On Friday, the Sacramento Kings decided to part ways with head coach Mike Brown, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The team has lost its last five games and has failed to show any progress this season despite the offseason addition of DeMar DeRozan.
Brown joined the Kings in 2022, amassing 107 regular-season wins in 195 regular-season games during his tenure. Firing head coaches with winning records isn’t usually the done thing.
Brown took over a Kings team that was mired in mediocrity. He turned them into a consistent playoff threat, ending a 16-year drought, and got them playing some exciting basketball. Furthermore, Brown is just 18 months removed from being voted the 2022-23 NBA Coach of the Year.
Speaking to the media ahead of the Golden State Warriors’ loss to the LA Clippers, Steve Kerr expressed his disappointment at the Kings’ decision.
“When you think about where that franchise was before Mike got there and where they’ve been the last couple of years, the job he and his staff have done — it’s just really shocking,” Kerr said. “I know they’ve been in a tough spell, but this is the NBA. We all go through tough spells.”
Firing Brown is a knee-jerk reaction to a rough run of games. The Kings aren’t going to find a better coach on the free-agent market, and their reputation will undoubtedly have suffered. For the first time in almost 20 years, the front office was making smart decisions. It was building slowly and allowing the coach to develop the younger talent on the roster.
By firing Brown, the Kings have set themselves back. Elite-level coaches will likely be reluctant to sign on with the franchise. After all, if winning games isn’t enough to create security, there’s little reason to find the job enticing or even find a reason to commit. It’s hard to see how the Kings improve by parting ways with Brown, especially midway through the season.
Sacramento must now find a way to pivot. The front office can’t dilly-dally in their search for a new leading voice. The longer it drags its heels on making a hire, the more incompetent it will look.
After two and a half seasons of stability, the real Kings have begun to shine through. If they had thought they faced an uphill battle to keep De’Aaron Fox before, their handling of this situation would have likely made that task twice as difficult.
