Kings GM Monte McNair explains decision to fire coach Luke Walton (Moved from News Links folder)

[NBC Sports BayArea]

Kings general manager Monte McNair explained why he decided to fire coach Luke Walton after just 17 games.

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[24 rick barry]

"After a thorough evaluation of where we’re at, I’ve Vivek decided to make a coaching change...and that I was to go tell Luke," McNair told reporters.

 

[KingsCitizen]

This is clearly a McNair move. The Vivek move was keeping Walton to eat further to his contract because it was guaranteed till 2023. Luke clearly was ready to walk out with Vivek's money since like 1 year back. Vivek just want them to suffer together after being outhustled by Luke.

 

[24 rick barry]

This is clearly a McNair move. The Vivek move was keeping Walton to eat further to his contract because it was guaranteed till 2023. Luke clearly was ready to walk out with Vivek's money since like 1 year back. Vivek just want them to suffer together after being outhustled by Luke.

False... Luke's firing yesterday was ordered by Vivek...just like with Mike Malone. Monte was told to let Luke know that he was fired...just like Pete D'Alessandro was told to let Mike Malone know that he was fired.

Both GM's were to come out and announce that they fired the coach. Hogwash. Firing Luke, like Malone before him, was Vivek's decision.

 

[Tetsujin]

So, uh, are we supposed to feel sorry for Luke or something?

How is Vivek wanting to fire Walton a bad thing in this scenario?

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

So, uh, are we supposed to feel sorry for Luke or something?

How is Vivek wanting to fire Walton a bad thing in this scenario?

If true, it would indicate that Ranadive is still making the major decisions, despite his efforts to make it seem like his GM is the one making them.

I have a hard time believe that the McNair wanted to retain Walton after last season,....but stranger things do happen

 

[Tetsujin]

If true, it would indicate that Ranadive is still making the major decisions, despite his efforts to make it seem like his GM is the one making them.

I have a hard time believe that the McNair wanted to retain Walton after last season,....but stranger things do happen

I do think that Monte got lulled into believing in Walton by the good stretches of basketball last season (mostly fueled by the Kings playing a middle out pick and roll scheme that actually makes sense with the personnel on the roster) enough to somehow overlook the worst defense in basketball history and the multiple nine game losing streaks in one season alone. The dude probably thought that if Luke continued to build on the offense from last season and manage to not somehow lose nine games in a row twice, the Kings would at least be able to look competent.

I don't think he realized that Luke stumbled into the pick and roll by accident while mostly attempting to run the team like the 2016 Warriors.

 

[TaxMan]

I personally think, while perhaps misguided, the explanation is probably along the lines of:

- Monte inherited Luke as coach. He got to know Luke and they actually DID have a good working relationship.
- At the end of last year, Luke's second as coach, it would have certainly been understandable if he had been fired. However, the front office felt there was a benefit of having longer tern continuity in a coach after recycling through so many.
- Luke's salary did probably play a part in the overall thinking, but I suspect the continuity angle was more important..... or at least it gave them a legit reason to keep him on for season three.
- I suspect they knew from the beginning of the offseason that he would be on a tighter leash than last year, continuity be damned.
- They DID actually have a positive camp and a good start to the season. Vibes were good and Luke was seemingly working with the three guard line-up and other approaches pushed by the front office.
- Things fell apart over the past 10 games. Not only losing games, but starting to get bad body language from players and deafening chants to fire Luke from the home crowd. Bad ticket sales didn't help.
- They have an experienced head coach on their bench to take over for likely relatively cheap the rest of the year.

 

[Tetsujin]

I personally think, while perhaps misguided, the explanation is probably along the lines of:

- Monte inherited Luke as coach. He got to know Luke and they actually DID have a good working relationship.
- At the end of last year, Luke's second as coach, it would have certainly been understandable if he had been fired. However, the front office felt there was a benefit of having longer tern continuity in a coach after recycling through so many.
- Luke's salary did probably play a part in the overall thinking, but I suspect the continuity angle was more important..... or at least it gave them a legit reason to keep him on for season three.
- I suspect they knew from the beginning of the offseason that he would be on a tighter leash than last year, continuity be damned.
- They DID actually have a positive camp and a good start to the season. Vibes were good and Luke was seemingly working with the three guard line-up and other approaches pushed by the front office.
- Things fell apart over the past 10 games. Not only losing games, but starting to get bad body language from players and deafening chants to fire Luke from the home crowd. Bad ticket sales didn't help.
- They have an experienced head coach on their bench to take over for likely relatively cheap the rest of the year.

It's really important to remember this too. The Kings started the season 5-5 then Luke panicked because he thought we weren't getting enough rebounds/whatever else dumb half-assed excuse he thought up and changed things up again by inserting Metu into the lineup, completely pulling Harkless out of the rotation despite him being one of our better defenders, pretty much benching Len, and drastically reducing the three guard lineups that were actually seeing some success and replacing them with a Metu/Bagley tandem at 4.

 

[TaxMan]

It's really important to remember this too. The Kings started the season 5-5 then Luke panicked because he thought we weren't getting enough rebounds/whatever else dumb half-assed excuse he thought up and changed things up again by inserting Metu into the lineup, completely pulling Harkless out of the rotation despite him being one of our better defenders, pretty much benching Len, and drastically reducing the three guard lineups that were actually seeing some success and replacing them with a Metu/Bagley tandem at 4.

Absolutely. I do believe Luke and Monte were on the same page going into the season. I don't believe Monte was actually dictating game plan, who's playing, substitutions, etc., but it certainly didn't help Luke's case to keep his job when he went in another directly that clearly isn't working.

I'm actually curious to see if Gentry goes ahead and STARTS the three guard line-up. While it's only one day so not sure how much can really change, it will be interesting to see if we quickly go back to the plan that was working to start the season.

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

Keeping Luke might have helped with resigning Holmes, who has flourished working for Walton.

 

[funkykingston]

It's really important to remember this too. The Kings started the season 5-5 then Luke panicked because he thought we weren't getting enough rebounds/whatever else dumb half-assed excuse he thought up and changed things up again by inserting Metu into the lineup, completely pulling Harkless out of the rotation despite him being one of our better defenders, pretty much benching Len, and drastically reducing the three guard lineups that were actually seeing some success and replacing them with a Metu/Bagley tandem at 4.

Yeah, I definitely didn't understand why Harkless went from starting to not playing at all. Or what the strategy was (if there was one) behind when Len or Thompson got the backup center minutes. This isn't a good Kings team, but Walton's rotations were only making things worse.

Things may improve slightly under Gentry. I'm guessing we'll see a new starting five with Holmes, Barnes, Haliburton, and Fox being joined by either Bagley, Mitchell, or Hield.

But none of it will make any difference if Fox continues to struggle. The Kings need him to get better so that either the team improves and/or he gets his trade value back up.

There's already a sunk cost, former #2 overall pick on this team. If De'Aaron can't get back on track then there's really no way up for this team.