Scott Perry, Kings Reportedly Finalizing GM Contract After Monte McNair's Exit

The Sacramento Kings reportedly have their new general manager.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported Thursday that Sacramento is "finalizing a deal" with Scott Perry to take over the role. Charania previously reported the Kings and former general manager Monte McNair "reached a mutual agreement" to part ways following Wednesday's season-ending loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the play-in tournament.

While the Kings haven't advanced past the first round of the playoffs in 21 years, they enjoyed more relative success during their five seasons with McNair than before he arrived.

He was the NBA's executive of the year in 2023 as the team snapped a 16-year playoff drought. What's more, Sacramento won at least 40 games in each of the last three seasons after failing to do so in every campaign since 2005-06.

Yet there has been drastic organizational change of late.

Sacramento fired head coach Mike Brown following a 13-18 start to the season and traded De'Aaron Fox while adding Zach LaVine ahead of the February deadline. What's more, assistant general manager Wes Wilcox left to become the general manager for the Utah men's basketball program in March.

Moving on from McNair and hiring Perry is the next major change for the organization.

Perry started his executive career with the Detroit Pistons and also has stops with the Seattle SuperSonics and Orlando Magic on his resume. He is a familiar name in Sacramento, as he was the Kings' vice president of basketball operations in 2017.

However, his initial time with Sacramento quickly came to an end when the New York Knicks hired him to be their general manager that same year.

He remained with New York until 2023 when his contract expired.

Perry now takes over for a Kings team that appeared to have a firm ceiling in place during Wednesday's loss to the Mavericks. LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis are all under contract for the upcoming season, so things may look similar to Wednesday if there aren't significant changes.

Perhaps the biggest immediate question is whether the Kings will keep Doug Christie as head coach after he served in the interim role following Brown's firing. Sacramento went 27-24 under Christie to reach the play-in tournament.

"This is where I want to be," he told reporters Wednesday. "I need to finish what I started, and that's the only reason I ever stepped onto the sideline from where I was at initially. I had to exorcise some demons for myself."

If he does stay, he will be working with a new general manager following Thursday's move.