DOUG EFFING CHRISTIE

[SacTownKid]

The thing that sealed it should have been the rolling the ball out comment. As if that was the reason they lost the game. That was a shot and an excuse. Period. The defensive coach wasn't nearly the defensive coach anyone thought he was unless someone else was controlling some of his rotation decisions.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

Well I think Mike Brown was a very good coach. I think it’s a shame he is being remembered for minor mistakes and hypotheticals. But, what is done is done and hopefully Doug can have success here

I think he was pretty average, which, unfortunately, is considered good these days considering the state of the KINGS.

Regardless, nobody said he was being remembered for those things. I simply commented on topic of Brown’s final presser and the comments he made.

 

[iowamcnabb]

While I will always appreciate Mike Brown for his stint here and for getting us into the playoffs, a job is a job and like any other occupation, it is all about the results. We have been declining since our magical and surprise year, and when you generally have the same group of guys, that’s not acceptable. Does our roster fit seamlessly together? No it doesn’t, but it certainly isn’t void of talent. A lack of results got him canned and the same would hold true for anyone with a job that underperforms.

Declining is up for debate. They lost
TWO less games last year than their magical year in a 82 game season with more injuries, terrible free throws shooting and a much harder western conference. To me that is essentially the same season it just didn’t feel the same because we had higher expectations and because the west was tougher and we didn’t make the playoffs. If Monk and Huerter don’t miss the last stretch of the season we might have won MORE games than we did the previous season. This year is obviously different but again, even harder conference, even more injuries and then we collectively forgot how to shoot three pointers in a league that requires it. We also lost 4 coaches and are implementing a high usage iso guy into our offense. If the Kings were just an average three point shooting team this season we are probably a few games over .500 and Mike still has his job.

 

[Sac.Kings]

Declining is up for debate. They lost
TWO less games last year than their magical year in a 82 game season with more injuries, terrible free throws shooting and a much harder western conference. To me that is essentially the same season it just didn’t feel the same because we had higher expectations and because the west was tougher and we didn’t make the playoffs. If Monk and Huerter don’t miss the last stretch of the season we might have won MORE games than we did the previous season. This year is obviously different but again, even harder conference, even more injuries and then we collectively forgot how to shoot three pointers in a league that requires it. We also lost 4 coaches and are implementing a high usage iso guy into our offense. If the Kings were just an average three point shooting team this season we are probably a few games over .500 and Mike still has his job.

I get your point, but there’s a trend in what you just wrote that you seem to be missing. 2nd season, missed the playoffs and had terrible free throw shooting, this season, terrible 3 point shooting and idiotic defense with more talent on the roster and yet doing worse than ever. It’s not like our guys are exiting their prime, they just entered it.

We should not be as bad as we are. Point blank. We lost a lot of games last season we should have won, mostly against inferior teams. We tend to play worse at home than on the road. This season, our defense has baffled every single member on this board and couple that with our regression in 3 point shooting, someone had to pay the price. Brown was on the hot seat after our abysmal end to the season, and losing 12 of 18 this season put the final nail in the coffin.

 

[iowamcnabb]

I get your point, but there’s a trend in what you just wrote that you seem to be missing. 2nd season, missed the playoffs and had terrible free throw shooting, this season, terrible 3 point shooting and idiotic defense with more talent on the roster and yet doing worse than ever. It’s not like our guys are exiting their prime, they just entered it.

We should not be as bad as we are. Point blank. We lost a lot of games last season we should have won, mostly against inferior teams. We tend to play worse at home than on the road. This season, our defense has baffled every single member on this board and couple that with our regression in 3 point shooting, someone had to pay the price. Brown was on the hot seat after our abysmal end to the season, and losing 12 of 18 this season put the final nail in the coffin.

I didn’t miss it, where we disagree is you believe this was a coaching issue and I think it was a player/circumstance issue

 

[Sac.Kings]

I didn’t miss it, where we disagree is you believe this was a coaching issue and I think it was a player/circumstance issue

I don't believe it was "just" a coaching issue, nothing is ever that simple. I think the roster is poorly constructed (Keegan in the wrong spot, too small/not enough length, weak bench) and we were always going to be limited. However, I don't think any of us saw 13-17 coming to start the season or whatever it was, with pitiful losses littered throughout.

