The Sacramento Kings are moving forward with Doug Christie as their head coach, the team announced Thursday. It removes the interim tag he carried this past season after taking over for Mike Brown, who was fired in December. Financial figures were not released, but Christie and the team were reportedly working on a multi-year deal, according to ESPN.
Kings general manager Scott Perry, who the team recently hired after parting ways with Monte McNair, met with Christie last week, but also planned to talk with other candidates for the job as well.
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Sam Quinn
It appears as though Perry decided Christie was the best person for the job, likely due to the fact that the Kings finished 27-24 with him at the helm. It didn’t result in much success beyond the regular season, as Sacramento fell to the Dallas Mavericks in the play-in round, but the team put up the ninth-best offense during Christie’s short tenure.
“I first met Doug Christie when he was a player in Toronto, so I admire him as a player, his career,” Perry told reporters during his introductory press conference last week. “I’ve watched him this year from afar. In terms of his ability to have a presence on the court, I think he’s made a connection with players.”
Christie was an assistant coach for the Kings dating back to the 2021-22 season, and played for the franchise from 2000 to 2005. He becomes the team’s 13th coach since Rick Adelman, the team’s longest tenured and winningest coach in franchise history departed in 2006.
Since Adelman, it’s been a revolving door of coaches for the Kings, with Brown being the only one who managed to get Sacramento to the playoffs for the first time since the Hall of Fame head coach was in charge. But Brown was shown the door just two years after breaking the playoff drought for the Kings, so Christie knows patience is not something the Kings front office and team owner Vivek Ranadivé have in abundance.
The first order of business for Christie and the Kings will be to figure out how to improve this roster for next season. While the Kings were a top-10 offense, the defense ranked 23rd with Christie in charge. It’s why Sacramento struggled so heavily against the Mavericks, who had no difficulty scoring against the Kings in that play-in game.
Brown couldn’t get improve Sacramento’s defense, but perhaps Christie will have a better time at doing so. Time will tell, but just changing the head coach won’t be enough for the Kings to break into the upper echelon of the Western Conference. Roster changes need to be made as well, though the last few deals the Kings have done have not gone in their favor.
