Should Monte be the GM next year?
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iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Unless I’m mistaken, he has one year left on his deal. For me, I’d let him finish that off and then reevaluate after that. I won’t be surprised if Vivek brings in a POBO over him though.
QWERTYLICIOUS
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Yes, he has one year left on his deal. At this point, let him finish his final year of the contract, and then reevaluate as you have also suggested.
Jdbraver137
Bench
I hope so tired of this shuffle
Vinny Basketballerino
Starter
I'll be up to the boss's daughter.
Vinny Basketballerino
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Padrino
All-Star
This is a tougher question to answer than it seems. I'm not among Monte's biggest detractors. I've generally supported the majority of his moves, or found reason enough in them even if the moves were suboptimal. However, it always remains important that a front office and a coaching staff are on the same page. One need only look at the chaos brought to a boil in Denver because of a GM and a head coach who were misaligned in their philosophies.
Monte should remain the GM if he gets full control over hiring his next head coach, and if Vivek intends to give them at least a few years together to establish a new Sacramento Kings culture (once again). Monte should not remain the GM if he doesn't get full control over hiring his next head coach, or if Vivek intends to release Monte after his contract is up in a year, leaving a newly designated head coach stranded with a newly designated GM who wasn't involved in the hiring of that head coach. The Kings have done that particular dance before and it did not go well.
Monte should remain the GM if he gets full control over hiring his next head coach, and if Vivek intends to give them at least a few years together to establish a new Sacramento Kings culture (once again). Monte should not remain the GM if he doesn't get full control over hiring his next head coach, or if Vivek intends to release Monte after his contract is up in a year, leaving a newly designated head coach stranded with a newly designated GM who wasn't involved in the hiring of that head coach. The Kings have done that particular dance before and it did not go well.
From my perspective it wouldn't be the worst thing to give Monte and Doug one more year. The roster shakeup, Domas getting hurt, Zach's weird disappearing act which I think started with a personal issue that I'm not sure went public(?), all of that contributed to some losing skids after Doug turned the team around.
On the other hand I think we've seen enough to know Doug is more of a motivator than a tactician and that may not be what the team needs long term - though filling up the holes in the assistant's bench could also do the trick the worst stretch of Doug's tenure happened right after Loucks left.
And when it comes to Monte and this current team, we need to make a few big moves so we aren't trying to start three 2's and we also need to be ready to do a total rebuild IF we aren't in the thick of it by the deadline. And I am not sure having Monte around with no security lends itself to making the tough and making the correct decisions in those cases.
As always, a lot of the above comes down to Vivek. He may be hands off the operations side compared to his first few years and he may not be as bad as his worst detractors say, but in terms of long term strategy for sustained success there is a fair argument he's still playing checkers. It's really hard to swallow where this team is just 2 years removed from the Beam Team.
sactowndog
All-Star
My answer would have been F-no ;-)
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
There might be some in high places who believe that Vlade deserves another chance at being in charge and calling the shots. Otherwise, Alvin Gentry can generally manage, under Anjali as president 
as usual, right on the mark.
I'm one of the bigger Monte bulls on the forum, but he either needs to be let go this off-season and let a fully new regime have complete control or he gets another couple years to try and finish off his roster build. I truly think us getting blind-sided by Fox set everything we had planned into the garbage; by every indication, we had every intention of offering Fox the max and keeping this team built around him.
Monte's detractors will say he created the Fox situation. There are some valid points to that complaint although I think he merely wanted Fox to commit before he pushed chips in a way that you can't get out. We've seen how difficult navigating the pick we owe ATL is, I can't imagine how folks would feel if we traded 2-3 picks to make Fox happy and he still bolted and all we had to show for it was a Cam Johnson.
Now there's also the Wes Wilcox question - Vivek has had two GMs - whether it was ratgerbil and Chris, Vlade and a cadre of shadow GMs, or Monte and Wes. I assume Wes will be replaced. Rumors were swirling that Wes was actually the one doing a lot of heavy lifting in the FO.
Kingster
Hall of Famer
I kept giving McNair the benefit of the doubt until the Fox trade. He seemed to be on an acceptable path until then. Nothing great. Nothing terribly bad. He was maybe a C+/B- as GMs go. But the Fox situation changed everything for me. He was totally caught flat-footed about Fox's interest in moving elsewhere. That cannot happen. Period. You cannot be a good GM and be surprised about your best player going elsewhere, thus leaving you in a precarious situation with little trading leverage. At best he got seventy-five cents on the dollar for Fox. The picks were a joke as far as I am concerned. The only, and I mean ONLY chance this team had to propel itself into any kind of serious contention in the future was for McNair to get top dollar for Fox. By getting caught napping McNair consigned this team to mediocrity for their life cycle. Failure does not deserve to be rewarded. Let's get a GM who is proactive, not reactive.
Section 101
All-Star
GM and assistant GM is normal. Petrie had Wayne Cooper who did a lot of the front work.
