The NBA announced today that Sacramento Kings General Manager Monte McNair has been named the 2022-23 NBA Basketball Executive of the Year. McNair is the third general manager in franchise history to win the yearly award, joining Joe Axelson (1972-73) 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 earned 98 total points from the voting panel, which is comprised of team basketball executives across the NBA. This is the first NBA Executive of the Year Award for McNair, who has served three season as the head of basketball operations for the Kings. Under his leadership, the Kings ended 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 the best finish since the 2004-05 season.
Last May, the Kings hired Head Coach Mike Brown, who was named the 2022-23 NBA Coach of the Year 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 selection in the 2022 NBA Draft. Murray earned two consecutive Rookie of the Month honors to become the fourth Kings rookie to win the award in consecutive months and the fifth to earn the award multiple times. A former Iowa standout, Murray, was named to the 2023 Jordan Rising Stars, became the NBA’s All-Time Rookie 3-Point Leader with 206 3-pointers made and was a prime candidate for the 2022-23 NBA Rookie of the Year Award.
In July 2022, McNair continued to strengthen 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 a career-best 15.2 points per game and 2.9 assists in his first season with the Kings while also setting career highs in 3-pointers made (205) and 3-point field goal percentage (40.2%). Monk saw one of his best seasons throughout his career, recording the most points by a reserve during the 2022-23 season in the NBA (1,041) and the third-most by a Kings reserve 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 ranking fifth in scoring off the bench (13.5) and third in assists per game (3.9) and in total assists (298) while knocking down 143 3-point field goals, which ranked for the third-most by a bench player this season.
McNair helped orchestrate one of the most prolific offensive teams in NBA history as the Kings had the highest-ever offensive rating (118.6) in league history and set the franchise record in scoring with a 176-175 win in double overtime against the LA Clippers on February 24. The game also marked the second-highest scoring game in NBA history. During the season, Kings center Domantas Sabonis set the Sacramento era record for the most triple-doubles in a season (14) as he and De’Aaron Fox became the first set of Kings teammates to be named All-Stars in the same season since 2004. Among league leaders, Sacramento ranked second in field goal percentage (49.4%), third in assists (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%).
