Sacramento Kings: Midseason Grades

Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Management and Coaching

The honeymoon is over! If there is one thing people in Sacramento love, it’s their Kings. The fans will forever be faithful to their team, as evidenced by their commitment through the Maloof debacle (229-425, .350 winning percentage since firing Rick Adelman).

However, they love to see their team win, and the “innovative” style of owner Vivek Ranadive has slowly been wearing on the fans. Firing coach Mike Malone midseason, after the coach was seemingly reaching through and uncorking the potential of Cousins and instilling a hard-nosed defensive attitude into this team, not to mention starting off with a 9-5 record prior to Cousins being sidelined for 12 games with sickness, seems like an inexplicable tragedy.

Since the firing, the team has lost any idea of what it means to play defense, sitting at dead last in defense per 100 possessions. Coach Tyrone Corbin also seems absent from the sideline at times, lacking the fire to rally his troops in late-game situations.

Malone had his faults too (untimely substitutions, too much isolation on offense, etc.) but an early season firing seemed like an unreasonable decision by a management trying too hard to make a splash.

Grade: C-

Next: Conclusion