Ken Catanella

Ken Catanella begins his fifth season as the Kings Assistant General Manager. He collaborates with General Manager Monte McNair and assists in the management of all dayto-day basketball operations, including all player-related matters such as the draft, free agency, trades, and the team’s strategic plan. He has more than 20 years of experience in NBA, NCAA, and international basketball leagues where he has played, scouted, coached and managed basketball teams at nearly every level.

Catanella joined the Kings after enjoying a successful run over five years (2011-16) with the Detroit Pistons, including the last two seasons as the team’s assistant general manager. During his tenure, he played a prominent role in the front office of a club that underwent a significant turnaround to one of the NBA’s rising young teams.

He joined the Pistons after several years at the NBA League Office, where he directed the NBA’s salary cap and basketball analytics efforts. He also was part of the NBA League Office working group that served the NBA Labor Relations Committee in negotiating the league’s 2011 CBA with the National Basketball Players Association.

Prior to his time with the League Office, Catanella led the analytics efforts of the New Jersey Nets and managed the creation and implementation of the Nets’ statistical scouting systems. He also advised the team’s front office and ownership by scouting and evaluating domestic and international player personnel as well as formulating the team’s strategic financial plan alongside the team’s general manager.

While earning his MBA at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Catanella was a graduate assistant on the 2004 and 2005 Duke University Men’s Basketball teams. He developed new systems and analytical scouting methods for Duke’s coaches, and concurrently interned with the Assistant General Manager of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Before joining Duke, Catanella worked in both basketball and finance. Following graduation from Amherst College in 1997, he worked on Wall Street providing analytics on stadium/ arena financings for professional teams and valuing publicly traded companies. His basketball experience also included time as a collegiate player and assistant coach at Amherst College and a professional player for the Cologne 99ers of Germany. He also later served as the German Bundesliga team’s Assistant General Manager.