Like I've said, why would the FO keep a coach who didn't share their same vision? What if they gave the chance to Malone to adjust, but he didn't want to? Would you really want this to turn into something like the 49ers-Jim Harbaugh situation? That's ugly right now.
Is Malone like Harbaugh though? Is he just a notorious red-a** whose hard driving style alienates players, pisses off opposing coaches and wears thin with everyone in the front office? I don't know. But it sure seems like the players universally supported Malone. And I don't remember Trent Baalke coming out and saying he wants a different style or for Harbaugh to change his offensive or defensive scheme. So I'm not sure there's much of a parallel beyond a nearby team that also has internal friction.
Vivek hired Malone first. He made the commitment to a coach and THEN hired a GM who later told Vivek to fire that coach because his coaching style clashed with D'Alessandro's vision.
In your mind is Malone responsible for that dysfunction? Because I'd put it on Vivek hiring two people who couldn't work things out.
I saw a coach getting results from a mismatched roster. I saw improvements on defense and a big leap from McLemore. I saw an offense that was ragged at times but geared towards the strength of a team that lacked 3 point shooting and bench contributions.
I wasn't about to get a Mike Malone tatoo but he was making obvious gains. Why not letting him keep working and start fresh next offseason? This just seems like a poor decision with even worse timing to me and with the capper that there doesn't even appear to be a real plan in place to move forward. The only reason we know it was ugly behind the scenes is because Vivek and D'Alessandro have told us that. Unlike the 49ers I don't remember tweets, rumors and reports of clashes. Certainly not from the players.
It became an issue not because the team wasn't winning enough, but because PDA didn't like HOW they were winning.
For what it's worth I think this situation is much uglier and at the same time much more ridiculous/laughable than the 49ers situation. As Uncia03 points out, at least the 49ers rolled with Harbaugh and let him do what he could with the team before things got ugly. The Kings bailed on Malone right when it seemed the team was making improvement.
There are better coaches than Mike Malone. But the Kings don't have them. The Kings haven't even identified who those options are and we're less than a third into the season.
What I fear is seeing Corbin finish the year with the team winning 30 something games, (maybe just enough to lose that first rounder) and then have Mullin step in as coach and be a disaster. And THEN have to do another complete rebuild. My fear is not just that we let a good coach go, but that PDA is about to cost this team another few years of ineptitude before having to start from scratch again, likely with Cousins moving on out of frustration.
I'm a Kings fan. I've been on that ride and bought the T-shirt.