Monte McNair has built his front office.
The Kings’ new general manager and head of basketball operations went on a shopping spree Tuesday night, bringing in Wes Wilcox as an assistant GM, as well as Phil Jabour as vice president of player personnel and Paul Johnson as director of basketball operations.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski was first with the news.
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The trio joins holdover Ken Catanella, who remained with the team as an assistant GM after the departure of Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic.
“I am excited to have Wes, Phil and Paul join the front office,” McNair said in a prepared statement. “Wes’ background as an executive in the league combined with Phil’s veteran leadership through the scouting ranks and Paul’s proven experience in evaluating talent will be strong additions to the basketball operations group. Their diverse skill sets and unique perspectives will add valuable knowledge and innovative thinking as we focus on executing our vision of building a winning culture in Sacramento.”
Wilcox, who worked as the GM for the Atlanta Hawks from 2015 through '17, was a candidate for the head job in Sacramento before the Kings chose McNair to take over the team. In addition to his time in Atlanta, he has worked for the Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans and Cleveland Cavaliers in a variety of roles, including assistant coach and advance scout.
According to the team's press release, Wilcox will support McNair "in all facets of front office operations including roster construction, strategy and player evaluation."
NBA
While McNair doesn’t have any crossover during his time in the league with Wilcox, he does with Jabour. The two worked together with the Houston Rockets from 2007 through '11. Since his time with the Rockets, Jabour worked for the Orlando Magic and spent the last six seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers in a variety of roles.
Jabour has a long history as a scout in the league, including the last 15 months as the director of scouting for the Sixers. He’s a nice complimentary piece to McNair and will be tasked with overseeing all aspects of the scouting process in Sacramento.
Johnson previously worked as a pro evaluation coordinator for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and he recently was promoted to an assistant GM position of the OKC Blue of the G League. For the Kings, Johnson take over a very successful Stockton Kings team and have a role with the parent club as well.
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Clearly, McNair's first round of hires focused on scouting, which should be a major emphasis for the Kings. The NBA draft is a little over a month away, and Sacramento has four total picks.
For now, this is the extent of McNair's management hires.