It has been a disappointing season so far in Sacramento, where the Kings are off to a 6-20 start and are expected to explore the possibility of moving several of their veteran players ahead of the February 5 deadline, writes Marc J. Spears of Andscape.
While the Kings have been playing poorly for most of the year, they’ve especially struggled in recent weeks, having lost 15 of their last 18 games and seven of their past eight. Amid that extended slump, sources tell Spears that there’s a “disconnect” between some of the players on the roster and head coach Doug Christie and his coaching staff.
Christie, who took over as the Kings’ head coach midway through the 2024/25 season after Mike Brown was fired, led the team to a 27-24 record to close out the year. Although Sacramento was quickly dispatched in the play-in round and overhauled its front office in the spring, Christie was retained and given the head coaching job on a permanent basis under new general manager Scott Perry.
After one stretch of losses in early November, Christie ripped into his team for what he referred to as a “shameful” effort. He has eased off on that sort of public criticism of his players in recent weeks despite a lack of improvement in the standings, presumably opting to take a different tack as he attempts to get the most out of his roster.
Perry told Sam Amick of The Athletic a few weeks ago that he has “complete confidence” in Christie to “lead this team into better times,” suggesting that management isn’t considering a coaching change. And even if Christie isn’t seeing eye-to-eye with some of his players, the trade rumors constantly circulating around the team suggest that the head coach could end up sticking around Sacramento longer than some of those players will.
Still, the Kings didn’t exactly make a lucrative, long-term commitment to Christie when they named him their permanent coach in the spring. Amick reported in October that Christie’s new contract is only guaranteed for two seasons and he’s only making about $2MM annually during those two years, which is well below the average salary for an NBA head coach. In other words, if Sacramento does want to make another coaching change before Christie’s contract is up, the financial penalty wouldn’t be significant.
I’m shocked! That this article wasn’t written a month ago, that is.
Kings back court
Replace Doncic with Westbrook (age 48 in 2036 playoffs)
Replace Haliburton with DeRozan (Age 47 in 2036 playoffs)
Replace Fox with LaVine (age 41 in 2036 playoffs)
Let’s talk about vision
You hired Perry, who is very passive and conservative
Isn’t there disconnect throughout the entire organization?
Not really sure the kings should do anything. You’re already losing. If you get a call sell any player not name murry or whatever they give you. But you are tanking just perfectly now. This team is hot garbage
All Kings market contracts are double-overpaid. Spending cut
Whoever wants to take salaries
Lavine
Monk
Schroder
DeRozan
Sabonis trade for future picks
Murray is double overpaid, unlikely to be traded
they should try to trade every single player on their roster, also possibly trade the owner for the drive thru order taker at a local McDonald’s, no way a random anyone could run the team worse
A disconnect? What a shocker. A gen X hard nosed player vs a bunch of Gen z soft head cases?
All Christie wants is ball movement and for the players to play a little defense.
A pretty reasonable request but players often resist, especially when they tried it for one or two games and they still lost.
Is there a worse run franchise in the NBA?
I think not. Dennis Schroeder to lead your team Really.