Mike Malone’s firing was surprising, but also suggests that he had no place in the Sacramento Kings of the future.
Checking Twitter at one in the morning is a nightly occurrence that takes place before I go to bed. Sitting in the glow of the screen of my iPhone, I try to cull the last information of the day that may be of value before I shove off into the calm of sleep. On Sunday, I got a bit of excitement that I wasn’t expecting – the Sacramento Kings had fired head coach Mike Malone. Across the spectrum of pundit’s, writers and no-name-Joe’s that I follow there was an air of disbelief. This was the Mike Malone who was credited for overachieving this season, leading the team to a great start in the Western Conference gauntlet. So what happened?
There are as many rumors about Malone’s departure. No news has made it to the public that would indicate any particular reason for the firing above the others, but does it really need to? To look at how we get, all we need to do is start at the top of the Kings organization and work down. Vivek Ranadive, the billionaire green-behind-the-ears owner of the Sacramento Kings shows all indications that he wanted change. As a former technologies CEO, Ranadive thrived by deriving change quickly and one could presume that played a large part in what happened here. Ranadive supposedly wanted varying schemes deployed, ranging from 4-on-5 defense with a “cherry picker” leaking out to employing schemes at the level of the Spurs and the run-and-gun tempos that, I’m assuming, he saw in teams like the 2000s Phoenix Suns teams. Malone was resistant to many of the changes that management wanted to see implemented according to the many opinions currently circulating the internet.
There were, of course, other problems with Malone and management. When a GM and a head coach don’t see eye-to-eye, something has to give. That something is generally not going to be the GM. Ranadive brought in former Denver Nuggets GM Pete D’Alessandro mere weeks after Mike Malone was hired. Both hired under the approval of Ranadive. As the story goes, it didn’t take long for the two to come into conflict. One example was the desire from the front office to bring in Josh Smith from the Detroit Pistons, a move that Mike Malone resisted. The general consensus is that Malone was right to resist — a team that includes Rudy Gay, DeMarcus Cousins and Josh Smith would make for interesting viewing, though it would be unlikely to produce a lot success.
Much about this decision by the front office reminds me of the Chicago Cubs in Major League Baseball. The Cubs were also a team near the bottom, instead of a Rudy Gay contract that no one would want, they were left with bloated contracts like that of Alfonso Soriano. An overpaid player in a situation that wasn’t going to lead to winning, he was eventually jettisoned while the team absorbed much of his remaining owed salary.
The Cubs took a different approach than what we are seeing from Ranadive, but they were also operating under a different set of circumstances. While the Cubs heralded the process of a long rebuild to become a perennial contender, Ranadive’s acquisition of the Kings was part of what ultimately saved them from exile. Former NBA guard and current Mayor of Sacramento Kevin Johnson also had a lot to do with the Kings staying in town when it seemed like they were all but out the door and off to Seattle.
So, was Ranadive and Co. wrong to let Mike Malone go? My knee-jerk response was to overwhelming shout YES! After I had a chance to look at it some more however, I came back to the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs had multiple opportunities to employ managers that were both accomplished and fan favorites, but they opted for little-known managers, clearly stopgaps, on their way to eventually securing the services of one of the premiere coaches in all of professional baseball, former Tampa Rays coach Joe Maddon. There isn’t a Joe Maddon waiting for the Kings, but does that mean there isn’t anyone that they have their heart set on? Certainly Gregg Popovich isn’t walking through the door. The Kings don’t have the full luxury of a slow rebuild like the Chicago Cubs. Seattle wants a franchise and is a desirable destination, if not the Kings, then somebody else on the hot seat soon enough, right?
D’Alessandro, presumably operating under the directive of the front office, wants to make an improvement and they do not think that Mike Malone is their guy. If Malone isn’t the coach that they see managing the team going forward, are they obligated to keep him on staff, leading the team further from the up-tempo Spurs utopia that Ranadive and D’Alessandro see in dreams? But why now, is this the right time to make a change to a team that was outperforming expectations? Prior to DeMarcus Cousins going out of the lineup due to viral meningitis they were 9-6. It wasn’t until they were without their all-world center that they began to drop, going 2-7 since Cousins was sidelined. Judging any coach of a roster comprised up what Malone had to work with, in the Western conference, and without his star player, is really just the front office gaming the system against said coach.
In his piece on Malone’s firing, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports summed it well in saying, “the biggest changes Vivek Ranadive needs to make aren’t with the coach’s style, but his own.” Was this the best choice for the Kings in the long term? It is hard for us to say while we still stand on ground zero, though it would seem that if a change was impending, it might have been best for management and, more importantly, the players if a change had been made before the season, or after. But what is done is done, where do the Kings go from here?
While I do love Jason Concepcion’s idea for crowd-sourcing and emoji-ready play calling, we will probably need to wait a while for that to take shape.
A few candidates stand out above the rest; the first option is the one already in place. Tyrone Corbin was brought in as an assistant to Mike Malone and has taken over interim coaching duties. It is widely speculated that he will be allowed to finish the season as coach. While nothing is certain, it seems that a quasi-Cubs approach might be in place here. While the Kings appeared to be more than ready to part with Malone, they might not be so impatient as to name his replacement at this time. One can only imagine what kind of edicts will come from the front office and the resulting play-calling that we will witness unfold over the remainder of the season, or at least the next few games.
SacTown Royalty has reported that the Kings have contacted Vinny Del Negro. The coach doesn’t seem like an ideal fit, both because of his coaching style and the tempo which his systems have employed in the past. If Ranadive is looking for just a guy to get in place and plans to fire again at the end of the season when their priority coach is ready to take over, Del Negro might be an option.
The best and most likely options for the Kings emerged almost immediately after Malone was let go: George Karl and Chris Mullin. Mullin is currently working as an advisor within the Kings organization and reports on multiple sites, including ESPN, indicated that Mullin seems resistant to leave his front office to take on the position of coach.
That leaves us with the current leading candidate and seeming great fit for the philosophy of the front office, George Karl. Karl is no stranger to D’Alessandro – the two worked together in Denver – and he is capable of employing a high tempo offense and most likely of all candidates to being open to try new schemes.
The other piece of this intriguing mess that adds a bit of useless narrative is that Sacramento nearly lost their team to Seattle, before the team was sold to Ranadive, and now their leading candidate for the head coaching position is a veteran coach who achieved his greatest success on the bench of the Seattle Supersonics. Everything points to mutual interest, as reported by Kings beat writer Jason Jones on the Sacramento Bee who quoted George Karl, “… If they are interested in me, I would have interest in them… I love the gym and I love the NBA and if this would fall into place I would, again, I would be humbled to talk to them and see where it goes.”
No matter who takes over, the Kings and their fan base are in for a ride. While it is likely Corbin is going to be given the chance to work over the remainder of the season, D’Alessandro’s connection to George Karl proves to be the most likely long term bet.
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