The situation in Sacramento has to be pretty uncomfortable for NBA fans right now.
The Sacramento Kings fired their head coach Mike Malone after actually getting off to a relatively decent start for a team that was not expected to be even a small factor in the Western Conference playoff race.
The Kings currently sit at 11-14, after starting off the season 9-6. Center DeMarcus Cousins, arguably the team’s most dominant player, has been out since the 9-6 start due to a viral infection, leaving the team very vulnerable inside on both ends of the floor.
Cousins’ loss has without a doubt made a huge impact on Sacramento’s performance, as he is the team’s most important player. With that in mind, it was foolish for Kings owner Vivek Ranadive to fire Malone based on the team’s current setbacks.
Any time you subtract the best player of a team, you’re going to have problems getting things going. It’s not like Cousins was ever going to be out all season, so this “panic attack” was unnecessary to begin with.
Despite all of this, the move is done, and the Kings are looking for a new head coach in the process.
Tyrone Corbin has taken over as the interim coach, but given the fact that he had absolutely no success as a head coach for the Utah Jazz team that had a very similar “rebuilding” feel that the Kings have now, he shouldn’t be looked at as the long-term solution in Sacramento.
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The Kings are considering a number of candidates for the job, but it’s become knowledge that Mark Jackson met with Kings executives and Cousins following Tuesday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Jackson is the only proper candidate for the job in Sacramento for a number of reasons.
The first, and most important, is that Jackson is a vocal leader who knows how to deal with negative personalities.
While Cousins has kept himself in check for the most part this season, his temper has certainly gotten the best of him before, and it would be no shock to anyone to see this trend continue in the future. Jackson does not let other players make all of the decisions for the team and carry on with bad behavior.
He’s not afraid to put his foot down and be real with his players, making him the perfect person to deal with Cousins when he goes off.
Even though it hasn’t been a problem so far, forward Rudy Gay also has a dominating demeanor and personality on the court, and Jackson would be a big help in keeping Gay’s ego in check when it comes to cooperating with Cousins on offense.
Both players have the talent to be primary scoring options, but I think most would agree that Cousins is the more reliable of the two on that end because of where he can get his points. Jackson would keep both of their attitudes in check and make sure this team shared the ball and knew its roles going into games.
The second reason is that Jackson is no slouch when it comes to coaching a tight defense.
Jackson took his previous team, the Golden State Warriors, to new heights on defense. Last year, the Warriors ranked in the top 10 in opponents’ points per game at 99.5, and fourth in the league in defensive rating at 102.6.
The Warriors were embarrassingly bad on defense before Jackson arrived, but when he had a chance to change the culture of Golden State, he seized it and ran away with it.
This season, the Kings have been average at best on offense, but discouraging on defense. As a team, Sacramento ranks 20th in the league opponents’ points per game and 21st in defensive rating.
Cousins has not been the best defensive stopper during his young career, and while he has made strides on that end so far this season, the Kings lack a true low-post defensive presence, which is missed given the fact that Sacramento’s perimeter defenders are on APB alert half the time.
Gay, Darren Collison and Ben McLemore are all sub-par defenders, so it has been tough for this team to find an identity even though Malone has been regarded as a defensive coach, with some even claiming that he has in fact had a positive effect on the team’s defense.
Jackson wouldn’t just have an effect. Rather, he would tear apart Malone’s system and build his own from scratch. Jackson is fully capable of recognizing what talent he has and what he lacks and setting up a game plan accordingly. Not to mention he is a master motivator as a head coach.
It would not take much for him to have this team playing hard up and down the floor.
While Jackson does not have any offensive sets that are revolutionary, he does preach effort and hustle time and time again.
The Kings have the athletes necessary to play at a fast pace, and with an improved defense that could be built around forcing turnovers to get out in the fast break, the team’s offense could get an uptick from Jackson’s system as well.
The Kings’ efficiency would at least be improved because the team would be getting a lot more efficient looks in the process.
Jackson is not a coach who has all the answers and will change any franchise from pretender to contender. However, Jackson is someone who will bring a presence and voice to a team that needs it desperately, and he will be a leader and the person that believes his players can go out and do anything they set their minds to.
Sacramento needs a motivator and defensive mind like Jackson. With him in the fold, this team could turn things around and start to build a true wining culture within the organization, and that’s exactly what management wants.
There’s no better candidate for the Kings job than Jackson.
*Statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference.