After agreeing to a four-year, $15 million contract with the Kings, Karl will take over for Tyrone Corbin after the All-Star break.
Since the days of Rick Adelman and the Greatest Show on Court, the Sacramento Kings have been an abysmal basketball franchise. After qualifying for the playoffs eight consecutive seasons (1999-2006), the team has not made a single postseason appearance. The team has also gone through seven different head coaches since the 2005-06 season.
But after a long period of ineptitude, the franchise took a massive step forward with the hiring of former Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl.
Karl, the 2012-13 NBA Coach of the Year, led the Nuggets to nine straight playoff appearances from 2005 to 2013. Prior to his time in Denver, he took the Seattle SuperSonics and the Milwaukee Bucks to the postseason a combined 11 times from 1992 to 2003.
The sixth-winningest coach in NBA history, Karl has compiled 1,131 wins throughout his coaching career. Despite extraordinary success in the regular season, though, his playoff resume leaves much to be desired. In 22 career postseason appearances, teams coached by Karl have been eliminated in the first round 14 times and the second round four times. He has only reached the NBA Finals once and he is still looking for his first championship as a head coach.
Nevertheless, Karl’s hiring is an excellent move by the Kings. The franchise has lacked stability at the head coach position for several years, and a proven winner like Karl has the skills and the credibility to mold a young team into playoff contenders. Owner Vivek Ranadive has pushed for Sacramento to win games sooner rather than later, and with a new arena in the works and DeMarcus Cousins locked up for the foreseeable future, the Kings have no time to waste.
Offensively, teams have thrived under Karl’s run-and-gun style system. During his last six years in Denver, the Nuggets had an offensive rating of 109 points or higher. As coach of the Bucks, Karl posted both the sixth and seventh-highest offensive ratings in the franchise’s 47-year history, trailing only the great Don Nelson. In the 1994-95 season, Seattle’s 114.8 offensive rating was the highest in its 48-year history.
But Sacramento has been wildly inconsistent on the offensive end. Currently, the Kings are last in the NBA in assists, 29th in 3-pointers made per game, 26th in 3-point percentage and 18th in offensive rating. However, they are ninth in the league in pace, so Karl shouldn’t have an issue getting his young players to play fast. Because his system relies heavily on tempo, ball movement and floor spacing, it will be essential for Darren Collison, Ben McLemore and Rudy Gay to play to their fullest potential.
The most interesting factor will be whether or not Karl is able to adapt to having a center (Cousins) as his best player. Throughout his career, Karl has had a multitude of athletic guards and wings to work with, but never a big man with as much talent as Boogie. DMC currently averages 23.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game, and with a usage percentage of 33.7 percent, much of Sacramento’s offense runs through him.
Therefore, both Karl and Cousins will have to adapt to one another in order for the Kings to have success in the long run. Will Boogie sacrifice the ball on certain possessions for the betterment of the team, or will Karl formulate more plays for the All-Star center? When Sacramento takes the floor Feb. 20 against the Boston Celtics, we will get our first taste of the initial chemistry between head coach and franchise player.
One thing’s for sure: fans inside Sleep Train Arena will be glad to finally have a stable force at the helm after years of suffering.
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