More on Kings Front Office
The Sacramento Kings intend to hire Detroit Pistons executive Ken Catanella as their new assistant general manager, according to league sources.
Sources say Mike Bratz will remain with the club as adviser to the GM and director of scouting. He has developed a strong rapport with Divac since Divac returned to the organization last season.
While the coaching search is in its fledgling state, the search for front office help has taken a step backwards. David Morway, who worked for both the Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks in the past has been in conversations to join the team for some time. But CSN has confirmed that he is no longer a candidate for the job.
Kings vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac has been conducting the meetings and is expected to have the strongest voice in the eventual hiring.
The Kings have been steadily working on an agreement to hire David Morway into a top front-office position under Vlade Divac, but no contract has been finalized, sources said. Morway had a successful run as the general manager of the Indiana Pacers under president Larry Bird and mostly recently had been the assistant general manager in Milwaukee.
Divac said his greatest basketball experience was playing for the Kings from 1998 to 2004, a time that offered refuge from his war-torn Serbian homeland. That was real-life stress. Not that this season hasn’t been taxing. “Stressful?” Divac said. “Look, it’s a time where you want to build something. Stress? Come on. This is basketball. It’s sports; it’s fun. You want to create that environment. Are we having fun? No, not yet. My goal is to create a team that will have fun and play hard for the best fans in the league. They deserve better.”
Divac said he has learned his role as GM on the fly, beyond player evaluation and crunching salary data. “I know what I know, and I don’t know what I don’t know,” Divac said with a laugh. “It’s been a great experience. It’s a wonderful place to work. I feel confident in this position. We are moving forward. It’s not what we wanted in terms of results. This team, with the talent we put together last summer, should’ve been in the playoffs. We obviously didn’t do that. After the season, we’ll find what was the problem and fix it.”
Ailene Voisin: Kings VP Vlade Divac signed his multi-year contract and immediately left to scout for five days in Europe.
Dave Mason: Kings make it official. Vlade Divac gets a multi-year extension. https://t.co/OQNjvbsv2V
Marc Stein: ESPN sources say that the Kings are finalizing a multi-year contract extension with vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac.
The search for fresh front office blood has officially begun. CSNCalifornia.com has confirmed that longtime Brooklyn Nets executive turned Yahoo Sports analyst Bobby Marks was in Sacramento on Thursday for a meeting with the Kings brass. If he’s added to the team, Marks would work alongside Divac, assistant GM Mike Bratz and Director of Player Personnel Peja Stojakovic in an undetermined role, giving the team one more piece to their front office puzzle.
Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac were using All-Star weekend in Toronto to canvass league officials on possible candidates to hire as general manager, league sources told The Vertical. The Kings are starting to acknowledge that Divac has been overwhelmed with the complexities of the collective bargaining agreement and the sophisticated ways with which most NBA organizations are run now.
Privately, the Kings have been telling people they plan to run a GM and a coaching search once the regular season ends. Sacramento has committed to keeping coach George Karl for the rest of the regular season, but has shown no inclination to bring him back next season, sources said.
Divac, who added the title of general manager before the season, fortunately is smart enough to know what he doesn't know. His plan has been to hire a general manager, someone to fill in the massive front office gaps.
Washington's Tommy Sheppard is available. Former Atlanta general manager Danny Ferry, undoubtedly humbled by his racially insensitive remarks and hungry for another chance, is worth a look. Zarren ranks high on everyone's list.
Golden State assistant general manager Travis Schlenk learned from Don Nelson and Myers, and Ranadive is known to think highly of Schlenk.
