Peja Stojakovic Named Kings Assistant GM to Former Teammate Vlade Divac

The Sacramento Kings are elevating another former player in their front office, announcing Wednesday they have named Peja Stojakovic an assistant general manager.

Stojakovic will work under Kings GM Vlade Divac. The two played together for six seasons in Sacramento.

"I am thrilled to announce that Peja will serve in this expanded role," Divac said in the team's press release. "His experience as a player and basketball executive combined with his ability to develop players and assess talent is a valuable asset to the Kings."

Whereas Divac took over as GM in August 2015 with little NBA front office experience, Stojakovic has worked with the Kings for the past few years. Sacramento brought in Stojakovic as director of player personnel and development when it hired Divac.

With that said, one could question how much Stojakovic has done to improve the Kings roster.

The team lists "[assisting] the front office in domestic and international scouting efforts" among his previous duties, but player development has been an issue for the Kings. The team hasn't gotten a ton of value out of the draft either despite missing the playoffs for more than a decade.

Most notably, Stojakovic likely had some input on the Kings' acquisition of Georgios Papagiannis in a draft-night trade with the Phoenix Suns in 2016, and Papagiannis was a bust.

Stojakovic won't be the lone voice in his position as Brandon Williams and Ken Catanella maintain their roles as assistant GMs.

Still, promoting Stojakovic doesn't dispel the notion the Kings are using the affinity fans feel for the late 1990s-early 2000s teams to deflect attention from how bad things are for the franchise.