Before getting his butt handed to him by the Avengers, universal despot Thanos of Titan declared that he was inevitable. It sometimes feels like the Sacramento Kings' Doug Christie feels the same about himself as head coach. The only thing inevitable about Christie is his upcoming termination.
After the Kings inexplicably fired Mike Brown, the only head coach to bring this franchise any level of success since Rick Adelman, he was replaced by Christie. A former player with the Kings in the early 2000s, he started as an assistant coach with the franchise in 2021, succeeding Brown in 2024.
His first full season as a head coach was an absolute disaster. To be fair to Christie, it wasn't all his fault. He inherited a lopsided, poorly balanced roster from the previous front office. Plus, any chance for even a mediocre season was completely buried under a deluge of injuries.
That being said, Christie didn't exactly handle it well. His laser focus on defense reputedly created issues between him and some of his players. On top of that, Christie appeared unwilling to alter his plans unless forced to by injuries. Even then, he couldn't seem to get the Kings in line.
What's going wrong already?
Despite the horrors of 2025-2026, the Kings decided to give Christie another shot in 2026-2027. It made sense as there have been improvements to the roster. Hopefully, there will be fewer injuries, as well, though that part of the equation isn't getting off to a good start in the preseason.
Beyond the injuries, the preseason has been a debacle. The number of Kings on the bench for no reason is absurd. Sacramento seems to be trying out inexplicable strategies to see what works, if there's even that much thought behind the choices being made. Random is the best word.
When asked about all of this, all anyone gets back from Christie is that there are plans they don't know about and to trust the process. I'm paraphrasing him, of course. Sactown fans have been hearing that kind of rhetoric since Adelman left in 2006. Look how that has worked out for them.
A prime example of this is Christie talking about how great Ben Simmons is doing in practice. He talks a lot about Simmons. At first, fans only saw eight okay minutes from Simmons in one preseason game. In the last one, he finally showed up for a real outing and actually played quite well.
Christie is unlikely to survive this upcoming season
Honestly, this has been the biggest issue with Christie's tenure as head coach. He talks a lot about practices and plans, none of which come to fruition in games. Sure, some of that can be blamed on injuries. But a good portion has to be blamed on bad leadership, and that's all Christie.
The reality is that his current contract has a team option for the 2027-2028 season. Based on what we're seeing from the Kings right now, this season is not going to look much better than last season. At some point, the front office has to realize that this rebuild will not work with Christie.
There's always the chance that the Kings improve this season due to Christie's coaching. Honestly, I sincerely hope that happens. In June 2027, I want to write a mea cupla article saying I was wrong about him as head coach and that he delivered for Sactown. I really doubt I'll have to, though.
If this season is another trainwreck and the Kings choose to keep Christie, it will be impossible to take this franchise or the rebuild seriously. Most of the league already doesn't. There are too many great head coaches out there in need of a spot for this team to waste yet another season on a bad one.
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