Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac were using All-Star weekend in Toronto to canvass league officials on possible candidates to hire as general manager, league sources told The Vertical.
The Kings are starting to acknowledge that Divac has been overwhelmed with the complexities of the collective bargaining agreement and the sophisticated ways with which most NBA organizations are run now. Privately, the Kings have been telling people they plan to run a GM and a coaching search once the regular season ends. Sacramento has committed to keeping coach George Karl for the rest of the regular season, but has shown no inclination to bring him back next season, sources said.
As of now, the Kings will struggle to convince attractive NBA coaches to take the job. The organizational structure would have to change dramatically to even get into a conversation with any of the successful coaches on the market, including Tom Thibodeau, Jeff Van Gundy and Scott Brooks.