Kings first round of coaching candidate interviews comes out

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I'm in rather strong agreement with this. It remains to be seen if the sourcing for this information is anything more than agents boosting their clients, but if the Kings have already narrowed down their search to three candidates (and these three, in particular), then I question the integrity of the process. There should be no rush here at all, and there are certainly further candidates that are worth considering, and further candidates still that may be fired from their current posts once the playoffs conclude.
honestly except for the Ham "confirmation" there's no other indication that these are the only 3 getting in person. Why is Ham getting hotter scoops I don't know, so I'm hopeful there's at least one other candidate in the mix either from those we do know about or one who is the real hire.

I can't recall where Monte fell in the original GM search, but I remember there were 3 other names folks latched onto, and then Wilcox. So Monte gets hired and people were like hmmm, then they announced Wilcox as lead assistant. I'd be a lot more comfortable with Clifford or Brown as assistant head coach or assistant to the head coach than the final choice, and hopefully Jackson is gone after season ticket holders express their displeasure.
 
No, the crash just happened. The flaming, distorted bodies are currently in the process of crawling out of the wreckage.
Well Jackson hasn’t been hired yet and we were all politely ignoring his name to focus on the good candidates but obviously we have to think about him more seriously now. Here’s an old but good Twitter thread on him:


funny thing is the rumor that he said Barnes was playing poorly because he was possessed by a demon, which is stupidly funny and entirely consistent with MJack’s persona as we publicly know him

he’s such a huge snake and awful hire that it really would be the most Kangz possible decision and if it happens I think we might need to realize the best thing this FO did was keep things quiet for a year or two until Vivek could show his colors again

really hoping this doesn’t happen because it’s the “other shoe” dropping of the Haliburton-Sabonis trade that would really make continuing to follow or support this franchise impossible. Jackson isn’t gonna get Sabonis-Fox to the playoffs but there’s a damn good chance he’s gonna cause drama in the organization that Sabonis isn’t gonna tolerate and sign on for more years of
 
I think Mike Brown would be the best choice of the three. Clifford could probably turn us into a top 15 defensive team and if you get 5 years with him, great. Jackson is tough to understand unless he has changed his ways over the years. That is possible.

Brown can grow with the team. He has worked for a great organization for six years in a row. He brings defense. He is the best combination of experience, defense first and the right age. If he wants the job, it should be his.
 
I'm not excited about Brown but best of the bunch. I guess there's a Metu connect there too. But it's hard to see when Monte came in that this was a direction we'd take. I'm also not sure how he unlocks our offense.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
I'm not excited about Brown but best of the bunch. I guess there's a Metu connect there too. But it's hard to see when Monte came in that this was a direction we'd take. I'm also not sure how he unlocks our offense.
The last two years Mike Brown was in Cleveland, his offenses were 4th and 6th in offensive rating. Now a lot of that has to do with Lebron being ridiculously good but they were also doing this with Mo Williams being their second best player. (The starting lineup for most of his last season was Lebron/Zombie Shaq/Mo Williams/Anthony Parker/ and JJ freaking Hickson.

His full season with the Kobe/Gasol/Bynum Lakers had them ranked 10th in offense and 13th in defense despite him having to run Phil Jackson's outdated triangle sets and all of his guys generally hating each other. He wound up getting fired early the next season because he wanted to switch to a Princeton offense (debatable how successful that would have been with a Dwight Howard/Pau Gasol/Ron Artest/Kobe/Steve Nash lineup) and his guys wanted to play run'n'gun for some reason despite everyone being old as hell.

His last stint as a head coach (the gap year in Cleveland before Lebron came back), he was given an absolutely awful roster immediately after the Cavs blew the first overall pick on Anthony Bennett and somehow eked out 33 wins and 22nd offensive/19th defensive rating despite having to work with a big two of Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson.


I don't know if he's an offensive genius or anything but he's probably not as bad at coming up with an offense as Luke Walton, Alvin Gentry, and George Karl were at coming up with working defenses.
 
This list tells me one thing and one thing only.

