Mike Malone already bringing the energy as Kings head coach

Mike Malone has been one of the most well-respected assistant coaches for quite awhile, but he’s moving one seat over this year as head coach of the Sacramento Kings. According to an interview he did with the Sacramento Bee’s Ailene Voisin, it sounds like the new head coach will bring a much-needed energetic approach to the Kings.

Malone, the son of longtime NBA coach Brendan Malone and Mark Jackson’s top assistant last season with the Golden State Warriors, has taken a hands on approach since taking over as Sacramento’s head coach. Some of that has happened in the front office -- he was in place prior to the hiring of general manager Pete D’Alessandro -- but Malone’s also putting in work with the players he’s been hired to coach.

What I mean is that when you want to change culture, you change people. When the players come back in September, they’re going to get a sense that things are different when they’re around our staff. They can see how hard we work, how committed we are. I’m running sprints last week with DeMarcus Cousins and Travis Outlaw, and they said, “Coach, we’ve never had a guy run sprints with us.”

There aren’t a lot of coaches at the upper levels willing to sweat with their players which, in some situations, can lead to some communication issues and a lack of relating to one another. Malone’s team doesn’t sound like it’ll have that problem, though, which is obviously essential for a young and developing team.

This summer, we had Isaiah Thomas, Jason Thompson, Jimmer Fredette, Marcus Thornton working out during the summer league, and we’re all sweating, working. When I went down to Santa Barbara to meet with Patrick Patterson, he said, “Coach, I’ve been hearing things.” This is no knock on Keith Smart or his staff. Keith is a great coach, and the circumstances were far from ideal. But I know for my situation, and my staff, we are going to be a work staff, an energetic staff. Aside from my father, I’ve hired a very young staff. I don’t want any moping around. The other challenge for me, I want our players to embody unity, trust, unselfishness.

The above excerpts are just a small piece of an overall interesting read, but the entire interview shows that Malone has the right attitude heading into his first NBA head coaching opportunity.