From Rick Adelman to Paul Westphal, the Sacramento Kings have had several notable coaches since arriving in Sacramento in 1985.
Although there have been coaches on the Sacramento Kings that did not help the team translate to wins on paper, one consistency remains: they always tried to get the best out of their team and pass on their basketball knowledge.
Fans need to remember that winning starts with the coach, but the coach cannot 100 percent decide the fate of the team. Both the coaching staff and players need to buy in and put their egos out the door.
With this in mind, it’s time for it is time to get started with the historic list of coaches from past to present.
1. Phil Johnson (1985-1987)
Phil Johnson was the first in line in the Sacramento era. Johnson’s resume started with the Chicago Bulls in 1971 as an assistant coach under Dick Motta. Johnson would later go on to coach the Kansas City Kings, an iteration of the Kings team, before moving to Sacramento in 1985. Johnson would later go on to become an assistant with the Utah Jazz, before becoming head coach in Sacramento.
He would go on to have an 81-120 record. Despite his losing record, he managed to make it to the playoffs once with the Kings during the 1985-86 season but had a first-round exit in a defeat by the Houston Rockets. After coaching the Kings he reclaimed a position with the Jazz coaching from 1988-2011 with legendary coach Jerry Sloan (RIP).
2. Jerry Reynolds (1986-1987; 1987-1990)
Fans might know Jerry Reynolds as one of the commentators for the Kings, but fans might not remember he was a general manager and coach for Sacramento as well. Although he has been around the Kings forever, he was unsuccessful at making basketball decisions.
During his first stint with the Kings, he had a 15-21 record. The legendary Bill Russell took over for him after that. After Russell proved he couldn’t coach either, Reynold took back the reigns for three more seasons but couldn’t improve the team with a record of 41-93 from 1987-90.
3. Bill Russell (1987-1988)
Bill Russell is known as the player to win eleven titles for the Boston Celtics. During his last three seasons, he became part of a small few to become a player and coach. During his time in this role with the Celtics he won two of his 11 titles. After leaving the Celtics, he went to coach the Seattle SuperSonics where he had a 162-166 record.
During his years with the Sonics he got to the postseason for the first season during the 1974-75 season. After his days with the Sonics, he would take an 11-year break from coaching before becoming the coach with the Kings where he did much worse with a record of 17-41.
4.Dick Motta (1989-1992)
Before coming to the Kings, Dick Motta was a head coach for the Chicago Bulls, Washington Bullets and Dallas Mavericks. The highlight of his career came during his time with the Bullets where he won 44 games, and won the 1977-78 title.
He would fail to defend the title although the team had a ten-game improvement that year. During his time with the Kings, Motta had a record of 48-113. Although his teams were bad, he had fan favorites on his team such as Wayman Tisdale, Vinny Del Negro and Henry Turner.
5. Rex Hughes (1991-1992)
Before getting his shot as head coach, Rex Hughes was an assistant under Dick Motta. After Dick Motta was let go, Hughes amassed a 22-35 record with the Kings. He later went on to become an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs and Vancouver Grizzlies.
6. Garry St. Jean (1992-1997)
Garry St. Jean was an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks for eleven seasons before becoming head coach of the Kings. He coached the Kings for five seasons and had the privilege of coaching Mitch Richmond.
During his time with the Kings, Sacramento only managed to make the playoffs once during the 1995-96 season with 39 wins, losing to the Supersonics in the first round. He had an overall record of 159-236 in Sacramento. After his tenure in Sacramento, he moved across I-80 West to the Golden State Warriors.
7. Eddie Jordan (1996-1998)
Eddie Jordan originally started as an assistant coach in Sacramento. He got his chance after St. Jean was fired. He had a record of 33-64 in his time with the Kings. Jordan got a head coaching opportunity with the Washington Wizards after his Kings tenure and had the opportunity to coach Gilbert Arena, Antawn Jamison, and Caron Butler.
