Sacramento Kings: Could Dave Joerger be on the hot seat this season?
As Sacramento Kings’ coach Dave Joerger enters his third year at the helm, could his job be in jeopardy this season?
Quick Recap of Joerger’s Tenure Thus Far
Coming off a 27-55 season, the Sacramento Kings’ worst record since their 2010-11 campaign, Dave Joerger is essentially entering his second year of coaching the Kings through their most recent rebuild.
When Joerger took the job in 2016, Sacramento still had the likes of DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay, among others with dreams of making the playoffs. Midway through the 2016-17 season, Gay was lost to an Achilles injury and Cousins was subsequently traded. The Kings finished that season 32-50, and with a one-year window in which to tank as they do not have their 2019 first-round pick.
Those moves cleared the way for a full-fledged youth movement in California’s capital, and Joerger entered his first year coaching the Kings through the rebuild.
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So Will He Be Safe This Season?
This season? Most likely. It’s never a sure thing (just ask Mike Malone), but odds are Joerger will finish at least this season in Sacramento.
Coaches essentially get three years to try and turn around a program or a franchise. Joerger is entering year three, but only two in which he’s had to direct a team that is still growing and learning. Should the Kings stumble this season and win less than thirty games, it’s entirely possible he could be sent packing.
On the flipside of that, should the Kings win thirty to thirty-five games, he should absolutely remain the coach. Brett Brown, coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, is a perfect example of this.
Hired in 2013, Brown led some of the worst teams in league history in an attempt for the franchise to accrue draft picks and young players. After bottoming out in the 2015-16 season, when they won just ten games all year, Philly began to climb. Instead of replacing Brown as soon as they started to look up, they stuck with him and made the playoffs last season with fifty-two wins. Not only that, but Brown is now widely thought of as one of the best coaches in the NBA.
This isn’t to say the same will be true for Joerger, but he deserves a shot. It’s not as though he’s never led a winning team.
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Closing Thoughts
Joerger may never win Coach of the Year in Sacramento, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be the one to direct the Kings back to the postseason. By all accounts, he’s most assuredly safe for this season barring a massive failure. He will likely get every opportunity to make the Kings a playoff contender through the 2019-20 season.
The Kings’ front-office knows the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Utah Jazz will likely run the conference for another two or three seasons at the minimum. They won’t fire Joerger for not finishing high enough in the conference. If he’s let go at any point in the next two seasons, it’ll be for ineptitude. Something that, given his track record, isn’t likely.