Despite leading the Sacramento Kings to a 39-43 record and the most wins since the 2005-06 season, former Kings head coach Dave Joerger was fired by general manager Vlade Divac on Thursday afternoon.
In the wake of a strange resignation from Magic Johnson and a number of other firings throughout the league, the move to fire Joerger after a 12-game improvement is one of the most confusing decisions to date.
For his part, Divac explained that he felt the next step for the Kings was realizing their playoff potential:
"The next level is we have a team that’s going to be a playoff team and down the road, a contender. I think our kids are very talented. We have to believe in them and give them a chance to take advantage of their work and talent."
Vlade Divac— Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) April 11, 2019
The last part of that quote would seem to indicate that Joerger was not giving enough minutes to some of the young guys on the roster, such as De'Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley III. But Fox played in over 30 minutes per game in his second season, and Bagley battled with injuries all year long.
In fact, contrary to Divac's statement, Joerger started Fox, Buddy Hield and Willie Cauley-Stein in 81 of 82 games this year, and Bogdan Bogdanovic was one of the best sixth men in basketball.
The Kings averaged 114.2 points per game, which was ninth-best in the NBA and a massive 15.4 increase over their scoring average from the previous season.
According to ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, one of the reasons Divac is cleaning house is to “consolidate power around him” a power-bred mentality that explains why Sacramento has not had a winning season in over 13 years.
The Kings will enter the lottery once again this summer, and there is a real question as to whether or not any coach can thrive in Sacramento with Divac in charge.
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