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The Sacramento Kings made a stunning decision on Friday when they fired head coach Mike Brown in the midst of a five-game losing streak. The latest of those losses was arguably the worst of them all, as the Kings blew a 16-point fourth quarter lead and a 10-point lead in he final three minutes in a 114-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Shortly after Brown was fired, the Kings announced who would be taking his place. Assistant coach Doug Christie will be the Kings' interim head coach for the rest of the season according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
Christie's promotion makes a lot of sense for the Kings given his long history for the team. As a player, the 6-foot-6 guard played for the Kings for five seasons from 2000-05 before he was traded to the Orlando Magic. Christie's stint in Sacramento was the most successful stop of his career, as he evolved into a defensive ace for the Kings and was a huge part of a team that reached the second round of the playoffs for four consecutive seasons and made it to the Western Conference Finals in 2002.
Christie's post-basketball career led him back to the Kings as well. He was a color commentator for the team from 2018-21 before the Kings hired him as an assistant coach before the 2021-22 season. He worked on Brown's staff over the last 3+ seasons.
Christie has his work cut out for him when it comes to picking up the pieces from a team that is really struggling this season. The Kings went all-in on the core of De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis by acquiring DeMar DeRozan this offseason, but the new big three in Sacramento isn't thriving.
The Kings' spacing is a little bit off, as none of the three stars are comfortable doing a lot of their work from the perimeter. All three of them prefer to work in the mid-range area, which creates some congested possessions down the stretch of games. This is a big reason why the Kings have lost a league-leading 13 games in crunch time this season.
If Christie can somehow turn things around in Sacramento this season, he will certainly garner interest as the potential head coach on a full-time basis next season. However, there is plenty of work to do between now and then.
