Kings mailbag: Luka Doncic, Buddy Hield trade talk and Luke Walton’s job under new GM
The search for a new general manager is underway in Sacramento. The Kings have talked for years about changing the culture within the organization. Now they have to find the right person for the job.
That would have been incredibly difficult, given the abbreviated offseason schedule with the NBA Draft set for Oct. 16 and the start of free agency set to begin Oct. 18, but it appears the Kings will catch a big break. All signs point to those dates being pushed back several weeks along with the start of the 2020-21 season, which was scheduled to begin Dec. 1.
Moving back the start of free agency will also move back the Oct. 17 guarantee date on Kings forward Nemanja Bjelica’s $7.2 million contract for next season. These delays would give the Kings time to wait for candidates whose teams are in the playoffs and increase the likelihood they will make a hire before they have to start making important roster decisions.
That last part is a big deal. League sources told The Sacramento Bee the applicant pool would thin if interim executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars makes draft picks and roster moves without a new GM in place, saying “people don’t want ownership of those decisions.”
Where are the Kings in their search for a successor to Vlade Divac? How much job security will coach Luke Walton have when the new general manager is hired? We’ll answer those questions and much more in this week’s Kings mailbag.
Note: Some questions have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Can new GM fire Luke Walton?
SacTownBarnbaum asks: Will the next general manager keep Luke Walton or will the GM go their own route with regards to who the head coach will be?
The new general manager will ultimately decide the fate of this coaching staff, but as recently as Monday league sources told The Sacramento Bee Walton is safe and will coach the team next season. The Kings are assuring Walton and making it clear to potential candidates they do not intend to make a coaching change prior to the 2020-21 season.
Even so, Walton will enter his second season in a tenuous position after agreeing to a four-year deal with the Kings last summer. New general managers usually end up bringing in new coaches, but Walton will have an opportunity to forge a relationship with his next boss before any decisions are made. Essentially, he will be auditioning for his own job.
If the new general manager somehow bolsters the roster and things go well, Walton might survive a second season. If the new general manager tears down the roster for another rebuild, the losses will mount and Walton will probably join the list of former coaches who left the organization with hundreds of paid days off.
Sacramento’s GM search
@droc333 asks: Who have the Kings interviewed? How far along in the process are they? Any indication of when a decision might be made?
The Kings have hired Sportsology CEO Mike Forde’s executive search firm to lead a national search for a new general manager. A league source tells The Bee that process is underway, but there has been no indication the team has begun to interview potential candidates.
The Kings have not provided a timeline for a new hire. They intend to take their time to conduct a thorough search. They might have felt pressure to make their move before the draft and the start of free agency in mid-October, but those dates are expected to be pushed back several weeks.
That will give the Kings time to wait for an opportunity to talk to candidates whose teams are still in the playoffs. They could include Toronto Raptors general manager Bobby Webster, Boston Celtics assistant general manager Mike Zarren, Los Angeles Clippers assistant general manager Trent Redden, Houston Rockets executive vice president of basketball operations Eli Witus and Miami Heat assistant general manager Adam Simon.
The NBA Finals are not scheduled to begin until Sept. 30 and might not end until Oct. 12, so the search could take several weeks if the Kings wait to consider candidates whose teams make deep playoff runs.
Will Kings hire a good GM?
@ElPerunienzzz asks: Any chance we get a competent GM?
Sure there’s a chance. That’s what should happen when you’re a powerful organization with an important position to fill.
There are only 30 of these jobs in the NBA. The candidate pool can include current or former general managers, assistant general managers or other high-ranking basketball operations officials. There is no shortage of potential candidates and every NBA team has the connections and resources to hire a competent individual.
The Kings took a chance when they hired Divac in 2015 with no prior NBA front office experience. That’s not a chance they should take this time. Their preliminary list included New York Knicks general manager Scott Perry, another current general manager in Webster, several current assistant GMs and one current vice president of basketball operations. Most of them are connected to winning organizations like the Clippers, Raptors, Celtics, Rockets and Heat, so the Kings appear to be looking in the right places.
Longing for Luka
@PlanetXNick asks: Has Vlade publicly acknowledged regret for not drafting Luka Doncic?
No, Divac is still standing by his decision to draft Marvin Bagley III instead of Doncic in the 2018 NBA Draft. The day after he resigned, Divac told The Bee’s Marcos Breton he still believes in Bagley, who was limited to 13 games this season due to injury while Doncic emerged as an MVP candidate for the Dallas Mavericks.
“That was my decision,” Divac said. “I still believe Marvin has big upside. But I needed more time to prove it. I’m sure Marvin is going to prove everybody wrong. But in this league, you need to produce right now. People don’t have patience but I’m OK with that.”
@ChrisFua asks: What do Marvin Bagley III and the Kings have to accomplish to justify passing on Luka Doncic?
That’s not how Bagley or the Kings should look at it. They have enough work to do on their own without letting Luka Mania run wild in their heads.
Bagley needs to get healthy, stay healthy and become the best player he can be. The Kings need to find a way to win games. Until they can do that, there is no reason to consider justifying that decision.
Marvin Bagley III and Sam Bowie
@RJamesW42 asks: Any chance Bagley becomes Hakeem Olajuwon or are we stuck with Sam Bowie?
Bowie, of course, was chosen by the Portland Trail Blazers with the No. 2 pick in the 1984 NBA Draft, one spot ahead of Michael Jordan. Bowie remained in the league for 10 years despite being plagued by injuries while Jordan became a six-time NBA champion and perhaps the greatest player the game has ever seen.
Bagley has a long way to go to be mentioned with Olajuwon, but it’s also too soon to compare his career to Bowie’s. The Blazers drafted Bowie despite an extensive injury history that began during his sophomore season at Kentucky. He was in a cast for 44 weeks after developing a stress fracture in his left tibia that eventually required surgery because it wouldn’t heal properly.
During his second NBA season, Bowie broke the left tibia. During his third season, he broke his right tibia. Bowie returned in 1989, but he sustained a hairline fracture of his right tibia during warmups for a preseason game and missed most of the next two seasons. There were surgeries involving bone grafts with metal plates and screws drilled into his bones.
Bagley does not have that kind of injury history. He missed summer league games in 2018 with a “tweak” of his right groin and hip flexor. He missed 20 games as a rookie, mostly due to a bone bruise in his right knee and a sprained left knee. This season, he broke his thumb, suffered a left mid-foot sprain and then sustained a right foot sprain. The pattern is alarming but these injuries are not catastrophic.
Buddy Hield trades
@jhuggs34 asks: If there’s one player you can realistically get in a trade for Buddy Hield, who would it be and why?
Hield’s trade value is a bit of a mystery right now so I won’t pretend to know what’s realistic, but Richard Ivanowski recently put together five possible trade packages involving Hield. My favorite proposal might be the one that brings Myles Turner to Sacramento. Turner possesses a unique skill set as a shot-blocking, floor-spacing big man. The Kings need someone like that to play alongside Bagley and there are very few of them in the league.
Who knows if the Pacers would have any interest in the trade as constructed by Ivanowski, but there are questions about Turner’s front-court fit with Domantas Sabonis. Earlier this week, Forbes speculated the Pacers might need to trade Turner or Victor Oladipo to improve their roster.
