The Sacramento Kings recently fired head coach Mike Brown less than halfway through his third season with the team. The Kings are on a five-game losing streak and outside of the play-in seeds. The organization thought they needed a change, and Brown was the first to go. It seems like the last straw was Mike Brown taking a shot at De’Aaron Fox following the loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Sacramento Kings Chose De’Aaron Fox Over Mike Brown
Brown was feeling the pressure of a losing season, but there is one thing you rarely do as a head coach, and that is throw your franchise player under the bus in front of the media. Yes, sometimes it works, for example, Mike Malone calling out Nikola Jokic. Yet, more often than not, the organization sides with the best player.
After the loss to the Pistons, De’Aaron Fox finished the postgame interview in less than two minutes. When asked about Jaden Ivey‘s four-point play, Fox shrugged it off and said explaining his thought process on the play wouldn’t make anyone feel better. Brown, on the other hand, had a lot to say about that play. In his post-game conference, Mike said,
“We told our guys, you can’t give up a three, you can’t give up a three, you can’t give up a three. There was no reason for there to be a hard closeout. We were ok with them scoring a two, so there was no reason for a hard closeout at all.”
While Mike didn’t mention Fox by name, he was critical of the point guard’s reaction to the last seconds of the game.
Brown Gets Support From the Coaching Community
There were plenty of coaches who reacted to Mike’s firing. One of the first ones to react and most critical of the Kings organization was Michael Malone, the current coach of the Denver Nuggets. He said,
“I’m not surprised that Mike Brown got fired because I got fired by the same person. But what really pissed me off was the way they handled it, calling him while he was in his car. No class, no balls. That’s what I’ll say about that”.
Steve Kerr, another respected coach around the league, said,
“It’s shocking. Mike was the unanimous Coach of the Year a year and a half ago. He turned that franchise around. It’s hard to believe this decision was made.”
Is Mike the One to Blame?
General manager Monte McNair called the move a difficult decision and thanked Brown for his work. For the time being, assistant Doug Christie will take over as interim coach. He will coach the team Saturday night in Los Angeles against the Lakers.
As Kerr reminded people, Brown was the unanimous Coach of the Year in his first season with the franchise in 2022-23. He helped the Kings end the longest playoff drought in NBA history at 16 seasons. The team lost in seven games to the Golden State Warriors in the first round. The next year, they lost the play-in game.
The team has had the same core of Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Keegan Murray, Malik Monk, and Kevin Huerter for two and a half years now. They won 48 games in the first season together, but it seems like they are slowly dropping down. The organization hasn’t done much to build around that core and improve on the edges. This year, they basically swapped Harrison Barnes for DeMar DeRozan, but that hasn’t helped at all.
Instead, the Kings are playing slower, which doesn’t favor their franchise point guard. DeRozan has slowed the pace of the Kings. While stats might not show it completely, watching the team shows they are not running as much as before. They play a lot more in the half-court, allowing DeRozan to get to his mid-range game.
The biggest weakness of the team is their inability to contain the opponents’ three-point shooters. Last year, they were 29th in opponent three-point percentage, allowing teams to shoot 38.7% against them. This year, they improved slightly, allowing teams to shoot 37.5% from behind the arc. That is good for 26th in the league. At the same time, their shooters, namely Murray and Huerter, have dipped in efficiency.
There were plenty of fans who reacted to Mike’s firing, saying that he held the players accountable for doing the exact opposite of his instructions. Many called the organization and pointed the finger at All-Star De’Aaron Fox for Mike Brown’s firing. As we have learned over the years, it is easier to fire a coach than a player. Mike Brown is the latest example of that.
The Kings are the Joke of the NBA Again
While it is normal for organizations to fire a coach, the way they do it shows a difference. According to reports, the Kings fired Brown right before the team boarded a flight to Los Angeles. He ran a full practice before and spent 15 minutes talking to the media.
For someone who did as much as Brown did for the organization, he deserved a better ending. He had no idea of that before the flight to Los Angeles, showing the type of blindside actions the Kings have done over the years. In the summer, they gave him a three-year extension. He was under contract through the 2026-27 season.
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