Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton is reportedly safe from getting fired despite general manager Vlade Divac shockingly stepping down on Friday, per Sam Amick of The Athletic.
Walton just completed his first season with the Kings. The team went 31-41 and missed the playoffs for the 14th straight year.
Source also tells @TheAthleticNBA that Kings coach Luke Walton is safe. While the two were on the same contractual timeline (through 2022-23), and Vlade hand-picked Luke, there won't be another domino falling here.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) August 14, 2020
There was a point this season where it looked like the Kings were finally heading in the right direction as a franchise after being a walking disaster for years. While the team showed promise on some nights, they were still the same old Kings.
Dysfunction seems to run in the water at the Kings' facility. Shooting guard Buddy Hield may or may not have an issue with Walton after playing sparingly in the bubble games at Walt Disney World. This comes after Hield not having the best relationship with ex-Kings head coach Dave Joerger in 2018-19.
Walton went 98-148 with the Los Angeles Lakers as head coach before getting fired. His first season with the Kings wasn't too bad considering the team won 31 games and Marvin Bagley III only played in 13 games.
It's also not Walton's fault Divac and his team passed on Luka Doncic in the 2018 draft (for a number of reasons, from ball dominance conflicting with De'Aaron Fox to an alleged spat between the now-former general manager and Doncic's father Sasa) and selected Bagley III instead.
Doncic is an MVP candidate in just his second season with the Dallas Mavericks, while Bagley has completely underwhelmed with Sacramento.
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