I don't think he was caught flat footed though, which is why he did not push his chips in unless Fox would sign the extension.
Fox wanted to move on, as is his right. Once he signed with KLUTCH it was over. I think Monte knew that which is why he spent the next 18 months trying to get Fox to extend while being cautious with "all in moves".
Now you could certainly argue that had he made the right all in move it convinces Fox to re-sign but I'm not convinced John Collins and/or Cam Johnson propels us to the top of the Pacific or at least a top 3 seed. So then Fox is gone and we are without 2-3 FRPs while trying to figure out what next.
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
What some people fail to realize (and acknowledge) is that Fox left us with very few options, as he was the one calling the shots and dictating where he wanted to go.
All things considered, and considering what Monte was given to work with in terms of the Fox deal, I actually think we did pretty freaking good.
Great? No.
Terrible? No.
Good? Yes.
All things considered, and considering what Monte was given to work with in terms of the Fox deal, I actually think we did pretty freaking good.
Great? No.
Terrible? No.
Good? Yes.
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
That's the "No/sactowndog" option.
Kingster
Hall of Famer
Fox didn't wake up one day and out of the blue think, "I've got an idea. I'm going to sign with KLUTCH to get the hell out of Sacramento." Decisions of that magnitude percolate, usually over very long periods of time. Fox was ruminating about this for a long time. I don't care if McNair had to bug Fox's bedroom to find out - he needed to find out where Fox's head was at the beginning of this past summer. And you know what? If he didn't have a clear read on Fox because of Fox's passive aggressive nature, he needed to pull the plug then and trade Fox at the apex of his market value, not sit around and hope for the best. Hoping for the best may be the strategy of a King's fan, but for a GM it's a curtain call.
It all happened after the playoff series. Fast. He started hanging out with Steph immediately after the series. And maybe Reece also steered him in that direction since apparently the only acceptable donation happened to be her hometown. He was 25 when he signed with KLUTCH and had just turned 27 when he made the trade demand. Of course people that age do things impulsively.
But the point is - Monte had just built the most successful season in over two decades and quickly moved to lock up his talent, got Domas secured right away and then as soon as they could start negotiating the extension with Fox he said thanks but no thanks. But he was playing cautious knowing he had to secure Fox before he could mortgage the rest of our future.
I think that merits at least as many checks in the plus category as it does the deltas.
It's been suggested that Vlade was a puppet GM and Ken C and Brandon Williams were the "real" decision makers, and there was a time where folks were saying the same about Wes. I was also under the impression that the first FO were also equals.
This is from some weird tech manual that Vivek plays by where you get results by smashing opinions together and letting the best ideas win rather than having a straightforward vision. He had also supposedly backed off that a bit with Monte and Wes.
Vinny Basketballerino
Starter
This is an ego thing for cluster B narcissist bosses. He can't tolerate a strong visionary leader in the organization so he has to reduce all others to partial inputs in some sort of skunkwork style team format. Childish and not actually effective. Also ironically not how he built his own business.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
Yes, if for nothing more than they allowed him to retool. NEVER change horses in the middle of a retool. If the Kings come back next season and underwhelm then maybe you make a change or maybe even let Monte start to rebuild. The only huge mistake the Kings could make right now though is going "all in" on any move. Whether that's a rebuild or trying to contend. This needs to be a temporary wait and see time. Maybe someone like DeMar should be get moved but even that can wait if he is willing to give it another shot.
Kingster
Hall of Famer
And if that premise were true McNair should have traded him during the summer, not wait until the middle of this season with no leverage. And I don't believe hanging around Steph caused Fox to think about moving. It may have have finally confirmed his ruminations, but if he's happy where he's at he's not moving his family to another state and going to another team on a whim. My suspicion is that Fox was even thinking about a move at or before January of last year before the trade deadline during the weird Fox under-performance period. In any case, I hold McNair responsible for getting pennies on the dollar for the crown jewel of the organization. He has crippled this team, possibly for years into the future. All the positives McNair has done are obliterated by his mishandling of Fox.
I think McNair did the best with collecting as much talent as possible regardless of fit given Fox was going to leave anyways. This maybe purple tinted but I think we are like one trade away from a balance roster and a decent team. A team that makes the perfect partner for us is Houston. They have a lot of length and athleticism but really lack shooting and a go to scorer when things are tight. One of the reason we are 4-0 against them this year. We give up one of LaVine or DDR for one of their wing or PF and would probably make both teams better
ockingsfan
Starter
Unfortunately, the ONLY way we keep our pick now is to lose in the Play-in and then beat the astronomical odds and win the lottery and land in the top 4.
The Kings have a 2.4% chance of lucking into a top 4 pick if they lose in the play-in.If they would had Lin yesterday, they would have tied for #12-14 with a shot to keep their pick outright and an improve chance to jump into the top 4 at 4.8%.
Plus, we still would of had home court for the play in game on Wednesday I guess the Kings can make all this draft pick talk moot by just winning the next two play-in games and making the playoffs.
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