Sacramento Kings Part Ways With GM Monte McNair

The move comes as no surprise, as there have already been rumors around the Kings possible GM replacement candidate in Joe Dumars and the departure of Assistant GM Wes Wilcox during the regular season.

Monte McNair leaves after five seasons in Sacramento. During his tenure, the Kings went 195-205 (.488) with one playoff appearance to break the drought and two back-to-back Play-In exits.

After the success of the Beam Team, everyone was riding high in Sacramento, but now the Kings are left with segments and pieces of the team that broke the 16-year playoff drought.

McNair will leave behind a history of big trades that are sure to impact the Kings for years to come. From the Domantas Sabonis and Tyrese Haliburton swap to the De'Aaron Fox and Zach LaVine trade, and not to forget all of the smaller moves and salary dumps in between, Monte's fingerprints are all over this team and roster going into the offseason.

The other main move that McNair leaves in his past is the firing of head coach Mike Brown. The two sides had prolonged talks around Brown's extension in the offseason, with the Kings ultimately giving Brown the extension. But it never felt like that was the direction McNair or the Kings front office wanted to go.

McNair will leave the Kings in decent shape to go into a multitude of directions. The contract of Zach LaVine (two years, $96 million) is large and will be difficult to move, but nearly everyone else on the roster could theoretically be moved. Whether it be retooling and moving a few pieces around or trading everyone away, the new GM will have some options.

The issue that continued to pop up with McNair over the years was always feeling one move away from something big, but never being able to pull the trigger. When he had the opportunity again last season to balance out the roster, he instead went out and signed the then 15-year veteran DeMar DeRozan.

DeRozan played well this season, but the roster once again was guard-heavy, undersized, and lacked length and athleticism. McNair always preached flexibility, but it was him doing everything he could to maintain that flexibility that seems to have cost him his job in the end.

The Kings will likely (hopefully?) begin the offseason with a full search for a replacement GM. With the head coaching position also up in the air, the big offseason of change for the Kings didn't take long to get started.