Last month, the Sacramento Kings finally got new ownership. Now it appears that they will have a new man in charge of basketball operations, as it was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (and confirmed by others), the Kings are set to hire Denver’s current Assistant GM Pete D’Alessandro to be the Sactramento club’s new General Manager.
D’Alessandro is the second major hire made by the Kings new ownership group spearheaded by Vivek Ranadive. They previously hired Mike Malone, who was an assistant with Golden State last year, to be their new head coach. It is an interesting dynamic in that they have hired their coach before hiring the GM, instead of hiring the GM and allowing him to hire the coach.
D’Alessandro has numerous years of front office experience in the NBA. He was Masai Ujiri’s right hand man in Denver and reportedly worked closely with him in engineering the Carmelo Anthony trade to the New York Knicks, as well as having heavy input into the team’s draft each year. D’Alessandro previously worked for the Golden State Warriors.
In Sacramento, D’Alessandro’s biggest immediate duty will be determining the future of the Kings’ talented center Demarcus Cousins. Cousins clearly has the talent to be a top tier center in the NBA, however he must show a willingness to compete night in and night out, as well as more respect for his coaches and teammates. D’Alessandro must determine if Cousins will buy into the long term rebuild approach for the club, and if he doesn’t fit, to try and move him and get maximum value.
Meanwhile in Denver the mass exodus continues. The club has already lost GM Masai Ujiri to the Toronto Raptors, fired coach George Karl and learned that star swingman Andre Iguodala will opt out of his contract and become a free agent. Many observers believed that D’Alessandro was the most likely candidate to replace Ujiri as GM of the Nuggets but it was not to be. This move continues a massive overhaul for the club since losing their first round series to Golden State, and despite the most successful regular season in recent memory.
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