- George Karl, whom the Kings fired Thursday, has already been in contact with UNLV about its coaching job, and mutual interest exists between Karl and the school, which initiated the dialogue Thursday night, reports Dan Wolken of USA Today. The UNLV job is once more open after Chris Beard left Friday for Texas Tech less than two weeks after taking the Vegas job, Wolken notes.
Kings GM and vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac will lead the effort to find George Karl’s replacement as head coach, according to Sam Amick of USA Today. Sacramento fired Karl earlier today after he compiled a disappointing 33-49 record in his first full season on the job. Divac said he will talk to former Kings coach Rick Adelman to get his opinion on possible candidates, and he plans to consult with Karl as well. “It’s a blessing to work with a guy [owner Vivek Ranadive] who is saving this franchise, building the new arena [that’s set to open in October] and letting me do my job the best I can,” Divac said. “So he has trust in me, and so far I’m so happy with my owner being behind me.” Along with hiring a coach, Divac is planning an addition to the front office, rumored to be former NBA executive David Morway.
There’s more news tonight out of Sacramento:
- Divac is committed to keeping center DeMarcus Cousins despite ongoing disciplinary problems, Amick writes in the same story. Cousins clashed with Karl virtually from the time he was hired as coach, and the Kings suspended the center for a game in March, leading some to speculate that his time in Sacramento was nearing its end. “DeMarcus is our franchise player, and all heat is going to be on him,” Divac said. “Even my decision about George, [people are] all going to talk about DeMarcus. But it’s not true. He’s just one of the people we have, obviously the most valuable, and we are planning to build around him.” Cousins has two seasons and more than $32.5MM left on his current contract.
- Divac wanted to fire Karl over the All-Star break, but opposition from minority owners stopped the move, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
- Sacramento’s “radioactive” coaching situation will scare big-name contenders away, predicts Chris Mannix of The Vertical. The columnist expects the Kings to contact Tom Thibodeau, Scott Brooks and Kevin McHale, but Mannix believes all three will steer clear of Sacramento. He adds that the Kings should have fired Karl in February and replaced him with Corliss Williamson. Instead, the front office got rid of assistant coach Vance Walberg, which further sabotaged Karl’s standing with the players.
1:27pm: McHale appears unlikely to take the Kings job, and Del Negro is the most realistic candidate, Mannix suggests.
THURSDAY, 1:02pm: Nate McMillan is also in the mix, sources told Stein (Twitter link).
10:15pm: The possibility of hiring McHale is gaining traction within the Kings organization, Chris Mannix of The Vertical tweets. Sacramento is intrigued by the possibility of McHale working with DeMarcus Cousins, Mannix adds.
3:09pm: The Kings are also considering Patrick Ewing, league sources tell Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee.
12:40pm: Kevin McHale and Mark Jackson are also under consideration, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). The Kings do have strong interest in Thibodeau and Brooks but acknowledge they’ll be tough gets, Stein adds. McHale is just a few months removed from having been fired by the Rockets, while Jackson last coached in 2013/14 with the Warriors.
WEDNESDAY, 11:53am: The Kings, poised to fire George Karl, will consider a group of candidates that includes David Blatt, Vinny Del Negro, Jeff Hornacek, Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga and Hawks assistant Kenny Atkinson, sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. Jeff Van Gundy, Tom Thibodeau and Scott Brooks, who frequently draw mention as top NBA coaching candidates, are uninterested in the job, as Wojnarowski hears from league sources.
Blatt, whom the Cavs fired as their head coach in January, is also reportedly under consideration from the Knicks, though he’s reportedly a long shot for that job. The Nets have reportedly been eyeing him as well, and he has ties to the Brooklyn organization, having coached the Russian national team, which received significant financial backing from Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov.
Sacramento reportedly contacted Del Negro about its head coaching job in December 2014, when the team fired Michael Malone. Del Negro, a former Kings player, hasn’t coached in the NBA since the 2012/13 season with the Clippers, but Wojnarowski reported that he interviewed for the Pelicans job last summer.
Chatter about Hornacek has been quiet since the Suns fired him in February, though he earned respect around the league when he led Phoenix to a 48-34 record in what was supposed to be a rebuilding season during his first year as an NBA head coach. The Suns have regressed since then, and Hornacek wound up 101-112 overall in Phoenix. He was an assistant under former Kings coach Tyrone Corbin on the Jazz.
Wojnarowski wrote in February that Larranaga and Atkinson weren’t particularly eager to land the Kings job if it were to open. The assistants both reportedly interviewed for the Sixers job three years ago and have drawn frequent mention as a possible NBA head coaching candidate since. Larranaga was reportedly a contender for the recent opening at Georgia Tech that Josh Pastner ultimately filled.
Kevin Jairaj / USA TODAY Sports Images
THURSDAY, 12:41pm: The Kings have fired Karl, the team announced.
“After evaluating the team’s performance this season, I determined it was necessary to move forward with a new voice from the head coaching position,” Divac said in the team’s statement. “I have a great deal of respect and admiration for George and his accomplishments throughout his nearly 30 years in the NBA. On behalf of everyone in the Kings organization, I thank him for the contributions made during his time in Sacramento and wish him good fortune in the future.”
