Kings Looking to Turn Over New Leaf in Wake of Mike Brown Firing 

Anyone who watched the Kings over the past two months knew that something in the organization needed to change. However, few people were prepared for what that change actually looked like.

Sacramento shocked the basketball world on Friday when they decided to part ways with head coach Mike Brown. The firing came off one of the team’s worst losing streaks (five games) in the beam-team era, and marked a conscious decision to change the current culture.

(Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)

While many are surprised by the move, it didn’t come out of nowhere. There were many grumblings about sideline leadership for the sliding Kings, and when those grumblings got louder, fingers ultimately pointed at Brown.

The organization made the decision to get rid of him after the team dropped their fifth straight home game and blew a 19 point lead to a rather weak Pistons squad. The game, which was not close for the first three quarters, culminated in a rough four-point play where De’Aaron Fox committed a foul on Jaden Ivey to give Detroit the win.

That play heavily contributed to Brown’s dismissal. Though one game did not sink the coach, he simply couldn’t rally his squad in a meaningful way. That’s why the Kings couldn’t win games, and it’s why he’s no longer with the team.

A Successful Tenure

Brown was less than halfway through his third season with the Kings. Though his firing seems justified when looking at the team’s record, it’s also a bit brash considering how much the coach did for Sacramento in such a relatively short amount of time.

After joining on with the franchise, he earned the Coach of the Year award for turning the team around and ended their 16-year playoff drought by getting the third seed in the 2022-2023 season. On top of that, he finished his run with a 107-88 record.

That’s not terribly impressive, but it means he had a winning record during both of his full seasons as head coach. Rick Adelman is the only other coach in Sacramento history to achieve that feat. Though Brown kept winning as long as he could, he’s not out of a job.

An Inability to Finish

Many are unhappy with the Kings’ decision to let Brown go. However,  it’s not one that came lightly. Shaking up the locker room is never something a team wants to do, especially with so many players currently unhappy at the recent losing streak.

After a successful year last season, the Kings added DeMar DeRozan to their roster and extended Brown to a deal that locked him up through the 2027 season. That showed the team’s commitment to the coach. General manager Monte McNair even called the firing a “difficult decision” and thanked Brown for his work.

Even so, Brown is now out of a job. There are several reasons for that, but none are bigger than the fact that Sacrmaneto cannot finish games. They are dropping fourth quarter leads at an almost unprecedented rate this year, and Brown couldn’t find a way to stem the bleeding.

Losing a fourteen point fourth quarter lead against Detroit was the final straw in that regard. The loss signaled to the franchise that things weren’t improving, and with De’Aaron Fox letting the franchise know he wants to play for a winner, they had to make a move.

The End (and Start) of an Era

Doug Christie is now filling in as interim coach. He’s been with the Kings as an assistant since 2021, and he played with them for five years. His first game leading the sidelines came against the Lakers on Saturday, where the Kings lost due to a rough third quarter.

That loss, while disappointing to a team already on the decline, is not entirely unexpected. A coach needs some time to take over a team and gain trust with the players. There’s no telling what Christie is going to do in the coming weeks, but there will be growing pains.

Regardless of what moves he makes, the Brown firing shows that he needs to win immediately. It’s a lot of pressure, but makes sense given that Sacrmaento is doing everything they can to make Fox happy.

Brown publicly criticizing the guard’s play in the Pistons’ loss definitely didn’t help matters. Neither did the fact that the point guard declined to sign an extension in the offseason. Still, while there might be some animosity right now, he is understanding of the Kings’ decision.

The NBA is a volatile league, and winning is king. One slip up, even with two years of success, and there’s no telling what might happen.

“We all know the job that we have,” Fox said of Brown’s firing. “You can be traded at any point, released, cut, whatever it may be. I wouldn’t use the word guilt, but that’s the nature of the job that we have…We thought we’d be together a whole lot longer, but that’s the decision that they made.”