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
Man, you are really on something today haha. I’ll take a few ounces of whatever that is
He’s not wrong.
They picked Bagley over Doncic.
They traded away Halliburton.
They traded away Fox.
Now they have Westbrook, Lavine, and Derozan.
And to top it off they fired the Head Coach of the Knicks who just won the NBA cup.
What an absolute disaster of a franchise.
No doubt they’re a disaster. Suggesting that Sillivan is right though???
Yes, the Halliburton trade was dumb, especially as the reason for making the deal was to move from a position of strength with Fox already in tow, but then turning around and dealing Fox less than two years later.
As for the Bailey instead of Luca, the Blazers passed on Jordan to take Bowie, the Sixers traded up to pick Fultz instead of taking Tatum, and 29 teams passed on Joker until the Nuggets took him in the 2nd round. There’s enough bad draft picks over the years that Bagley/Luka isn’t the most baffling of their moves. Watching Chicago struggle with the DeRo, Zack combo and saying “how can we get into the DeRozan, Levine business “ is like watching a sinking ship, and then deciding that you might as well drill a hole in your boat to join them on the journey to the depths of the sea.
I was referring more to the specificity of the 2036 playoffs and their respective ages then lol.
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
Double overpaid….that is indeed quite Silly!
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?
Gen FU
Yet you still watch the games. Must be soooooo painful for you. I don’t know how you’ve survived.
Can you explain to me why fellow Gen Xers Erik Spoelstra and Ime Udoka seemingly have no problem getting their players to compete hard night in and night out? I wonder if it has more to do with Christie being a joke of a head coach that gets out-schemed on a nightly basis…
Probably a bit of both.
DeMar and LaVine, in particular, have always been worse defenders than they ought to be if they actually gave effort on that side of the ball. Not that they would be good defenders, but this bad is a player issue.
But I’m sure the players also realize Christie is way out of his depth in terms of his rotations and schemes. Players aren’t stupid. 0% chance he is even considered for another head coaching job after this.
Oh yes, I agree that the roster fit on this team is atrocious. I just thought the take insisting this is a generational issue was ridiculous (especially since most of the core players aren’t even Gen Z)
Typical gen Z response, all caught up in your feelings.
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.
Team was badly constructed, and Perry didn’t help matters at all with that signing, lol.
Mike Brown is probably VERY thankful they let him go LOL
The players suck, the coach sucks, and the two groups could not be more deserving of one another (save for a few exceptions on the roster. You have my condolences for having to put up with this clown show).
KANGZ
Honestly, this Kings roster is so poorly constructed that I dont think it is fair to judge Doug Christie off of it.
I wouldnt say he is doing the BEST job, but wow this roster stinks
Pretty obvious there’s a disconnect when you’re 6-20, right?
I love everyone who talks about the “ horrible “ trade that brought Sabonis to Sac. This is one of those situations where people mouth off like absolute clowns. When you bring up certain points, they all of a sudden realize that they sound as dumb as they do and then they get mad and accuse of you of losing your cool and being sooooo negative. Haliburton in Sac apparently was already a GOD… oh wait all he ever did and I am not exaggerating was run to a corner and shoot 3’s! Folks he doesn’t play defense in Indiana and everyone knows it, but just think no defense, then on offense he would shoot like 7-9 times a game , average 12-14ppg .. and that’s it ! Kings 40+ win seasons with Haliburton = 0 in fact it was 16 seasons in a row never reaching 40 wins. Sabonis 3 full seasons with the team and the WORST WAS 40! He played through multiple broken bones , detached retina, black eyes constantly, etc. with how quickly people turn on guys in Sacramento and yet never hold certain other players to standards at all is truly remarkable. Sacramento radio goes like this . “ let me ask you a question, you think Domas wants out ?”
Other guy “ seriously ? If he doesn’t want to be here then take your ass elsewhere “ blah blah blah. A question that’s hypothetical becomes full blown reality with in a week. I wish Domas all the best I really do.