The roster is poorly assembled, but I also think Brown didn't extract enough out of it either. The defensive schemes to start the season were atrocious (intentionally letting teams shoot threes like it's 1990s) and the effort just wasn't there at times. I think he lost the team and they slowly began to quit on him. What was the turning point? Who knows...

Another aspect to consider is Fox. There were rumblings coming out of his camp/side of things of unhappiness, perhaps a trade request, and we don't have him signed long-term. Keep the coach, who was not doing well, or try to appease your star player and re-tool before the trade deadline? Maybe it came down to Fox vs. Brown privately, we will never know. We needed a change, that much was clear. Was this the change, is there more to come? Remains to be seen. Early results seem somewhat promising, but the season is long.

 

[Rob-The-Great]

So amazing how quickly fans forget. The Blame Brown is getting around here is amazing. Say what you want about his schemes, Browns passion for the Kings cant be questioned. The same cannot be said for Fox, who now is getting a pass because of 3 wins.

I hate this. Funny you can have a girlfriend and ask her to cook and clean and help a lil, she refuses, you break up with her. Now she's does all these things you ask her to do for someone else and, now you where the problem. Perhaps if they just did what Brown asked in first place we would have won more.

As much as I love Chirstie, he's done nothing different. How can you forget, Christie was already on the coaching staff, I'm sure preaching the same thing he's preaching now. We act like we pulled Christie from another organization. He's been here.

Browns press conferences was excellent. He owes it to the fans to explain what happened and what went wrong. Now we want him to give bland and non answers while bashing fox for giving bland and non answers? Make it make sense.

Point is, yes we are playing with more fire, yes guys are hustling more. But if guys where professionals we wouldn't have needed a coaching change for this to happen. Just some pride.

(Minus not playing Ellis, for this he should be fired lol)

 

[Jones2006]

Christie has done a fine job so far - no complaints, but I wouldn't be quick to say just cause Kings have won a few and energy is high this is some inditement on Brown's poor coaching. It's common for guys to rally around each other when a coach is fired and play better ... +, obviously they've faced some depleted teams last few games also. They've played hard though, give them that.

 

[Joshyjosh31]

He is doing a press conference and being asked questions about the game, what is he supposed to say? I think people are overreacting to that, my guess is Fox didn’t care one bit about that answer.

Fox didn’t care he’s on record saying that’s what he wants from brown and he went to Kentucky to get coached like that as well

 

[pdxKingsFan]

The indictment on Brown is his stupid rotations and his refusal to play young talent outside Keegan who also came in as the number 4 pick overall. Can we talk about how even in Y1 Brown wouldn't start him over one of his Nigerian team favorites until Keegan made it impossible not to?

Even Brown fans like me have scratched our heads over this and struggled to rectify it with our appreciation of Coach.

When you look at how he mostly refused to play guys with higher ceilings like Neemi, Sasha, even Davion (who perhaps because of situation only is contributing to Toronto). In favor of guys like Duarte and McGee. Also like why the hell was Juan Toscano Anderson even here? Why does Dougie McBuckets get minutes over Keon? People complained Christie "only" gave Keon 13 minutes in his first game vs. LA where he hadn't even held a practice with the team yet, but Brown probably DNPs him.

And while our travel was difficult and negates some of the "easiness" to our schedule, it only gets more difficult from here. And let's not dismiss the team's dismal home performance even during the winning seasons. And beyond all that you can't negate the extension. You don't get a raise and perform worse and have it go unnoticed. When players do that I think we all know what gets said about them.

I really appreciate him but it was time.

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

The indictment on Brown is his stupid rotations and his refusal to play young talent outside Keegan who also came in as the number 4 pick overall. Can we talk about how even in Y1 Brown wouldn't start him over one of his Nigerian team favorites until Keegan made it impossible not to?

Even Brown fans like me have scratched our heads over this and struggled to rectify it with our appreciation of Coach.

When you look at how he mostly refused to play guys with higher ceilings like Neemi, Sasha, even Davion (who perhaps because of situation only is contributing to Toronto). In favor of guys like Duarte and McGee. Also like why the hell was Juan Toscano Anderson even here? Why does Dougie McBuckets get minutes over Keon? People complained Christie "only" gave Keon 13 minutes in his first game vs. LA where he hadn't even held a practice with the team yet, but Brown probably DNPs him.

