kings are a competitive team in a deeply competitive conference and they still control their future. Yes, there remains moderate risk in the trade given that Sabonis will be a UFA in 2024, and yes, things may ultimately work out well for Indiana and Haliburton. But the fact that Haliburton has become a media darling should not cloud peoples' assessment of the trade. Even if the Pacers believed Tyrese had true star potential, they still weren't able to pry even one future first-rounder out of Monte McNair, and when canvassing recent transactions around the league, it's clear that the going rate for all-stars in their prime is multiple first-rounders. That's a job well done.
I thought the Kings should have extended Monte McNair this off-season, but after the Huerter trade and the Monk signing (which were also incredibly shrewd deals that did nothing to mortgage the Kings' future), as well as the Mike Brown hire (he's made a believer out of me pretty quickly), an extension for McNair should be a no-brainer.
Do the Kings make the playoffs this year? It'll be really tough; there are only a few genuinely bad teams in the entire NBA this season. Parity seems as if it's at an all-time high. But regardless of the outcome, I have a hard time faulting a GM who has transformed this team into a truly competitive potential playoff contender in such a brutal NBA landscape while retaining the draft capital necessary to add inexpensive, cost-controlled pieces that may further improve the Kings' outlook as they continue to grow together as a team.
The Wolves mortgaged an insane amount of future draft capital for a 30-year-old center who, while a defensive dynamo, is incredibly limited offensively and seems lost outside of the cozy spread pick-and-roll that the Jazz built around him. It remains early, but the Timberwolves are currently 6-8 against a soft schedule and they look like they hate playing with each other. Even if they turn things around and are in the mix for the playoffs this season, their surrendering of that many first-round draft picks for anything less than a legitimate two-way superstar is general management malpractice.
For comparison's sake, before last year's trade deadline, the Kings traded Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, and Tristan Thompson to the Pacers for Domantas Sabonis, Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb, and a 2023 second-round pick. Monte McNair secured a 26-year-old all-star big man without surrendering a single first-round pick. He even managed to snag a future second-rounder in the process. The loss of Haliburton surely stings for many Kings fans, but the trade for Sabonis continues to be massively underrated amongst Kings fans, amongst NBA fans at large, and certainly amongst NBA pundits.
The Kings are a competitive team in a deeply competitive conference and they still control their future. Yes, there remains moderate risk in the trade given that Sabonis will be a UFA in 2024, and yes, things may ultimately work out well for Indiana and Haliburton. But the fact that Haliburton has become a media darling should not cloud peoples' assessment of the trade. Even if the Pacers believed Tyrese had true star potential, they still weren't able to pry even one future first-rounder out of Monte McNair, and when canvassing recent transactions around the league, it's clear that the going rate for all-stars in their prime is multiple first-rounders. That's a job well done.
I thought the Kings should have extended Monte McNair this off-season, but after the Huerter trade and the Monk signing (which were also incredibly shrewd deals that did nothing to mortgage the Kings' future), as well as the Mike Brown hire (he's made a believer out of me pretty quickly), an extension for McNair should be a no-brainer.
Do the Kings make the playoffs this year? It'll be really tough; there are only a few genuinely bad teams in the entire NBA this season. Parity seems as if it's at an all-time high. But regardless of the outcome, I have a hard time faulting a GM who has transformed this team into a truly competitive potential playoff contender in such a brutal NBA landscape while retaining the draft capital necessary to add inexpensive, cost-controlled pieces that may further improve the Kings' outlook as they continue to grow together as a team.
And even if we disregarded all of the things Monte seemingly hit on this off-season (Coach, Murray, Huerter, Monk, bringing back Lyles), there's still the fact that you let him hire a coach to 4 year deal. A giant thorn in the Kings organization in the Vivek era has been building FO structure in the wrong order; coaches get hired before GM's, GM's come in and forced to deal with lame-duck HC's on long-term deals, power struggle/dynamic with Dumars and Brandon Williams. This is the first real off-season I've felt like the Kings have done things properly, built a power structure that flows down from McNair and operated like an actual professional organization.
A couple of 5 game winning streaks during a given season doesn't mean jack if you also produce a couple (two to be exact) of 9 game losing streaks during that same given season. I think we have the right to celebrate right now, given that this is, hands down and by far, the BEST constructed coaching staff since the Stone Age.
I would say that it would be important to extend Monte before the trade deadline, so that he will be able wheel and deal without having to worry about his own status. That way he will be making moves in the best interest for the long term success of the team. 
It would also help when he is dealing with other GMs that they know he is dealing from a power position and not as a lame duck GM.
It would also help when he is dealing with other GMs that they know he is dealing from a power position and not as a lame duck GM.
Let me preface this by saying that I'm a fan of McNair. But it's a pretty low bar to be the best Kings GM since Petrie. So far the quick summary of McNair's tenure is:
I can understand people who argue that McNair hasn't done enough and that he's building a team that can make the playoffs but will never win a championship. There's some validity to that criticism, at least as things stand now. But for me, the Kings are fun again. That's all I want. And if he can continue to have that be the case, I'll be happy.
- Solid if unspectacular first round picks that skew older and more NBA-ready: Haliburton, Mitchell, Murray.
- No real success to speak of with 2nd round picks unless Queta becomes a rotation player in the future
- One major trade - Haliburton, Hield and Thompson, for Sabonis, Lamb, & Holiday plus a SRP
- One other significant trade - Harkless, Holiday, and protected FRP for Huerter
- Several minor trades - some good (SRP for Terance Davis), some bad (Delon Wright for Tristan Thompson), most pretty inconsequential (Bagley for DiVincenzo, Cory Joseph and 2 SRPs for Delon Wright, Bjelica for Harkless, the rights to Hardy for future SRPs etc)
- One major signing in Malik Monk
- Lots of minor signings (Whiteside, Metu, DaQuan Jeffries, Glenn Robinson, Damian Jones, Alex Len, re-signed Holmes, Keon Ellis that are overall positive, and a few that were clearly made for Brown (Moneke, Okpala, Dellavedova, keeping Metu)
I can understand people who argue that McNair hasn't done enough and that he's building a team that can make the playoffs but will never win a championship. There's some validity to that criticism, at least as things stand now. But for me, the Kings are fun again. That's all I want. And if he can continue to have that be the case, I'll be happy.
Yeh I think you can simplify it even further
Hired Brown who has immediately transformed our culture no matter what the win column has said.
Drafted an all star and then traded for a better fitting all star
traded a mid round pick for a floor spacing shooter on a bargain contract
signed a sixth man of the year candidate for 10 mil a year.
That alone gets a deal done imo
Hired Brown who has immediately transformed our culture no matter what the win column has said.
Drafted an all star and then traded for a better fitting all star
traded a mid round pick for a floor spacing shooter on a bargain contract
signed a sixth man of the year candidate for 10 mil a year.
That alone gets a deal done imo
This was my point before the the season even began and we've seen the excellent results thus far. If the Kings EVER want to become a professional organization that values winning long-term, it starts with the FO power structure all being from the same tree and on the same page. It took 2 years, but I think McNair finally got to that point this off-season when he got to hire Brown.
It's just a no-brainer with the early season success. Monte-Brown-Fox/Sabonis is something to build off of over the next 3+ years. Need to keep it together.
It's just a no-brainer with the early season success. Monte-Brown-Fox/Sabonis is something to build off of over the next 3+ years. Need to keep it together.