What George Karl Needs To Do To Keep His Job

George Karl and Vlade Divac are reportedly on the same page, but what does Karl need to change to keep his coaching position with the Sacramento Kings?

The Sacramento Kings lost eight of their last 10 games leading up to the All-Star Break, so of course rumors were bound to surface that George Karl‘s coaching position was in jeopardy. For Karl and the Kings, it wasn’t just the compounding losses that took a toll — some reports also surfaced claiming that the team was in complete disarray.

According to these reports, the players haven’t been willing to listen to Karl, and they are growing increasingly unhappy with inefficient practices and ineffective bench adjustments.

Despite these reports, a meeting with Vlade Divac and Vivek Ranadive appears to have saved Karl’s job. However, it seems as if George Karl will be skating on thin ice.

During the meeting, it is believed that Vlade and Karl were able to get “on the same page,” and it is alleged that Karl agreed to address some of his defensive schemes and practice policies, which had become concerns to those within the organization.

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Regardless of whether or not these stories are true, there’s certainly some form of disconnect on the floor. The team is bleeding points, giving up a league’s worst 109.1 points per game, and consistently lacks effort on the floor.

While the roster may not have an abundance of defensive talent, the defensive system seems to be doing little to help, and this is the first thing that will need to be addressed if Karl is to remain with the organization.

With their current system, the Kings have done an excellent job defending the paint, but they are giving up far too many three-pointers, which is something that has to change.

Defend the three better

The Kings are currently giving up a league-worst 10.8 threes per game, which is 1.2 more than the 29th-ranked Phoenix Suns. This makes sense, as Karl’s primary defensive focus is protecting the paint, but to do so, the Kings are sacrificing a lot of open corner threes.

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The corner three is one of the most efficient shots in basketball, and conceding corner threes to pack the paint is an outdated defensive strategy.

One of the issues for the Kings is that they tend to zone too much at times, which often leaves corner shooters wide open. It’s not a strict zone defense, but players will float between man-to-man and zone defense, and are often left standing in no man’s land.

An example of the Kings zone(ish) defensive tendencies often occurs on high screen and rolls, as the Kings attempt to wall off opponents and stop them from getting into the paint. To do so, the Kings will move into a very familiar looking 3-2 zone, paying little attention to the weakside corner.

A lot of teams will send the defender from the weakside corner to help on pick and rolls, but for the Kings, it’s not so much a rotation as it is a player standing there watching the ball handler.

Just look at Marco Belinelli:

There are three things to take note of here:

1. Belinelli is clearly wanting to hold his position at the top of the key, and as we can see he gets himself in the position to help on any drive to the left and wall off the paint.
2. As Ty Lawson cuts through, Belinelli moves to pick him up, but once he enters Rajon Rondo‘s vicinity, Belinelli goes back to maintaining his position in the “zone.”
3. Look how much space the Kings give Marcus Thornton (one of the Rockets’ best three-point shooters).

In this instance,  the ball doesn’t go to Thornton, but it could have, and as we see in this next clip, Rondo positions himself the same way that Bellinelli did (guarding space to wall off the paint), and this time, they do concede the open three-pointer.

In this clip, Rondo isn’t paying as much attention as Bellinelli was, and he completely ignores everything else going on around him to focus on James Harden and wall off the paint.

When Patrick Beverley moves in and out of Ben McLemore‘s zone, McLemore is torn between guarding the man and defending the space and in his moment of hesitation Harden flings the ball to Trevor Ariza, giving him plenty of time to get off a good shot. Admittedly this is a great read from Harden, but in this situation, Rondo is essentially not guarding anyone.

The Kings might as well be playing four-on-five.

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While McLemore got a little bit lost on this play and is clearly partially at fault here, it doesn’t excuse the defensive scheme and the fact that Rondo is doing nothing on the play. He isn’t covering a direct opponent, and he isn’t having any direct impact on Harden, which is why he was able to easily make the pass as McLemore moved slightly out of position.

What Rondo is doing is flat-out strange, but it is something that the Kings will often do against opponents, and it’s something that should stop because it results in too many threes. The Kings need to put more emphasis on guarding shooters because conceding three-pointers is separating their defense from some of the league’s best.

The Kings give up a total of 32.4 points per game from three-point shots but only concede 42.1 points in the paint. In comparison, the Warriors (league’s No. 3 defense), concede more points than the Kings in the paint (45.9), but they only give up 21.3 from long range.

Even though the Kings put a large emphasis on protecting the paint, it isn’t saving them nearly enough points. The four points they make up in the paint is more than canceled out by the 11.1 extra they give up on the perimeter.

The Kings recently fired assistant coach Vance Walberg, and this could be the first change that will help the Kings become more defensively oriented. It is believed that Walberg’s replacement will be someone defensively minded, and hopefully they will be able to come in and help Karl turn things around.

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The Kings were unable to make any changes at the trade deadline, so any improvement will have to come internally. If nothing changes, it’s extremely likely that the George Karl rumors will resurface again soon.