Former New York Knicks general manager Scott Perry has emerged as the frontrunner to lead the Sacramento Kings front office following the departure of Monte McNair, The Athletic reported.
McNair and the Kings mutually agreed to part ways, according to The Athletic, after a meeting with franchise owner Vivek Ranadive after their season ended with a lackluster 120-106 loss to the Kyrie Irving-less Dallas Mavericks at home on Wednesday, April 16, in the play-in tournament.
Perry, along with recently-fired Calvin Booth, formerly the general manager of the Denver Nuggets, are the candidates for the Kings GM job. However, Perry is considered the front runner, according to The Athletic, owing to his strong relationship with Ranadive.
Booth was responsible for getting the final pieces of the Nuggets’ 2023 championship roster. But he was let go, along with Michael Malone, after the two sides created tension within the organization due to their differing philosophies.
Booth wanted Malone to play the young guys to supplement the Nikola Jokic–Jamal Murray–Aaron Gordon–Michael Porter Jr. core. But Malone wanted veterans as supporting cast to make another championship run.
Scott Perry’s 2-Decade Experience
Perry served as the Kings’ vice president of basketball operations for three months in 2017 before the Knicks hired him away to become their general manager.
The Knicks did not renew Perry’s contract after it expired in 2023. He was a holdover from the Steve Mills front office, which Leon Rose succeeded. Perry served as the experienced voice in the Knicks’ front office under Rose, who was a first-time team executive.
Perry has more than two decades of front office experience. He’s been a league executive since 2000 and has held front-office positions with the Detroit Pistons, Seattle Supersonics, Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings, until the Knicks let him go in 2023.
Perry was part of the Pistons front office that built their 2004 championship roster. He was also partly responsible for drafting Kevin Durant when he was the assistant general manager for the Seattle Supersonics before the team relocated to Oklahoma City.
Perry returned to Detroit for four more seasons as vice president of basketball operations before moving to Orlando, where he selected Victor Oladipo and Aaron Gordon. Then he constructed the Knicks’ core led by Julius Randle and RJ Barrett that ended an eight-year playoff drought in 2021.
According to The Athletic, Perry also worked closely with Vlade Divac, the Kings’ former general manager, who “continues to have a presence and voice around the team.”
Monte McNair Lost Decision-Making Power Before Departure
The decision to part ways with McNair has been brewing since the organization fired Mike Brown, which hastened former franchise star De’Aaron Fox’s departure.
According to The Athletic, McNair “didn’t want to fire Brown.”
There were also “internal questions” about whether McNair really signed off on the DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine moves. DeRozan and LaVine previously failed in Chicago and they failed to get over the hump that is the play-in tournament again in Sacramento.
But the straw that broke the camel’s back for McNair was the decision on interim coach Doug Christie, who was backed by Ranadive, according to The Athletic.
The next Kings general manager will have big decision to make when it comes to the franchise’s direction — to keep DeRozan, LaVine and Domantas Sabonis or build from a scratch.
