Knicks Rumors: Scott Perry a possible candidate for the Sacramento Kings?
Could Knicks GM Scott Perry find his way back to Sacramento?
New York Knicks general manager Scott Perry, who spent three months working with the Sacramento Kings before being hired by the Knicks in 2017, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for a front office role in Sacramento after incumbent general manager Vlade Divac stepped down on Friday.
Marc J. Spears of ESPN’s Undefeated floated the rumor on Twitter shortly after news broke about Divac leaving the organization.
Perry has survived the regime change in New York under Leon Rose. Former team president Steve Mills was fired in February, replaced by Rose, and in a somewhat surprising move, Perry’s final option year was picked up for the 2020-21 season.
Won’t be surprised if Kings reach out to the new regime Knicks for permission to talk to GM Scott Perry about opening. Perry played a key role in the Kings drafting De’Aaron Fox and signing vets like George Hill & Vince Carter in short stint. Also worked for Dumars with Pistons.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) August 14, 2020
It’s believed that Rose, who is the former head of basketball at CAA, was looking for some continuity in a front office that has since been revamped with new faces such as William Wesley as executive VP, Walt Perrin as head of college scouting, and Brock Aller as a strategy and cap specialist.
Could Joe Dumars and Scott Perry reunite in Sacramento?
Joe Dumars has assumed the role of general manager with the departure of Divac in Sacramento. The Athletic reports that Divac decided to step down after it became clear that Dumars would be taking an increased role in decision making for the organization.
Scott Perry was hired as a front office executive under Dumars when he was president of basketball operations in Detroit. The two had great success in turning the Pistons into perennial contenders that reached the Eastern Conference Finals in six consecutive seasons, winning an NBA championship in 2004.
Perry later left Detroit for an assistant GM role with the Seattle Supersonics. He then spent several seasons in Orlando before moving out west.
Few executives receive as much praise in such a short period of time as Perry did during his three-month stint with the Kings in 2017.
He is largely credited for the team selecting emerging star De’Aaron Fox with the fifth overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. He helped Sacramento use an extra first round pick (10th overall) from that same draft to secure two more picks (15th and 20th) which were used on Justin Jackson and Harry Giles, respectively. The Kings, who have never been an attractive free agent destination, later signed veterans Vince Carter, Zach Randolph, and George Hill, with Perry’s strong relationship to agents and players cited as instrumental in completing each of those deals.
It was on the heels of Sacramento’s impressive offseason that the Knicks hired Perry while sending a second round pick back to the Kings in compensation.
While it’s difficult to disentangle the role Perry had relative to Mills in New York’s player personnel moves over the past several seasons, focusing on the draft, where Perry has often had a leading voice, his record is spotty: there are tremendous highlights, such as finding Mitchell Robinson in the second round; there are apparent misses, i.e. Kevin Knox; and the jury is still out on recent lottery selection RJ Barrett.
Next. 1 FA target from every Southwest team. dark
After an exhaustive coaching search that landed on front-runner Tom Thibodeau being hired as head coach, if Perry was recruited back to Sacramento, the Knicks would be put in a position of finding a new general manager at a time when the team is finalizing draft and free agency plans. In such a scenario, the New York Post reported on Saturday that Walt Perrin would likely succeed Perry.