8. Rick Adelman (1998-2006)
Rick Adelman is by far the most successful coach in the history of the Kings in the Sacramento era. Before coming to Sacramento, he coached the Portland Trailblazers getting them to the NBA Finals two times.
He would later go to the Warriors where he would not have the same success. During his time with the Kings, he got to the playoff every time and had a winning record of 429-264. Unfortunately he did not succeed in a quest for the title and was fired after 2006.
9. Eric Musselman (2006-2007)
Eric Musselman would get his first head coaching job with the Warriors and had a record of 75-89 for two seasons. He would later come to the Kings serving as the Grizzlies’ assistant coach for three seasons. In his only season with the Kings, Musselman had a record of 33-49.
10. Reggie Theus (2007-2009)
Reggie Theus is best known for his playing days with the Kings, but he was also a head coach for the Kings. In his first season, the Kings were 38-44. Theus had the help of Metta World Peace — formerly Ron Artest — and Kevin Martin who both averaged over 20.0 points a night. There was optimism after that season but quickly trended downwards as the next season started with a 6-18 record. He was later replaced and took a role with the Minnesota Timberwolves for two seasons.
11. Kenny Natt (2008-2009)
Kenny Natt was formerly an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers. After his Cleveland stint he worked under Theus. Once Theus was let go, Natt finished out the season but did not improve and was let go after posting a record of 11-47.
12. Paul Westphal (2009-2012)
Paul Westphal is best known for his days with the Phoenix Suns who had Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson and the Seattle SuperSonics with Gary Payton and Brent Barry. Although he was unsuccessful in winning a championship, he still possessed a winning record.
That changed when he became a head coach with the Kings, where he coached a Tyreke Evans and Demarcus Cousins-led team. He had a 51-120 record that could be partly due to growing pains with the two young players leading the team.
13. Keith Smart (2012-2013)
Before coming to the Kings, Keith Smart had losing stops with the Cavaliers and Warriors. He took over for Westphal during a lockout-shortened season but did not do better getting at 48-93 over two seasons. He was let go after the new ownership group took over. He is now part of the coaching staff with the New York Knicks.
14. Mike Malone (2013-2015)
Mike Malone was hired by the new ownership group entering the 2013-2014 season. The first season saw the Kings win 28 games under Malone, but the Kings kept him around. In his second season, Malone was doing above average but was unexpectedly fired by the front office to move to a faster system.
15. Ty Corbin (2014-2015)
Ty Corbin previously was a head coach in Utah after Jerry Sloan retired. He was not very successful, only getting the team to the playoffs once before losing in the second round. His time in Sacramento was mostly as an assistant, but he took over for 28 games and posted a record of just 7-21 because of the team not having a system in place.
16. George Karl (2015-2016)
George Karl is mostly known for his success with the Seattle Supersonics and Denver Nuggets. He is also one of the most winningest coaches in NBA history with a record 1175-824. Unfortunately, his days with the Kings were brief due to clashing with the players such as Cousins because of Karl wanting to trade him due to not fitting in his system. Karl only posted a 44-68 record.
17. Dave Joerger (2016-2019)
Dave Joerger was, for the most part, able to improve the Kings during his short tenure, leading the team from 27 to 39 wins in one season. His best days came with the Grizzlies where he made the playoffs all three seasons as head coach and his teams established a grit and grind play style. He had a record of 147-99 in those three seasons.
During the Kings’ seasons, he had an opposite record of 98-148. This was not indicative of the improvement of the team however, as those 39 wins in 2018-19 were Sacramento’s most since 2005-06.
Overall Thoughts
Although most of these coaches were unsuccessful, sometimes the timing of the hire could not have been right for them to establish a system such as coaches that are hired in the middle of the season.
Stability is another factor as the Kings have shown they cannot keep things stable during their history in Sacramento besides the Rick Adelman tenure. What if the Kings had kept Malone? I believe they would be in the playoffs right now.
Lastly the players need to be able to buy into the coach, if the players are not influenced by the coach then maybe it is time for a coaching change, although this change might not be needed if the player is easily replaceable. In some circumstances keeping talent overrules keeping the coach.