Karl released a statement wishing the organization well, as James Ham of CSNCalifornia.com relays (Twitter link).
11:43am: Karl, who’ll coach the team against Houston tonight, is aware of the team’s plan to fire him Thursday, sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, who adds that Divac and ownership came to the decision jointly.
WEDNESDAY, 10:53am: The Kings plan to fire George Karl on Thursday, multiple league sources indicated to Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee, who relays the news in the middle of a blog entry. The news comes as no shock, as The Bee’s Ailene Voisin wrote in March that the overwhelming sense in the Kings organization was that Karl would soon be gone, shortly after The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski said the Kings didn’t appear to want the coach beyond season’s end. Karl nearly lost his job in February before the team apparently changed course. Questions surrounding the coach’s job security emerged as early as last June, just four months after the team hired him, and his tumultuous relationship with DeMarcus Cousins has been a matter of close scrutiny.
The front office failed to tell Karl the team’s top players wouldn’t be going on the team’s season-ending road trip, according to Jones. That’s the latest example of a disconnect between the coach and the team. Karl and GM Vlade Divac‘s front office have struggled to communicate, as Jones details, pointing to Divac’s dismissal of assistant coach Vance Walberg in February and the GM’s refusal to suspend Cousins for his tirade against the coach in November. The team later suspended Cousins for one game after another tirade in March. Players didn’t trust Karl’s defensive game-planning and lacked direction on offense while privately complaining that Karl didn’t hold the team’s stars accountable, Jones writes.
Sacramento has a record of 33-48 this season heading into tonight’s final regular season game and 44-67 overall since Karl took the coaching reigns in February 2015. The team entered this season with playoff aspirations after a summer in which it acquired several veterans, including Rajon Rondo, but Karl is the eighth consecutive Kings coach to have failed to take the team to the postseason.
Karl’s up-tempo game bothered management and players alike, USA Today’s Sam Amick wrote earlier this season, also relaying concerns about the coach’s ability to perform given his health issues. A survivor of neck and throat cancer, Karl’s voice is sometimes difficult for players to hear in loud arenas, Amick wrote. Karl missed practice in March to undergo a minor cancer-related procedure.
Sacramento will be on the hook for the $6.5MM that remains on Karl’s contract. His salary for this season is $3.25MM, and it appeared as though that was a stumbling block to a dismissal earlier this season, with Kings minority-share owners reluctant to shell out money for a coach who would no longer be with the team.
The most significant controversies surrounding Karl had to do with Cousins. The coach reportedly negotiated potential trades involving Cousins this past summer behind the back of Divac, whom the Kings hired shortly after Karl arrived. That prompted Cousins to express his displeasure via social media, and while the sides appeared to patch up their differences heading into the season, Cousins continued to appear distrustful of the coach.
What was Karl’s worst mistake as Kings coach? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
- The Bulls were on board with a trade that would have involved Pau Gasol, Tony Snell and Kirk Hinrich going out and Kosta Koufos and Ben McLemore coming in from the Kings, but Sacramento withdrew from those talks when the Sixers, who were to be included as a third team, insisted the Kings relinquish a second-round pick, Goodwill hears. Sacramento was also reluctant to give into the Bulls’ desire to reduce the top-10 protection on the 2016 first-rounder the Kings owe them, according to Goodwill.
- The Kings‘ offseason shakeup turned them into playoff contenders early on, but it let them down as the season progressed, writes James Ham of CSNBayArea. The Kings will still finish with their best record since the 2007/08 season, but at 32-48 they were tied for seventh in Hoops Rumors’ reverse standings entering Sunday. “I think you can go in there and get a bunch of players,” said small forward Rudy Gay. “But I think at the end of the day you have to mesh personalities, you have to mesh talent, you have to do all of that. It’s not just getting a bunch of people on a team — it’s not that easy.”
- Kings combo guard Seth Curry‘s stock was limited in the eyes of many NBA scouts because he was viewed as a tweener with no set position, something that Curry believes is an asset, writes Kevin Fippen of NBA.com. “I feel comfortable at both positions, honestly,” Curry told Fippen. “I mean, I like having the ball in my hands and being able to make plays but I think my shooting is an asset too. I pride myself on being able to play the one [guard] and two [guard] and being able to affect the game in a lot of different ways.” In 41 appearances for Sacramento this season, Curry is averaging 6.1 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists to accompany a slash line of .496/.458/.843.
- The Kings have recalled power forward Duje Dukan from their D-League affiliate, the team announced. Dukan has appeared in 27 contests for Reno this season and is averaging 14.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists to accompany a shooting line of .403/.371/.722.
- The Kings have assigned power forward Duje Dukan to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This will be Dukan’s seventh trip to Reno on the season.
Kings coach George Karl acknowledges that his team fell short of expectations but still sees quite a few positives about the 2015/16 campaign for the franchise, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee relays. “I am seeing this team in a positive light much more than anybody in the world,” Karl said. “I think I understand the bad times better than over-reaction, expectation, doom that we seem to live in. I don’t think there have been stretches this season where we’ve played bad basketball; I think we haven’t played winning basketball. And I’m not the one that sets expectations. I’m not a predictor. I laugh all the time in the summertime.”