By Jordan Long
The Sacramento Kings are 6-11. They look to improve on that record tonight when they face the Philadelphia 76ers. They are going to do it with an interim Head Coach as the Kings fired Luke Walton. Walton had just entered his 3rd year with the Kings.
Sacramento hired Walton after the 2019 season. Walton coached the L.A Lakers, his only NBA Head Coaching job, from 2016 to 2019. This was a surprise hire for the Kings because Walton wasn’t successful with the Lakers going 98-148, a winning percentage of .398. The Kings were still willing to gamble with Walton since at least he had coaching experience in the NBA.
It didn’t work out. In his first year, the Kings ended at 31-41. The players were just trying to understand his system. Last year again was a 31-41 ending. The Kings should have fired him right then and there. 2 years is long enough to see what kind of coach he was. The Kings gave him one more season. After a 6-11 beginning it was time for him to go. Walton ends his Kings tenure with a disappointing 68-93 record, a winning percentage of .422.
According to sacbee.com, Kings’ General Manager Monte McNair said, “After a thorough evaluation of the season thus far, I decided to make a change to the head coach position. I want to thank Luke for his efforts and contributions to our team.”
The Kings have named Alvin Gentry as the interim Head Coach. Gentry has NBA head coaching experience with the Detroit Pistons, Phoenix Suns, and New Orleans Pelicans. In his career Gentry has a record of 510-595, a winning percentage of .462. That isn’t great. He is still below .500 a little better than Walton. Gentry’s teams earned a playoff spot 3 times.
The Kings hope a change at the head coaching position will turn the Kings around. They are 12th in the NBA Western Conference right now. It is early in the year. They need to finish at 7th to 10th in the Western Conference to earn a spot in the play-in tournament. 6th would put them in the first-round. They are 1.5 games out of 10th.
The Kings have the longest current playoff drought in the NBA. They haven’t clinched a playoff spot since 2006. In that time they have gone through 8 Head Coaches. They anticipate better results with Gentry. This is Gentry’s time to show he can still coach at the NBA level. If he can turn the Kings into a winning team, even if they fall short of the 10th spot, he might be back next year, otherwise, the Kings will start a coaching search once the season is over.
Leave a Reply