Mike Brown hired as Head Coach
- Thread starter Tetsujin
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Very true. I think because he was largely asking questions instead of answering them.
I clicked to listen to the McNair/Brown conversation but I've had it on in the background for the whole discussion so far and haven't yet got to that point. But it's been really interesting to hear Brown's thoughts, especially around defending the pick& roll. He favors an aggressive show and discusses the workload that places on bigs when there's multiple P&Rs per possession and they have to show and then recover each time.
I clicked to listen to the McNair/Brown conversation but I've had it on in the background for the whole discussion so far and haven't yet got to that point. But it's been really interesting to hear Brown's thoughts, especially around defending the pick& roll. He favors an aggressive show and discusses the workload that places on bigs when there's multiple P&Rs per possession and they have to show and then recover each time.
Which is probably why Golden State was a perfect fit for him because nobody can show and recover from that PF/C position better than Draymond Green. It's something to think about in the draft this year. Trying to imagine the defensive scheme Brown will put together for next season, I really would like to see Tari Eason, Jeremy Sochan, or Keegan Murray in that role. There are other considerations and needs of course, but that was the first thought that popped into my head after the Mike Brown hiring was official. Fox and Sabonis are the foundation of the offense and Mitchell is the point of attack defender but we still need our defensive lynchpin.
The way Monte looks at the draft I know he isn't trying to fill a need, he's going to go with whoever he thinks is the best player on the board. It would just be ideal if fate aligns and that best player available also happens to fill a huge need for us.
The way Monte looks at the draft I know he isn't trying to fill a need, he's going to go with whoever he thinks is the best player on the board. It would just be ideal if fate aligns and that best player available also happens to fill a huge need for us.
One thing to consider in all of this is he's now got full control, his coaching hire, and before this the Sabonis move put him on the clock, so while I am sure he is still going to veer towards BPA, I am guessing Brown is going to have a little more input into the pick than Walton had (if he even had any last year).
Walton has the 2nd highest coaching winning percentage in Sacramento Kings history 
As much as we all like Mike Malone and as much as he deserved to keep coaching the team, he's also below Dave Joerger and George Karl in winning percentage and just a few points above Eddie Jordan and Keith Smart.
Since Vivek bought the Kings, we have the 3rd good coach. Here is what we have gone through
Mike Malone - First HC job. Did very well with what he had, in my and many other opinions was exceeding expectations. We all know what happened then.
Ty Corbin - Lamest Duck of the lame ducks of coaching
George Karl - Made it about George Karl and not about the Kings. Went worse than I think anyone thought it could.
Dave Joerger - I'm not sure we fully know exactly who's choice this was. Best coach we had since Malone obv., maybe not, but close. Fired because Joerger couldn't put up with the bullcrap and honestly don't blame him.
Walton - They should have used the allegations against him to void the contract and start a real coaching search, they didn't so we wasted 3 years. At least it got Vlade gone from being GM.
Alvin Gentry - Nice guy, ok coach, not good, not bad. Was just there, I was 85% sure he wasn't getting considered for this season, but I guess it was possible. I actually do like the Kings retaining him. Monte hired him, so maybe making him Director of Player Personnel, players like him. Seems like a natural fit.
Mike Brown - Possibly the best coach since Adleman, to be seen I guess. He's never really failed. I don't think either the Lakers debacle or the return to Cleveland are on him, he was given mismatched rosters with unrealistic expectations.
So ya, Monte hired him. He will hire his staff. I think most hope he keep Christie and Hines and we get some good lead assistants that have top experience.
Was not my top choice, but who TF am I? I don't know anything. Brown could have been the best choice by a mile, all I know for sure is the Mark Jackson would have been a train wreck and my last straw, personally.
Mike Malone - First HC job. Did very well with what he had, in my and many other opinions was exceeding expectations. We all know what happened then.
Ty Corbin - Lamest Duck of the lame ducks of coaching
George Karl - Made it about George Karl and not about the Kings. Went worse than I think anyone thought it could.
Dave Joerger - I'm not sure we fully know exactly who's choice this was. Best coach we had since Malone obv., maybe not, but close. Fired because Joerger couldn't put up with the bullcrap and honestly don't blame him.
Walton - They should have used the allegations against him to void the contract and start a real coaching search, they didn't so we wasted 3 years. At least it got Vlade gone from being GM.
Alvin Gentry - Nice guy, ok coach, not good, not bad. Was just there, I was 85% sure he wasn't getting considered for this season, but I guess it was possible. I actually do like the Kings retaining him. Monte hired him, so maybe making him Director of Player Personnel, players like him. Seems like a natural fit.
Mike Brown - Possibly the best coach since Adleman, to be seen I guess. He's never really failed. I don't think either the Lakers debacle or the return to Cleveland are on him, he was given mismatched rosters with unrealistic expectations.
So ya, Monte hired him. He will hire his staff. I think most hope he keep Christie and Hines and we get some good lead assistants that have top experience.
Was not my top choice, but who TF am I? I don't know anything. Brown could have been the best choice by a mile, all I know for sure is the Mark Jackson would have been a train wreck and my last straw, personally.
I'm very high on Liddell, but I don't see him as the type of athletic, switchable 4 that you want showing aggressively on the pick & roll.
Liddell definitely improved his perimeter defense this year, but IMO he went from a poor defender in space to a decent one. His value on defense at the college level was banging inside and weakside shotblocking. I don't know how well that will transfer to the NBA given his size.
That said, I think Liddell would be a great fit next to Sabonis on offense if his outside shooting from this season translates, and I don't think he'd be a huge liability on defense.
But I think Sochan and Eason are far better defenders.
Liddell definitely improved his perimeter defense this year, but IMO he went from a poor defender in space to a decent one. His value on defense at the college level was banging inside and weakside shotblocking. I don't know how well that will transfer to the NBA given his size.
That said, I think Liddell would be a great fit next to Sabonis on offense if his outside shooting from this season translates, and I don't think he'd be a huge liability on defense.
But I think Sochan and Eason are far better defenders.
Shifts to what an 8th place ceiling team?
Is this you guys talking yourselves into Brown because he got hired lol.
We needed someone like Atkinson who proved he can take a worthless team and turn it around dude really had the world fooled that Russell was an all star. I don’t cRe what brown accomplished with a top 5 player of all time/vets or this GSW team
Is this you guys talking yourselves into Brown because he got hired lol.
We needed someone like Atkinson who proved he can take a worthless team and turn it around dude really had the world fooled that Russell was an all star. I don’t cRe what brown accomplished with a top 5 player of all time/vets or this GSW team
Exactly, if you're rebuilding and developing talent winning % means jack. This if anything shows you that there was/is talent on this team. We watched the games, and we watched Fox do a lot of carrying last season. A LOT. Walton isn't the worst coach in history, but the GM/Coach thing has been screwed from day 1. Vivek started it off by hiring a coach before GM and that imbalance has continued on. GM fired, coach stays on, coach fired, GM fired, coach stays on, coach fired. Can't do that.
This was made increasingly worse by the GMs choosing the wrong coaches.
Mike Malone was hired before D'Alessandro. He shouldn't have been fired at all, but Pete got to choose his own coach and picked George Karl.
Vlade fired Karl (rightfully so) but then picked Joerger, only to fire him and then picked Walton. Joerger wasn't a bad coach, but the fact that he and the front office couldn't work together made it untenable. Walton was just a bad hire.
McNair fired Walton. He now picked his own coach. Hopefully we finally get the first successful pairing since the Petrie/Adelman days.
Mike Malone was hired before D'Alessandro. He shouldn't have been fired at all, but Pete got to choose his own coach and picked George Karl.
Vlade fired Karl (rightfully so) but then picked Joerger, only to fire him and then picked Walton. Joerger wasn't a bad coach, but the fact that he and the front office couldn't work together made it untenable. Walton was just a bad hire.
McNair fired Walton. He now picked his own coach. Hopefully we finally get the first successful pairing since the Petrie/Adelman days.
Not to mention the Brandon Williams nonsense and shadow GM Joe Dumars lurking for some sort of impact on decisions. We've basically never had the direct line starting with the GM and flowing down throughout the organization. There's always been some ancillary piece from a previous regime or some kind of outside influence that didn't stem from the GM's decisions.
St. Jean gave us a playoff berth.
I think Theus and Muss are easily on par with Joerger after Malone. The problem was Muss got the DUI and then failed to win with the skeletal remains of the golden era Kings and Theus was handed a team that desperately needed to tank and probably got them to overperform which only made them worse off the next season. Sometimes I wonder if a coach with Theus's approach could have succeeded after Joerger.
I also wonder if you take out the stretch that Cousins missed that justified Malone's firing to the two bozos how his record stacks up vs. Walton and Joerger's?
Walton never got close to the guy he replaced. So that's a hard L even if it's not as disastrous as the others. He also had multiple losing streaks that approached double digits and made things so bad with our #2 overall pick it was irredeemable. I always said Bagley was soft in his return from injury but knowing that he played for Gentry without being a giant baby makes me wonder how much Walton factored into it.
