The Sacramento Kings are off to a rough start in 2026-2027. At the core of that is head coach Doug Christie, who has proven he is not capable of building a winning team in Sactown. For now, the Kings are choosing stability and keeping Christie around, which will likely backfire as the rebuild continues.
Since the end of Rick Adelman's long tenure in 2006, the Kings have gone through head coaches faster than Shaq used to go through backboards. That includes relatively quick ends to Mike Malone and Mike Brown as head coaches, both of whom went on to win championships.
That complete lack of consistency for bench bosses has been a problem for the Kings, and a major cause of their irrelevance. As such, part of the rebuild general manager Scott Perry is running has to be continuity at head coach. It makes sense, but does that head coach have to be Christie?
So far, his short run as head coach has left a lot to be desired. Christie is terrible at developing young players, does not have a mind for offense, and appears unwilling to adjust any aspect of his strategy to fit reality. Despite all of that, the Kings seem to be sticking with him just to maintain consistency.
Sacramento's stance on Christie both makes sense and is insane
Sam Amick recently popped up on The Carmichael Dave Show with Jason Ross on Sactown Sports 1140 to talk about this exact situation. He made it clear that the Kings' organization is likely running with Christie for now to maintain stability at the bench boss position as the team rebuilds.
In reality, sticking with Christie will do more harm than good. The core of the rebuild is developing young stars, and he is completely dropping the ball in that area. Just ask Alex Karaban and Nique Clifford, who are spending more time on the bench than building their game. It's a risky move.
If Christie as head coach was yielding positive results, or even some kind of incremental progress, then sticking with him makes sense. But none of that is happening. Anything good on the Kings seems to be in spite of Christie's presence. Sacramento better be planning for who's next.
According to Amick, the Kings are unlikely to let Christie go during the season unless the situation gets really bad. Apparently, the current mess isn't enough. Hopefully, the Kings don't talk themselves into another season with Christie to maintain the status quo, as that isn't working out at all.
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