Sacramento Kings General Manager Monte McNair spoke to media Friday following the NBA trade deadline. The Kings were pretty quiet on the move front, acquiring Robin Lopez and then waiving him, and signing Keon Ellis to a three-year contract. McNair took to the podium to explain his approach to building the Kings for short-term performance while maintaining long-term flexibility.
McNair revealed a few insights worth noting.
Long-Term View With Trades: McNair is reviewing trades from the point of view of weighing trade potential based on the immediate impact v. what that would cost the franchise long-term, especially under the new CBA. He’s aiming for long-term growth over quick fixes and reactionary moves.
“We’re always trying to put ourselves in a spot where we’re never pressed into something and we get to do it on our own terms,” McNair said. “I do think the new rules are going to make it so that if you put yourself in a tough spot and you don’t reach where you want to get to, it’s going to be hard to take that next step. And if you do reach it, it may be hard to maintain it. So, we’re always these days trying to figure out that balance.”
Offensive Challenges v. Defense Improvement: The Kings are 18th in defensive rating, up from 24th last season. They are 14th in offensive rating, down from 1st last season. McNair repeatedly brought up how the team needs to maintain defensive improvement while getting back to the level of offense reached last season.
“We have not maintained our offense and that’s an issue. We’ve got to get better on that end because if we had maintained our offense and seen the defensive improvement, we’d be in a much different position,” McNair said. “I think we all know we’ve got to be better on both ends because we’re not where we need to be. But I think yeah, the defense was the easiest thing for us to improve. As we mentioned, we wanted to maintain our offense to get there and right now our offense has slipped as our defense has improved and we’re in a similar spot; I think maybe the same record to this point as last year. But yeah, I think the biggest thing for us is that at the end of the night we’ve got to have more points than the other team and especially in the playoffs, you’re going to have to go and stop some really tough players. I mean, just look up and down the west. It doesn’t matter who you play, you’re going to have multi-time All Stars, All NBA guys, future Hall of Famers that you’re going to have to stop. So yeah, we’ve got to learn to do that because when April and May come, we’ve got to do that. At the same time. We’ve got to figure out a way to score because in this league it’s taking 110, 120, 130 to win.”
Using Future Draft Picks: The Kings are looking to use their future first-round picks to either boost the core of the team or in trades, which ties back in McNair’s view on flexibility.
“We’ll have a little bit more flexibility with those first round picks hopefully this summer. That’s something we’ll continue to pursue, but I think those picks, whether they can be in trade, but they can also be to continue to supplement what we hope is a team that the core is here to go into the second round and further, and then those picks can be used to continue to keep the train rolling because we know with some of the changes in the CBA and things like that you’ve got to maintain your flexibility,” McNair said.
Not Adding Size And Length At The Expense Of Getting Worse In Other Areas: While the Kings like the idea of adding size and length to the roster, McNair doesn’t want to do that while taking away things that made his team good, such as spacing and shooting.
“If we can add size and length, that can make sense for our team. At the same time, we have to balance that with what we know has worked for us offensively. And we know you need shooting and spacing in this league and so we can’t sacrifice too much of something like that,” he said. “It’s trying to really find two-way guys, guys who can play on offense, guys who can play on defense. And I think Mike’s done a great job getting the most out of guys on both ends and getting guys there, but we just don’t want to solve one problem by kind of pulling our finger out of another problem.”
So, it appears McNair is prioritizing asset flexibility, balanced on-court performance and long-term growth. He wants to maintain a competitive core while exploring opportunities to make the team better with draft picks and trades down the road, and not making hasty moves in the meantime.
The holes in the roster are pretty evident to everyone now, and while the clock isn’t ticking too loudly yet in terms of the timeline for the core of this team, that will probably begin over the next two seasons. That being said, the front office clearly did not see a deal in free agency that would fit into their criteria outlined above. In the meantime, this season’s success now is on the shoulders of Mike Brown and the current roster as we march toward the battle for one of those coveted top 6 playoff spots.
Watch the full press conference below.