I think Theus and Muss are easily on par with Joerger after Malone. The problem was Muss got the DUI and then failed to win with the skeletal remains of the golden era Kings and Theus was handed a team that desperately needed to tank and probably got them to overperform which only made them worse off the next season. Sometimes I wonder if a coach with Theus's approach could have succeeded after Joerger.
I also wonder if you take out the stretch that Cousins missed that justified Malone's firing to the two bozos how his record stacks up vs. Walton and Joerger's?
Walton never got close to the guy he replaced. So that's a hard L even if it's not as disastrous as the others. He also had multiple losing streaks that approached double digits and made things so bad with our #2 overall pick it was irredeemable. I always said Bagley was soft in his return from injury but knowing that he played for Gentry without being a giant baby makes me wonder how much Walton factored into it.
And it would have been the same story if Mark Jackson was forced onto McNair by Vivek.
I do think Jackson was unnecessarily slammed by Lacob after the Warriors dumped him for Kerr and that plays a part in why he hasn't gotten another coaching gig. But McNair is clearly an analytics focused GM who wants to see this team improve on defense. And Brown is an analytics savvy coach who specializes in improving a team's defense. He also seems like an easy personality to work with/get along with vs a coach that might try to railroad his GM ala Joerger or Jackson.
I have no idea if they'll succeed where so many others have failed, but McNair and Brown seem like a good tandem.
I do think Jackson was unnecessarily slammed by Lacob after the Warriors dumped him for Kerr and that plays a part in why he hasn't gotten another coaching gig. But McNair is clearly an analytics focused GM who wants to see this team improve on defense. And Brown is an analytics savvy coach who specializes in improving a team's defense. He also seems like an easy personality to work with/get along with vs a coach that might try to railroad his GM ala Joerger or Jackson.
I have no idea if they'll succeed where so many others have failed, but McNair and Brown seem like a good tandem.
I think this is how I'm choosing to view this hire now. McNair and Brown are a tandem that are steady and focused. Neither too high nor too low as both personalities and strategists. After the churn of competing egos and incompatible GM/head coach pairings across the last decade, it will be nice to just see the franchise function with a degree of normalcy and competency.
My understanding is that the Kings are actually currently $12M under the cap and also have the full MLE (~$10m). We have some important FA we need to resign (DDV and in my opinion, to a lesser extent Damian Jones). We have flexibility with respect to Jones, depending on what we do with Holmes and Len. I woukd like to see holmes moved for a defensive minded 4 stretch 4 like PJW or in a S/T for Portis, but i think it is worth bringing him back if he can be had on the cheap (2-4M/yr) if you can move either len and or Holmes. Also, if you want to go after Hartenstein then you can likely bypass bringing him back. But bringing back DDV IMO is very important. He will likely command at least 7-9M but he probably will want 10M. so i would use part of the MLE on him. If he can be had for around 7-8, then thrown 2-4M at hartenstein.
What i would like to see is Holmes traded to Charlotte for PJW and Cody Martin(s/t for $4-5M/yr), or if you can't include a S/T in this deal, then Len and a second traded for PJW straight up. Next resign DDV for $8M/yr for 3yrs. This leaves up to $4M of cap space to go after Hartenstein or resign Jones. You then still have sign your FRP so part of the MLE will likely need to be used on DDV and/or Hartenstein/Jones if you find a player that you want to chase.
Fox/Mitchell
DDV/Lamb/TD
Barnes/Martin/Harkless/Lamb
PJW/Barnes/Metu
Sabonis/Hartenstein(or Jones)/Len.
That gives balance with reasonably good shooting from 2-4. Good defenders with starters (DDV, Barnes, PJW and to a good extent, sabonis) and bench (Mitchell, lamb, martin and Hartenstein).
What i would like to see is Holmes traded to Charlotte for PJW and Cody Martin(s/t for $4-5M/yr), or if you can't include a S/T in this deal, then Len and a second traded for PJW straight up. Next resign DDV for $8M/yr for 3yrs. This leaves up to $4M of cap space to go after Hartenstein or resign Jones. You then still have sign your FRP so part of the MLE will likely need to be used on DDV and/or Hartenstein/Jones if you find a player that you want to chase.
Fox/Mitchell
DDV/Lamb/TD
Barnes/Martin/Harkless/Lamb
PJW/Barnes/Metu
Sabonis/Hartenstein(or Jones)/Len.
That gives balance with reasonably good shooting from 2-4. Good defenders with starters (DDV, Barnes, PJW and to a good extent, sabonis) and bench (Mitchell, lamb, martin and Hartenstein).
