The Sacramento Kings are moving forward. They are moving forward without Chris Mullin and without Pete D’Alessandro. They are embarking on an NBA draft and opening free agency with a green Vlade Divac at the helm. This is the reality of the situation, and the basketball world in Sacramento and across the globe must accept it.
Chaos is nothing new in Kingsland. It’s kind of the modus operandi for a franchise that has searched for some semblance of stability for over a decade.
While the business side of the operation is marching forward at an incredible pace, including a new arena in the heart of Sacramento, the basketball side has spun its tires. I’m not even sure if that is accurate. In many ways, the basketball side has regressed.
Instead of bringing in a seasoned veteran in the front office, owner Vivek Ranadivé is going to try something new. New for him and new in general. Divac has been away from the game for a while, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been busy. He’s tried his hand at scouting and chaired the Serbian Olympic committee. He has business interests and he dabbles in philanthropy.
He isn’t a rube. He’s a bright former player that understands people. If his play style translates to the front office, the Kings have a savvy, unselfish peacekeeper with a deep understanding about how to fill a specific role.
Sacramento needs Divac to be good. Maybe they need him to be great if they hope to have a winner when the team moves into that shiny new beacon of light in the heart of downtown in fall 2016.
Divac has to make a sound moves in the draft. The sixth pick is a one of the team’s major assets and he has to find value.
He needs to chase players that fit with Cousins and Gay in free agency and then convince them of his vision for the franchise. He needs to quickly assess the current roster and make moves that improve the team now without mortgaging the future. It’s a tall order, but he needs to continue to shuffle the mix of players until he finds a combination that works.
Will Vlade fail? That is a question that will take time to answer, but in all honesty, no one could do worse than what has happened in Sacramento over the last 24 months. Not only has the team plateaued under the 30-win mark, but the negativity surrounding the club is palpable.
Divac will not have to do it on his own. Mike Bratz ran the draft workouts for Sacramento last season and as of today, he is on board to stand next to Divac in the rebuild of the Kings. Bratz has more than two decades of NBA front office experience and while he hasn’t officially undergone a change in title, he will be considered for a top-tier position in the organization when the Kings get past the next few weeks of activity.
Divac will lean heavily on Bratz, especially for his ability to evaluate talent. There was early concern that he may leave with D’Alessandro, but his ties to Sacramento run all the way back to his playing days. The Stanford grad was also an assistant coach with the Kings from 1991-1997.
Divac and Bratz will count on head coach George Karl to aim them in a direction. With 26 seasons and 1,142 wins under his belt, Karl knows what player types work in this system. While he lost an ally with D’Alessandro’s departure, he gained a larger piece of the decision making, at least in the short term.
The Kings are missing a true capologist, but Dean Oliver is sticking around as a front office mind with an emphasis on advanced metrics. He is a hybrid executive that understands how to bridge the gap between old NBA thinking and statistics. Oliver worked with both Bratz and Karl in Denver. One of the godfathers of NBA advanced metrics, Oliver is a major asset.
This is the Sacramento Kings’ braintrust. It isn’t perfect and it isn’t complete. But it is one unit moving forward together. There will be no coaching changes mid-season. No more leaks or overzealous negotiations in the press.
Vlade Divac and his band of misfits don’t have time to worry what others think. You can question his decision down the road, just like every other executive. For now, it is all about preparing for the NBA’s busy offseason.
It wasn’t a conventional move to bring in Divac, but the Kings front office was broken. The nonsense is over and now it’s about basketball. Hopefully Randivé got it right this time.
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