The Sacramento Kings recently extended the contracts of General Manager Vlade Divac and Head Coach Dave Joerger. Today we discuss those moves and why they were necessary to keep the team on the path to contention.
The Sacramento Kings made an out of the ordinary move for their franchise on Wednesday, September 27. The Kings decided to extend the contracts of both General Manager Vlade Divac and Head Coach Dave Joerger through the 2019-2020 NBA season. That will keep the pair together for at least the next three seasons and give the franchise some much-needed stability.
Today, we will discuss why that stability is important and take a look at why both men deserved their extensions despite a lack of winning. I will then finish up with a few final thoughts on the topic. Without further ado, let us jump right into it.
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Stability
As most of you know, the Kings tend to shake things up especially in their head coaching position. Since the end of Rick Adelman‘s tenure in 2006 (and not so coincidentally their last playoff appearance), Sacramento has had nine different head coaches. Yes, that is nine different head coaches in 11 seasons. Not much stability and that makes it difficult to learn the schemes and become a cohesive unit. The players need a constant voice and leader. Hopefully, the organization commits to Coach Joerger (who I think is a fantastic coach) through this contract and into a new deal.
The Kings have been more stable with their GM having only three men including Vlade Divac in the seat since 1994. It is important to keep the Divac and Joerger partnership together, though. The two men should be working in lockstep on personnel and basketball-related decisions. That is how teams climb the latter and ascend into contention.
Belief in the rebuild
Another interpretive sign of these extensions is Owner Vivek Ranadive believes the team is heading in the right direction. Divac and company had a great draft and followed that up by signing three skilled veterans in free agency. The cherry on top was bringing in Bogdan Bogdanovic from Europe. Sacramento has the feel of a young squad moving in the right direction, and these extensions show the owner believes in the movement.
Check out a recent article by my colleague Sanjesh Singh on how the Kings are building a potential “Superteam” here.
I would love to see the Kings show more stability with their player personnel. The two longest-tenured current Kings are Willie Cauley-Stein and Kosta Koufos both entering their third season in the California capital. It is hard to turn the roster over that much year after year and continue to win ball games. Hopefully, the stability of management leads to players sticking around in Sacramento.
Final thoughts
The Sacramento Kings extended both GM Divac and Coach Joerger giving both men contracts for the next three seasons. It will be an interesting and entertaining three years in Sacramento with many questions to answer. Who will be the face of the franchise in 2020? De’Aaron Fox? Buddy Hield? Willie Cauley-Stein? When will the playoff drought end? How many current Kings are still on the roster? These are questions I cannot answer today, but I look forward to watching it play out. Hopefully, by 2020 the Kings are in contention, and we look back on the coming season as the first step in a path to glory.
Next: 3 goals for Harry Giles in the coming season
A Royal Pain is your one-stop shop for all things Sacramento Kings this season. We will be covering all the news plus content on each game and plenty of player profiles. Please check back with us often. Thank you for reading.