SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento Kings took little time to hire a new general manager, agreeing to a deal with Scott Perry just hours after parting ways with Monte McNair.

A person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Thursday that Perry will take over for McNair and try to upgrade a roster that lost in the play-in tournament for a second straight season. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal hadn’t been announced.

The Kings and McNair mutually agreed to part ways shortly after the team’s 120-106 loss to Dallas on Wednesday night ended a disappointing season.

After snapping an NBA-record 16-season playoff drought in 2022-23 when McNair was named executive of the year, the Kings fell just short of returning to the playoffs the past two seasons, leading to the change.

Perry’s Previous Experience

Perry returns to Sacramento after spending three months in the front office as vice president of basketball operations in 2017. Perry was hired that summer to become general manager of the Knicks under team president Scott Mills.

Perry ran the team briefly on an interim basis in 2020 following Mills’ firing before returning to his role of GM under team president Leon Rose through the 2022-23 season.

Perry spent more than a decade in the front office for the Pistons, playing a role in building a roster that won the 2004 NBA Finals and made six straight Eastern Conference Finals appearances.

Now he will try to do the same with the Kings after becoming the franchise’s fifth lead executive since owner Vivek Ranadive took over the team in 2013. The Kings have gone through nine coaches in that span — including interims — and have the fifth worst record in the NBA.

One of the first decisions will be on the status of interim coach Doug Christie, who went 27-24 in the regular season after taking over when Mike Brown was fired in December. Christie said after the game that he wants to remain in the job and that he needs to “finish what I started.”

Sacramento won at least 40 games in each of the past three seasons after failing to do that even once in the previous 16 seasons but the Kings weren’t able to take the next step to be a contender in the Western Conference.

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Challenges Ahead

This past season was a big step back as the team fired Brown in December, traded star De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio in February and finished in ninth place in the conference with a 40-42 record.

It bottomed out with the blowout loss at home to the Mavericks on Wednesday night.

Perry inherits a core of Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Keegan Murray and Malik Monk. He might not have a first-round draft pick unless the Kings land in the top 12, which appears unlikely unless Sacramento can jump into the top four.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA