The Los Angeles Clippers made another front office move Monday, and it’s one that connects directly to the team’s messy past and its uncertain future.
Monte McNair, the former Sacramento Kings general manager and longtime Houston Rockets executive, has agreed to return to the Clippers in an advisory role, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic. McNair held the same position last season but was essentially a free agent this summer before deciding to come back.
This is not a splashy hire that makes headlines on its own. But it matters because of what it says about where the Clippers are right now. McNair is a respected evaluator around the league, and he’s been around some of the smartest front offices in recent memory. He spent the bulk of his career in Houston, helping build those James Harden-led teams that consistently competed for championships in the 2010s. Then he went to Sacramento and played a part in the Kings’ brief run as an actual relevant franchise a couple of seasons ago. That’s not nothing.
The Clippers could use a steady hand. This summer, they finally moved on from Kawhi Leonard, trading him back to Toronto — the same team he won a title with in 2019. The return was solid: Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, and a chunk of draft capital. Most people around the league thought the Clippers did well. But it also officially closed the book on an era that never quite worked the way everyone expected when Leonard and Paul George arrived in 2019.
Now the question is what comes next. The Clippers have a roster that’s still talented but not obviously contending. They have cap space and picks, but also a lot of pressure to make the right decisions this time around. McNair’s job, basically, is to help them not repeat the mistakes of the past.
He knows the organization. He knows the front office. And he knows what it looks like when a team gets too impatient and blows up a good thing. Maybe that perspective is exactly what the Clippers need.
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