And while our travel was difficult and negates some of the "easiness" to our schedule, it only gets more difficult from here. And let's not dismiss the team's dismal home performance even during the winning seasons. And beyond all that you can't negate the extension. You don't get a raise and perform worse and have it go unnoticed. When players do that I think we all know what gets said about them.

I really appreciate him but it was time.

Thank you brother. Have some lasagna for your fair and balanced opinion...

 

[Hoovtrain]

got these guys playing good ball

 

[Tetsujin]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1876105655066804491

 

[NiNetNiNe]

It looked like Doug had another fist loaded into his magazine for Kerr lol.

 

[Tetsujin]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1876115680355115459

 

[est.1999]

Mike Brown definitely was a problem.

 

[Tetsujin]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1876120224053051739

 

[Tetsujin]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1876105784297504958

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Thank you brother. Have some lasagna for your fair and balanced opinion...

View attachment 13048

Thanks Vinny. While I liked Mike I think he did us dirty negotiating the extension and raise in the media and it really soured me, but I felt like we had no other options. And that's why I've excused the need for a press conference despite demands from the Backstreet Boys in Sacramento Fan Media.

However they should do a press conference tomorrow to announce the interim tag is off Christie.

 

[Tetsujin]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1876127660696617045

 

[SacTownKid]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1876120224053051739

Hopefully Keon's alright. I don't think he returned and he does look like he's stumbling a little bit. He whiplashed big time. Doug had a right to be angry.

 

[LoungeLizard]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1876127660696617045

Doug knows a thing or two about 5 man basketball.

 

[sono]

With my limited knowledge, I don't see much difference in Doug's offense/defensive running scheme from MB's. Whatever Doug is doing, the players bought it, and it's showing on both ends of the floor.
Perhaps he's trying to instill that early 2000 Kings basketball when they enjoyed playing the game and their chemistry. I suspect Monk is the main beneficiary.

 

[megapoxy]

I am not so sure Kings win and playing better have to do with Doug Christie entirely at least. After a series of bad results/performances the team needed a shock to shake things around. I also wanted MB at least not to extend with better terms in the offseason, he had many bad decisions last year, but I didn't want to end up in the middle of "Why Sasha doesn't play" war, and sound as if my only complaint was his limited time on the floor. It was really weird seeing guys that have signed 10 days contracts to get more time (JTA that somehow no other NBA team wanted him the past few years), it was weird not to see Keon play regularly because "he was two way player, could play a maximum of 50 matches without converting his contract", it was weird seeing other players getting straight back to the lineup or rotation immediately when coming back from their injuries (KVon, Lyles), while Sasha being "day to day" for more than a month. Many many things that didn't make sense.

What I like about DC (the coach, since we have a player with the same initials, how did Mark Jones call him "Little Gucci" or something?) is he seems passionate when coaching, reminding of MB 1st season, active next to the sidelines, sticking up to his players during the whole match and for the moment at least his rotations look to be more solid.

BUT in the near future (maybe vs Heat maybe in the next match) if all players will be available (plus our great rookie) it will be a "happy headache" to manage who will start/play more and who will have less minutes. I guess it will be Huerter that will be limited, McDermott and Crowder seem to be completely off rotation recently (Crowder has injury concerns too, he is wearing this thing on the bench non stop) and I would like to see Isaac Jones getting a chance to play. Len was perfect vs Memphis but quite bad vs the Warriors. We still haven't really seen what Crawford can do (regarding NBA level, not just with Stockton Kings squad) and Colby had some nice moments as well plus he fits the whole mentality that makes us look a bit like Orlando Magic with our defense lately in the perimeter mostly.

Hopefully things will continue to look good, after quite a bad end of the year, the season looked like it had no meaning before MB got fired and now we start to dream big again encouraged by how the team has been performing lately. And we do play better in each game, it was tough versus depleted Mavs and Sixers, we were quite better against the Grizzlies and way even better (at both sides of the court) last night. At some point when Warriors had an 11-0 run narrowing the gap to 4 points with another 4 point play by Steph I was like "ok this is it, meltdown coming honeymoon is over" but Kings went 11-0 themselves and never looked back afterwards. Still even until the middle of 2nd half I was still nervous that we might not win at the end, cause I had seen that happening several times in the past. Even Warriors reserves looked threatening to me. But it seems that the team now executes the plan, found its way and many things run smoothly.

