Sacramento Kings: Dave Joerger’s patience is paying off

Sacramento Kings head coach Dave Joerger drives fans crazy, but his methodical approach is paying off for the young players.

It’s difficult to preach patience to a fanbase that has seen nothing but losing for more than a decade. After such a prolonged period of mediocrity, it’s understandable if fans get tired of hearing the same old cliches about “we’re building for the future” or “we’re giving the young guys time to develop.”

This has been the state of the Sacramento Kings, a franchise with a fanbase that has been as patient as possible for the past 12 years.

Today that patience is finally paying off, with the Kings sitting above the .500 mark in late January for the first time since the 2004-05 season.

Still, Kings fans have to be patient a little longer. Even if they don’t understand why Marvin Bagley III or Harry Giles III is not yet in the starting lineup, Kings fans have to trust head coach Dave Joerger.

Since taking over, Joerger has proven that patience pays off.

Look at Buddy Hield‘s growth, for starters. Last season with fans clamoring for Hield to get in the starting lineup, Joerger continued to bring his young phenom off the bench. Slowly but surely, Joerger increased Hield’s role with the team. Today, Hield is a solid starter, serving as a deadly shooter, an energizer bunny and a much-improved playmaker.

The third-year guard is now averaging 20.2 points per game, while shooting 45.8 percent from the 3-point line.

Joerger has taken a similar approach with other young players like De’Aaron Fox and Justin Jackson.

Fox started in 61 games last season, but still had his share of ups and downs. Through it all, Joerger was patient with his point guard. Sure, Fox made some plays that would drive any coach crazy, but Joerger never pulled out the rookie after a mistake or two.

Instead, he allowed the young guard to play through the mistakes. Coming into the 2018-19 season, it’s easy to see that Fox learned from those mistakes.

The second-year floor general has shown improvement in protecting the ball when he drives through traffic, finding open teammates, using his change of speed to avoid charging calls when he drives to the basket and finishing at the rim.

Joerger’s best work so far is arguably reflected in Justin Jackson, a guy who looked like he had no business being on an NBA court. Any other coach would have probably pulled the plug on Jackson after one of his horrendous airballs or defensive lapses.

Joerger, for some reason, continued to believe in him. Despite the daily riot on social media, Joerger refused to push Jackson out of the rotation.

At long last, that patience seems to be paying off. The second-year forward is finally doing what Kings fans have been begging for: making open shots. Jackson’s confidence has grown immensely from a year ago, as he is no longer hesitating when shooting or making plays.

With Bagley and Giles now showing glimpses of their potential, some fans are once again fed up of Joerger’s reluctance to get the young bigs into the starting lineup. As usual, the Kings head coach will not give in to public pressure.

In his own time, he will insert Bagley and Giles in the starting lineup. It could be this season or next year. Until whenever that happens, Kings fans just need to trust in Dave Joerger.