Monte's job is on the line
Kings are going to have the lowest season ticket commitments going into next season. Not having a play-in game to sell season tix packages is going to trigger a lot of heat from Kings owners.
 
Mike Brown had 2 losing seasons. One he was fired less than ten games in and the other he had 2 more wins than we posted this season. It’s silly to give Mike no credit for his success while propping up a Kenny Atkinson type despite his record. That time on the Warriors bench is super valuable and so is his experience with Nigeria.

Couple thoughts on Jackson:

Would he really leave his cushy high paying gig for an unstable franchise? Super risky imo.

All the players that have propped him up share his religious views (Iggy and Curry for sure and I’m fairly certain on Green). His detractors- Bogut is one example said he was a good coach but old school approach that can only take a team so far.
 
Why not? He could get a 10 year contract from Vivek, get fired after the first year, and then go back to his cushy, high-paying gig and be double-dipping.
fair, he probably would not be able to go back to his current job though which is one of the best out there. Plus if he makes it two years and is fired he now is almost 60 with two short coaching stints on his resume. If I was him I’d hold out for a more stable franchise
 
He was 75-78 in the seasons he didn't coach Lebron which is sadly a much better record overall than the Kings have ever managed in almost any span in the last 16 years.
that's better than I thought. of the three he is the one I could talk myself into but I really don't want to have to talk myself into this hire.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
He was 75-78 in the seasons he didn't coach Lebron which is sadly a much better record overall than the Kings have ever managed in almost any span in the last 16 years.
Was Kobe still Kobe in 11/12, or did he outcoach his less than stellar last couple seasons? Because this Kings team doesn’t have Kobe either.

His season+ without LeBron or Kobe? 34-53
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Was Kobe still Kobe in 11/12, or did he outcoach his less than stellar last couple seasons? Because this Kings team doesn’t have Kobe either.

His season+ without LeBron or Kobe? 34-53
This is pre-ACL but still old Kobe dragging over-the-hill Pau and Metta and increasingly fragile Andrew Bynum to the last good season of that Lakers’ team (this was the team so toxic that it finally made Phil Jackson quit coaching forever). Not a bad team by any means but the supporting cast was lacking and the league was starting to change (the Lakers made it to the 3 seed but got pummeled by the KD/Westbrook/Harden/Ibaka Thunder in the semis)Also Kobe decided to stop giving a crap about defense halfway through the previous season so that kinda hurt things
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Was Kobe still Kobe in 11/12, or did he outcoach his less than stellar last couple seasons? Because this Kings team doesn’t have Kobe either.

His season+ without LeBron or Kobe? 34-53
He also had Kobe in that stretch before he got fired but his leg was too sore to practice, Dwight’s back was injured, and Steve Nash got hurt halfway through the second game of their season.

that pretty much leaves that last Cleveland season where he managed 33 wins, which is frankly sort of impressive considering what he had to work with.
 
Mike Brown had 2 losing seasons. One he was fired less than ten games in and the other he had 2 more wins than we posted this season. It’s silly to give Mike no credit for his success while propping up a Kenny Atkinson type despite his record. That time on the Warriors bench is super valuable and so is his experience with Nigeria.

Couple thoughts on Jackson:

Would he really leave his cushy high paying gig for an unstable franchise? Super risky imo.

All the players that have propped him up share his religious views (Iggy and Curry for sure and I’m fairly certain on Green). His detractors- Bogut is one example said he was a good coach but old school approach that can only take a team so far.
Coach motivation is a big question here, and I do wonder if maybe some of the other candidates pulled out already. Ham got interest from LA and Hardy can prob take his pick as well, Lee is maybe a little behind them from but similar boat, and D’Antoni we’ve all been over

Brown seems like the one option who’d be happy to take any opportunity to get back in the first chair without plotting additional future moves. Not someone who’s gonna take a bunch of time off it seems. Jackson has a massive ego and probably enjoys the cushy ESPN gig, Clifford proven he’s happy to wait for a gig that he feels is right for him
 
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