The Sacramento Kings Are In Salt Lake City Tonight, But Could George Karl be In Sactown Soon?
If you missed Thursday night’s 101-78 home loss to the Dallas Mavericks, consider yourself lucky. Should I mention the fact that the Mavs were without Rajon Rondo and Dirk Nowitzki, or will that just make it worse?
It will? Ok. I won’t mention it then.
Another loss is hardly a big deal at this point. The Kings have been playing very poor basketball for a long time now. This one was a little different, however. For an in depth look at Thursday’s game, you can find our postgame coverage here.
Bill Russell was in attendance. They showed him sitting with Vivek Ranadive in the front row all game. The Kings were getting trounced right in front of their owner who had to sit there and watch his product with one of the most respected basketball players of all time. That had to be uncomfortable. That had to be embarrassing.
Maybe that loss triggered something. It’s hard to say with any certainty, but shortly after that the George Karl rumors started spreading like wild fire. Based on what I’ve read, and what people I have copious amount of respect for have reported, I’d say it’s likely that the Kings will have a new coach at or around the All-Star break. That’s huge. George Karl appears to be the frontrunner, and I’d speculate that Alvin Gentry is the other name being considered.
This has been a wild few months. If we know anything, it’s that we know nothing. I think we know Vivek Ranadive fairly well, though, and he sees what is happening on the court.
He knows that something needs to be done, so unless the Kings miraculously improve under Corbin before the All-Star break and / or trade deadline, something will get done. A new coach seems like the most logical way to fix this mess, but I wouldn’t rule out a major trade or two, either.
Do yourself a favor and refresh CarmichaelDave’s twitter feed. That’s what I’ll be doing until tipoff.
“@5kingsfan: @CarmichaelDave if you had to put a percentage on a potential big move occurring soon, what would it be?”
— Carmichael Dave (@CarmichaelDave) February 7, 2015
95%
That brings us to tonight’s matchup against the Utah Jazz. Ty Corbin’s old team!
I should mention that Darren Collison strained his hip flexor in the Mavericks game, and he’s already been ruled out for tonight. That means more Ramon Sessions. I’ll let you interpret how that will affect the Kings chances for a win in Utah.
The Jazz are kind of fun. They aren’t very good, but they have players you should be excited to watch tonight. Keep an eye out for Rudy Gobert and Dante Exum. You can also dream about how great Derrick Favors would fit next to DeMarcus Cousins if the Jazz ever decide to move him.
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I probably like Enes Kanter more than most, but under no scenario should he be able to defend DeMarcus Cousins tonight. And without Collison, the Kings should be feeding him the ball inside even more than usual.
This Kings team is wildly inconsistent, and has been since Corbin took over. With that being said, you can sort of rationalize getting blown out by teams like Golden State or Dallas. If the Kings can’t hang with the Jazz tonight, well, that’s a little different.
So I’m expected a decent showing. But in some ways, another bad loss would put even more pressure on this front office to do something.
The basketball is often subpar, but Sacramento is never boring. It should be a very interesting couple of weeks.
As always, check back in to A Royal Pain after tonight’s game for our postgame coverage.
Sacramento Kings at Utah Jazz
Where: EnergySolutions Arena – Salt Lake City, Utah
When: 6:00 PM Pacific, 9:00 PM Eastern
Broadcast: Comcast Sportsnet California
Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM