Mike Brown was fired as Sacramento’s coach on Dec. 27, but nobody from the Kings’ front office spoke to the media about it until late this week. That includes silence from owner Vivek Ranadive, who reportedly was the driving force behind that coaching change. While media members grumbled about the Kings dodging the hard questions, public pressure never mounted because the Kings started winning—now six in a row.
When Sacramento general manager Monte McNair finally did speak this week, he took the easy way out, an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area and California and team play-by-play announcer Mark Jones (who is a first-rate play-by-play guy, but the team’s local network is not going to challenge the GM the way non-team-affiliated media might). It’s deep into the interview before Mike Brown comes up.
“I would say first how much we appreciate Mike and everything that he did for this organization and for breaking the playoff drought. I have the utmost respect for him, and obviously, it was a tough decision when that time came. But at the same time, now Doug is the interim head coach and it’s our job to continue to support him and get him the support he needs for those players. And for him, he brings what he brings to the table. And he’s gotta be himself. And right now I think the guys are really responding to that.”
That’s a non-answer answer.
The Kings struggled in their first game after the coaching change, falling to the Lakers, but they have won six straight since to get back to 19-19 and be in the postseason mix in the West. Those first wins were against shorthanded teams (Dallas without Luka Doncic or Kyrie Irving, Philadelphia without Joel Embii,d), but the last three wins have come without an injured De’Aaron Fox, including a win against Boston.
The Kings are playing faster, their offense has been top-10 in the league since the coaching change, and they have been winning clutch games they were losing earlier in the season.
The Kings are still considering moves at the deadline, McNair said, but added the front office wants to be patient and see how the team looks after the coaching change before making any other changes.
“We’re always looking, that’s our job in the front office. We’ve always gotta find ways to improve this team, especially in the Western Conference, where it feels like every year there’s 10, 11, 12 teams that you gotta compete with. So, early returns have been good, we want to continue to see that, and then we’re about three or four weeks out from that decision point and we’ll see if there’s a way to improve the team and keep climbing the standings.”
It is tight in the West — 4.5 games separate Denver as the No. 4 seed (hosting a playoff round) and No. 12 seed Phoneix (out of even the play-in). Things can change fast.
But thanks to this six-game win streak, the Kings do not have to face the hard questions—at least not yet.
