Part 3 of the Sacramento Kings article
continued from Part 2 which was
published November 29
Hill was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers(85). Greek center Papagiannis, selected in the first round of the 2016 draft, averaged only 2.1 points in the 16 games played.
During the 2018 NBA draft, the Kings selected Duke center Marvin Bagley III(86). The team was criticized following the draft for not selecting Luka Doncic, while Divac would say he was confident in Bagley. Before the 2018 – 2019 season, multiple analysts picked Sacramento to finish last in the Western Conference, calling their recent draft a “missed opportunity to build” and their lack of veteran presence to offset their rookie lineup. The Kings lost to the Utah Jazz 123 – 117 in their season opener on October 17th, 2018. Despite starting the season 1 – 3, including a loss to the Pelicans in which they gave up 149 points, the team would go on to win their next five games to hold a winning record. By December 30th, the team held a 19 – 16 record. Ultimately, the Kings finished the season in ninth place in the Western Conference posting a record of 39 – 43; they again missed the playoffs. However, this was the team’s best regular-season record since their last playoff appearance in the 2005 – 2006 season. Despite this, head coach Joerger was fired after the season's conclusion (87)(88), and Luke Walton was hired as his replacement three days later.(89)
Earlier in the season, the Kings were rocked by the discovery that their former chief revenue officer, Jeff David, had embezzled $13.4 million in sponsorship payments from the Kings and their corporate partners over four years. David, who had taken a similar position with the Miami Heat, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft and was sentenced to seven years in federal prison. (90)
Following the suspension of the 2019 – 2020 NBA season, the Kings were one of the 22 teams invited to the NBA Bubble to participate in the final 8 games of the regular season(91). However, Sacramento finished these games with a 3 – 5 record, missing the play-in game and extending their playoff drought for the 14th consecutive season.
2020 – Present: The Monte McNair and Mike Brown Era
On August 14th, 2020, the Sacramento Kings announced that general manager Vlade Divac would resign from his position(92). Joe Dumars, a former player and executive for the Detroit Pistons, would be named Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations; Dumars had joined the Kings as a special advisor in June last year.
Following a month-long search, the Sacramento Kings announced on September 17, 2020, that Houston Rockets executive Monte McNair would be hired as the franchise’s new general manager(93). With the Rockets, McNair spent thirteen years working under Daryl Morey, serving in various roles: he was most recently named assistant general manager in 2018. Following this hire, interim executive Joe Dumars was named the organization's chief strategy officer (94). Other candidates for the position included Minnesota Timberwolves executive vice president Sachin Gupta, Denver Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth, and former Atlanta Hawks general manager Wes Wilcox. McNair announced these three additional hires on October 14th, 2020; these included the aforementioned Wes Wilcox who became an assistant GM, former Philadelphia 76ers scouting director Phil Jabour as vice president of player personnel, and Oklahoma City Blue executive Paul Johnson as director of basketball operations. (95)
In July 2021, Dyal Capital, a unit of Blue Owl Capital, began to solidify a deal investing in the basketball team. Giving the investment firm a 5 percent stake in the team with a valuation of $1.5 billion, though another person familiar with the matter placed the valuation closer to $1.8 billion.(96)(97)
In the 2021 NBA draft, to improve their defense the Kings selected Davion Mitchell from Baylor University with the ninth pick. (98)
On November 22nd, 2021, head coach Luke Walton was fired after a mediocre 6 – 11 start; he was then replaced by Alvin Gentry on an interim basis(99). For the 16th season in a row, the Sacramento Kings failed to reach the playoffs, thus passing the Los Angeles Clippers for the longest playoff drought in NBA history, the Kings also made a blockbuster trade at the trade deadline with the Indiana Pacers sending Tyrese Haliburton for Domantas Sabonis. Following the season, the Kings’ fired Gentry as head coach.
On May 9th, 2022, Golden State Warriors associate head coach Mike Brown was announced as the next head coach of the Kings. His tenure with the team began after the Warriors finished their 2021 – 2022 season where they won the 2022 NBA championship. During the 2022 – 2023 season, the Kings began lighting a large, purple beam into the night sky after every game won, inspiring chants of “Light the Beam” from the crowd at the end of victories at home. (100)
On February 24th, 2023, the Kings beat the host Los Angeles Clippers in double-overtime by the final score of 176 – 175. It was the second-highest scoring game in NBA history behind a December 13th, 1983, affair in which the Detroit Pistons beat the Denver Nuggets 186 – 184 in triple-overtime. The game featured 44 combined three-pointers made, tied for the most in a game in NBA history and both teams shot over 58 percent from the field and over 80 percent free throws. It was also the first time in Kings franchise history in which two players scored at least 40 points in a game (Malik Monk scored a career-high 45, De’Aaron Fox had 42)(101). On March 29th, the Kings beat the Portland Trail Blazers 120 – 80 to clinch a playoff spot breaking a 16-year playoff drought, which at the time was the longest active playoff drought in the four major North American Sports(102). In the playoffs, they were defeated by the Golden State Warriors in seven games.
Bob Davies
Photo Credit
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