 

[ESP47]

Folsom Lake Ford dot commmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[Tizzy Flip]

I would love to see some compare and contrasts differences in scheme that we’ve seen since DC became coach. We all can see it specifically on defense with how we’re closing out and challenging shots. Wish I had the time to put something together as the eye test is telling me there have been some immediate changes since he’s been in charge (maybe it’s just certain personnel being on the court).

On offense, DC mentioned in his post game presser how he’s stressing driving, touching the paint, getting splash 3s, and if they’re not there drive and dish again. I reviewed the 1st quarter and we put up about 25 shots. On all but 5 or 6, we touched the paint. The others were high quality, wide open shots from a Sabonis high-post pass or fast break. So whatever he preached last night, we executed really well. Not sure he’s saying anything differently than Brown, but sometimes how you say and communicate something makes a huge difference

 

[notoriousBEN3]

I definitely didn’t watch many of the pressers, but it seemed like Brown often complained that the team just wasn’t executing the game plan properly.

I wonder if Doug has just simplified things in a way that’s been easier to execute? The offense seems to be a little smoother right now. The ball is moving well leading to more open shots instead of forced awkward 3’s.

Honestly i have no idea what’s changed, but i hope it keeps up.

 

[Hoovtrain]

It looked like Doug had another fist loaded into his magazine for Kerr lol.

kerr has always been an whiny enabler. Loved seeing that last night

 

[TaxMan]

I definitely didn’t watch many of the pressers, but it seemed like Brown often complained that the team just wasn’t executing the game plan properly.

I wonder if Doug has just simplified things in a way that’s been easier to execute? The offense seems to be a little smoother right now. The ball is moving well leading to more open shots instead of forced awkward 3’s.

Honestly i have no idea what’s changed, but i hope it keeps up.

Christie and I believe multiple players have said that he's simplified things (on offense for sure....) My overall impression of Coach Brown is that ever since the end of our first Beam Team season, his main goal was to move us to the next level in order to facilitate better success in the playoffs. DHO was shut down in the playoffs by the warriors, so we need to expand our actions. We need Keegan to be more than a spot up shooter, so I'm going to push him to be more aggressive. We got bogged down in the playoffs when things are more physical and half court offense is more important, so lets put some more structure and options in the half court. Outside of fox and monk, we lack players that can create their own shot, so lets really feed Deebo to diversify.... etc. etc. etc. I don't disagree all of these things are probably things that need to happen to one day move deep into the playoffs (and heck, possibly one day compete for a championship). However, I believe in focusing on these "next steps" it hindered our core super power as a fun, loose, free-flowing, cocky/confident team.

Brown may have been totally correct in his assessment, but I believe the players were beaten down by his focus on taking us to the next level. He was making them eat their veggies. At a certain point, playing basketball becomes a chore. Players get tight. Things aren't fun anymore. I know I certainly didn't have as much fun watching the team last year.... yeah, they only lost two more games last year, but there was something about the team that was different. I think Doug is simplifying things to get our spirit and joy of the game back. Last night against the warriors felt like a "Beam Team" game. Yes, it was a blowout so that's great, but it also just felt like these guys had fun again.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

The Beam Team vibes were back in the Philly game even. I think that's the one where they were down big and battled back to tie at the half (and rinse repeat to pull off a W). After Fox hit a buzzer beater at halftime they all hugged at half court like the old days.

I don't care if its just vibes because it is fun to watch again. Just being in Sacramento and knowing 2002 happened and then enduring everything since all I want is fun to watch and a shot at winning every game (and being happy they won, not sad about some lottery balls). ~12 days ago I had written this season off and was ready to let Fox go because it seemed we had completely bungled building on the Beam Team. I had booked a trip home for Christmas intending to see the Kings at G1C but they fired Brown the day before I left so I decided I'd rather see friends. But here we are and I'm incredibly looking forward to the game in Portland again next month.

Doug and the guys have done this. I really hope it sticks because a more fairy tale story can never be written.
I hope Doug remembers me at the next game and will sign something for me