The Kings Did It Again (Failure)
The Sacramento Kings went from a contender in the West to a laughing stock of the Western Conference for the better part of the last decade. But the Kings were finally piecing things together, and then they messed it all up with a couple of bad moves. Here is what the Kings did wrong.
2016 Offseason
The Kings hired former Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger during the offseason. Joerger is one of the more experienced coaches in the league and was a good hire for the Kings. He was in a tough situation as coaching the Kings is not an easy job.
2016-17 Season
But Joerger’s first season with the Kings wasn’t great. He had Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins at his disposal, but this Kings team was pretty bad. Cousins was traded mid-season to New Orleans, and the Kings got sharp-shooter Buddy Hield in return. The Kings were a mediocre 32-50, and they finished 32-50 on the year. The Kings were able to get the 5th overall pick, and they actually did the right thing.
They selected their franchise point guard in De’Aaron Fox, a pick that they actually did a god job. Fox is very talented and he is one of the cornerstones of the ever-lasting Kings rebuild.
2017-18 Season
The Kings entered the 2017-18 season with Fox, Hield, and Bogdan Bogdanovic. So they were building the roots of their current team. But the Kings weren’t exactly great this season as they were 27-55, finishing with 5 less wins. They still finished 12th in the Western Conference.
The Kings got lucky and had the 2nd pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. With Deandre Ayton off the board, the Kings had some choices. They already had a plethera of guards such as Fox and Hield, so guys like Oklahoma’s Trae Young and European Luka Doncic didn’t make much sense. The pick that made sense at the time was to select Duke PF Marvin Bagley. Bagley was excellent in colleg and look to try and fill the hole left by DeMarcus Cousins just a season ago.
2018-19 Season
The Kings now had a bunch of young talent with Fox, Hield, Bogdanovic and now PF Bagley. The Kings were forming a lot of young talent together, and the 2018-19 season is when they finally started to progress. With the addition of Harrison Barnes in the middle of the year, the Kings went 39-43 and finished 9th in the West, 9 games out of the playoffs. The Kings looked like they had finally made steps in the right direction. They could be a playoff team in the future.
Instead of riding that momentum, they decided to do the opposite. They fired Dave Joerger after he had led them to the closest they had been to the playoffs in years. They replaced with former Lakers head coach Luke Walton (*sigh*).
But even with the surprise fire of Dave Joerger, the Kings looked to be on the rise. Fox and Hield were a promising duo and Marvin Bagley looked great as well. Bogdan Bogdanovic was solid off the bench. But instead of slowly trending up towards the playoffs, the Kings went back to being… themselves.
2019-20 Season
In the 2019-20 season with Luke Walton, the Kings went 31-41, as they had an 8 win decrease. The Kings just went 3-5 in the bubble, and they had no chance of making the playoffs. The Kings went from going towards the playoffs, to going back to mediocrity.
So, the Kings should have never fired Dave Joerger. Joerger was playing fast paced basketball, something that the Kings thrived in. Instead they got tired of the process of making the playoffs and instead went all in. That failed, obviously. Marvin Bagley was injured for most of this season, and the Kings better hope he says healthy otherwise they might have wasted their #2 overall pick. Buddy Hield is unhappy and will likely get traded and the Kings are heavily overpaying Harrison Barnes. The situation in Sacramento went from good to bad in just one year.
And with their current trajectory, it looks like it will be a long time before the Kings ever return to their former glory.
When Will The Kings Make The Playoffs? Leave A Comment Down Below!
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