Doug Christie is not a good head coach. Everyone knows it, including the Sacramento Kings front office and management. Yet, most sources close to the Kings are saying the plan is to stick with him through this entire season. Whatever the reasons are for that, it's a horrible idea. Let the man go.
For even the most casual Kings fan, the easiest and most obvious move to try to get this franchise back on some kind of track would be replacing Christie. There are plenty of options available, including Tom Thibodeau. That being said, you could also just replace Christie with a potato.
At this point, it almost doesn't matter who steps in as long as Christie is gone. He is destroying the futures of several young NBA players with his terrible development system. The luckiest one out of all of them is Nique Clifford, who just got traded to the OKC Thunder and has a chance at success now.
Despite the one and 10 record to start this season after a 22 and 60 season, the Kings are sticking by Christie. Mike Brown, who led this franchise to their first playoff appearance in 16 years, was fired as head coach for way less than Christie is getting away with. And Brown went on to win a title.
Why are the Kings doing this to themselves?
The crew over at Sactown Sports 1140 have said that the Kings want to keep Christie through the season. If they dump him now, the main assistant coach will step in until they hire a new head coach. That puts the Kings in a potential situation where they have three head coaches in one season.
Sacramento's front office is especially sensitive to this as they believe such a move will potentially be detrimental to the development of Darius Acuff Jr. Fair enough. Yet, having Christie around is definitely detrimental to Acuff's development, not to mention every other rookie and sophomore.
Christie is not doing anything to develop Acuff. He's just given him the green light to play as he sees fit. Acuff is finding himself on the court, but it's not because of anything Christie has done. His development plan is the equivalent of throwing a child in a pool and telling them to figure it out.
Have three head coaches in one season. Have 12. Have as many as you need to find the right head coach because sticking with the wrong one is doing far more harm than good. This season is a wash either way, so stop digging the hole deeper. Do the right thing and make the big move.
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