Sacramento Kings to hire Ken Catanella as assistant general manager

When a front office performs well, teams will begin to steal executives from that front office. The Sacramento Kings have done exactly that by hiring executive Ken Catanella as their assistant general manager, according to Marc Stein.

ESPN sources say that the Sacramento Kings have chosen Detroit Pistons executive Ken Catanella as their new assistant general manager.

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) April 28, 2016

Ken Catanella was hired by the Pistons in 2011 to be the Director of Basketball Operations under Joe Dumars. His main role was salary cap management and analytics. He stayed on in that role when Stan Van Gundy and Jeff Bower were hired in 2014.

Prior to joining the Pistons, Catanella was in charge of analytics with the New Jersey Nets from 2006-2008. He had a playing career with the Cologne 99ers in Germany as well. He graduated from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts where he also played basketball.

It is not known what Catanella will be in charge of with the Sacramento Kings, but I'm sure it will be a similar role to what he had here.

Stan Van Gundy and Jeff Bower get a lot of credit for the work that they do, but Catanella's work behind the scenes has played a pretty large role as well. The Pistons have made more of an effort to expand their analytics department, and Catanella was in charge of that. While I trust Bower and Van Gundy to find the right replacement, this is a bit of a loss.

I'm sure the Kings are offering a larger role and more money to Catanella, but that is a tough organization to work for. He could really put his name out there if the Kings start to turn it around.