The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced today that Monty McNair, General Manager of the Sacramento Kings, has been named the 2022-23 Basketball Executive of the Year. McNair is the third general manager in franchise history to win the annual award, joining Joe Axelson (1972-1973) and Geoff Petrie (1998-99, 2000-01) and is the second to receive the honor in the Sacramento era.
McNair received 16 of the 30 first-place votes and received a total of 98 points from the voting panel, which is composed of basketball team executives across the NBA. It’s the first NBA Executive of the Year award for McNair, who served three seasons as president of basketball operations for the Kings. Under his leadership, the Kings finished the 2022-23 season with the seventh-best record (48-30) in the NBA and finished third in the West to earn a postseason berth for the first time in 16 seasons and best finish since. 2004-05 season.
Last May, the Kings named head coach Mike Brown, who won the 2022-23 NBA Coach of the Year award and became the first coach in NBA history to win the award unanimously. McNair bolstered the Kings roster by selecting Keegan Murray with the fourth overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Murray earned two consecutive Rookie of the Month honors becoming the fourth Kings rookie to win the award in consecutive months and the fifth to win the award multiple times. A former Iowa All-Star, Murray was named to the 2023 Jordan Rookie of the Year, became the NBA’s all-time 3-point leader with 206 made three-pointers, and was a major candidate for NBA Rookie of the Year for 2022-23.
In July 2022, McNair continued to bolster the Kings’ roster by acquiring guard Kevin Huerter in a trade with the Atlanta Hawks and signing guard Malik Monk as a free agent. Huerter averaged best 15.2 points per game and 2.9 assists in his first season with the Kings while also recording career highs on 3-pointers (205) and a 3-point field goal percentage (40.2%). Monk had one of his best seasons throughout his career, scoring the most points by a reserve during the 2022-23 NBA season (1,041) and the third most by a reserve Kings in franchise history in a single season. In addition, Monk was one of seven players to record multiple 20-point games as a reserve (12 games) and finished the season fifth in scoring off the bench (13.5) and third in assists per game (3.9) and in total assists. (298) while hitting 143 3-point field goals, which ranked third for all bench players this season.
McNair helped orchestrate one of the most prolific offensive teams in NBA history as the Kings achieved the all-time highest offensive rating (118.6) in league history and set the franchise record for scoring with a 176-175 double-overtime win against the Los Angeles Clippers. Feb 24. The match also marked the second-best game in NBA history. During the season, Kings center Domantas Sabonis set the Sacramento era record for the most triple-doubles in a single season (14) as he and Dearon Fox became the first group of Kings teammates to be named All-Stars in the same season since. 2004. Among league leaders, Sacramento ranks second in field goal percentage (49.4%), third in assists percentage (27.3), fifth in three-pointers made (1,128) and ninth in three-point percentage (37.3%). The Kings also ranked first in true shooting percentage (60.8%), second in effective field goal percentage (57.2), second in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.02), eighth in net rating (2.6) and seventh in assist percentage (62.6%). ).