In a move that has left many scratching their heads, the Sacramento Kings announced late Sunday night that they had fired head coach Mike Malone.
The move comes as a surprise to most after the Kings surged to a 5-1 start to begin the season behind the strong play of newly acquired guard Rudy Gay and franchise player Demarcus Cousins.
Sacramento has gone 6-12 since, with Cousins missing the last nine games while recovering from viral meningitis. The Kings are 2-7 in his absence. Cousins leads the team in points, rebounds, assists, and steal per game.
Malone compiled a 39-67 during his time with the Kings, which began at the start the 2013-14 season. He was the team’s first head coach since Vivek Ranadive took over primary ownership prior to the season.
Assistant coach Tyrone Corbin will serve as the team’s interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Corbin went 112-146 in three-plus seasons as coach of the Utah Jazz. His contract was not renewed after the end of last season.
Although there is a remote possibility that Corbin could retain the position for the long term if the Kings go on to have a successful year and fight for a playoff spot in a tough Western Conference, there are still several other candidates that could take over after season’s end.
Veteran head coach George Karl is expected to be a serious candidate for the position because of his past relationship with Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro. The two worked together in the past with the Denver Nuggets, and D’Alessandro is known to be a fan of Karl’s style. Karl was most recently the head coach of the Denver Nuggets, going 423-257 in the regular season before being let go in 2013, shortly after he won NBA Coach of the Year.
“I’m humbled,” Karl told SiriusXM radio in an interview earlier today. “If they’re interested in me, I’m interested in them.”
So why exactly would the Kings dismiss a coach that started off so strongly, losing in recent weeks only after his top player went out with a severe illness?
Anonymous sources have told several outlets that Malone simply did not live up to expectations of ownership and had serious philosophical differences with management. Part of the reason for the differences is most likely the fact that Ranadive made the strange decision to hire a head coach in Malone before hiring a general manager.
Ranadive was formerly a minority owner of the Golden State Warriors before leaving to head the group that eventually bought the Kings in May 2013. Ranadive decided back then that Malone, an assistant coach at the time under then-Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, would be the coach of the Kings after he bought the team. Ranadive called him “one of the best and most talented coaches in the game,” at the time.
D’Alessandro was brought in a short time after as manager. He is known to be more of an offensive-minded manager after spending his years with the similarly-minded Karl in Denver and former Warriors coach Don Nelson during his time in Oakland. The Kings also hired former Warrior great Chris Mullin as an “advisor to the chairmen,” giving him a significant say in all personnel matters. Mullin is just as offensive-focused as D’Alessandro, and has been critical of the Kings’ offensive play since he has been in the organization.
It is a mystery as to why Ranadive didn’t see the conflict that was to come.
Malone is widely known around the NBA as a defense-first coach. Malone had a significant hand in LeBron James’ improvements made on that end during his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers as an assistant coach under Mike Brown. Malone was also in charge of the defensive side of things during his time with the Warriors as well.
The Kings’ offensive numbers reveal how it’s easy to see why D’Alessandro and Mullin were at odds with Malone.
The Kings’ offensive pace was 14th in the NBA last season (96.7 possessions per 48 minutes) and 16th this season (95.7 possessions per). Sacramento ranked 20th in offensive rating last season (102.9 points per 100 possessions) and 16th this season (103.6). The Kings rank 16th in the league currently this season with 101.0 points per game.
For those in the Kings organization, the decision to fire Malone was probably seen coming since the summer. Malone and D’Alessandro had very little communication during the offseason, even as the newly-acquired Gay and Cousins played together on the Team USA team that won gold in the summer’s FIBA Championships.
Malone had stuck to his style to begin the season, and the tension created between he, D’Alessandro, and Mullin culminated in his inevitable firing, a relationship that was doomed from the start after poor decisions made by ownership.
Vivek Ranadive is considered a hero in Sacramento for having saved the Kings by keeping them from moving to Seattle. He is obviously committed to the long term success of the team, as ground has already been broken on a $477 million arena that is expected to open downtown for the 2016-17 season.
If he truly wants the team to succeed and be a playoff contender, something they haven’t done in eight years, he might want to exercise a little more foresight in the future when making critical hires. George Karl would be a good start.
