The Sacramento Kings have fired head coach Mike Malone, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. This has come to be a complete shocker, as Coach Malone was actually doing a great job with the team.
Assistant coach Tyrone Corbin will now take over head coaching duties until the Kings can find a permanent coach, which may not happen anytime soon.
Mike Malone coached the Kings to an 11-13 start, but the team has lost the last eight out of 10 games, in which DeMarcus Cousins has been out for nine of those 10 games. With Cousins healthy, the Kings were actually 9-6, which was a surprising mark. However, despite Cousins being out, the Kings felt the need to fire Mike Malone because apparently he did not meet expectations, play the system the organization wanted him to play, and was unable to develop his players.
The organization wanted Malone to play a fast-paced game, in which he failed to do, but interim coach Tyrone Corbin is expected to implement an up-tempo offense.
Mike Malone signed a four-year deal with the Kings in 2013, with a team option for the final year. Last season, he coached the Kings to a 28-54 record, good for 13th place in the West. It seems as though the Kings wanted to part ways with Malone during the summer but didn’t. Instead, they kept him on board, and the team’s terrific play early in the season saved his job until the latest struggles kicked in with their best player out.
It seems utterly illogical to fire a coach who was doing a wonderful job with this young Kings team. It was also unfair since Cousins has been out for quite some time now, and that’s why the team has been struggling. Essentially, Rudy Gay, Darren Collison, and Ben McLemore have been playing really well this season under Coach Malone, but the Kings front office has looked past that.
For now, the Kings are not expected to hire a new coach. They are likely to play out the rest of the season with Tyrone Corbin running the show.
Nonetheless, when the season is over, the Kings will begin to search for a new coach. George Karl and Vinny Del Negro are possibly candidates.
Karl most recently coached the Denver Nuggets to a 57-25 record, while Del Negro coached the Clippers to a 56-26 record. Either one of those two would be a magnificent replacement for Michael Malone.