Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown threw his players under the bus Thursday night after a Jaden Ivey four-point play in the final seconds handed the Kings their fifth straight loss. “We got to have some form of mental toughness... we gotta wake up.”
Friday, the Kings threw Brown under the bus.
Sacramento fired Brown after a 13-18 start to the season, a story broken by Shams Charania of ESPN and since confirmed by multiple sources. Former Kings player and current assistant Doug Christie will move up to the big chair as the interim head coach, Chrania and others report.
Brown helped the Kings snap their record 16-season playoff drought in his first season as coach (2022-23). Even after not advancing out of the play-in a season ago, Brown was given a three-year, $25.5 million contract extension with Sacramento just this past offseason that had him with the team through the summer of 2027.
Expectations were high for the Kings this season after the team landed its first big free agent in recent memory, DeMar DeRozan (he officially came to the team as part of a three-team sign-and-trade, but he chose Sacramento, and then the deal was worked out). However, these Kings have just found ways to lose — like giving up a four-point play in the final seconds — and the team is off to a 13-18 start that has them three games out of even the play-in. The Kings have been better than that, they have a top-10 offense, an average defense — which is fantastic work by Brown and his staff considering how this roster is constructed — and a +1.2 net rating, the equivalent of a 17-14 team. Sacramento has just been unlucky in the clutch.
Brown was fired after he ran a full practice and talked to the media Friday, but before the team boarded the plane for Los Angeles to face the Lakers on Saturday. That timing was very Kings.
It’s not a coincidence that this comes at a time when Sacramento is trying to convince De’Aaron Fox they can build a winner there, with rumors that he could ask for a trade swirling around the league. That said, how many of the Kings’ issues are on Brown and how many are on ownership and the front office is up for debate — the front office handed a defense-first head coach a roster weak on that end and one with overlapping pieces on offense. In the bigger picture, after the team made the playoffs in 2023, the front office stood pat, acting like the team had arrived and not improving it. While the front office made its move this past summer — bringing in another player who thrives in the midrange, much like Domantas Sabonis and Fox, leading to questions of fit — it proved to be a year too late. Former Kings coach George Karl spoke for a lot of Kings’ fans.
Same owner. Same ways. Isn’t gonna change.
— George Karl (@CoachKarl22) December 27, 2024
Still, the Kings should be better than their record. A coaching change may be the jolt this team needs to start winning some close games and get back into the West postseason mix.
