While deciding to let go of multiple assistants, the Sacramento Kings are removing Doug Christie's interim tag and making him the team's official head coach.
After dismissing head coach Mike Brown following a 13-18 start to the season, the Kings made Christie their interim leader. Prior to this role change, Christie had been an assistant coach on the team since 2021.
Christie responded to his opportunity by going 27-24 in 51 games. This figure was significantly better than the win percentage Brown had put together to start the season.
However, despite his solid performance in the lead role, one individual who is very close to the team thinks the Kings' decision to continue with Christie was not the right call.
Sam Amick thinks Kings should not have brought back Doug Christie
Sam Amick is a senior NBA writer with The Athletic. He is one of the most well-regarded insiders in the industry, and he is especially well-connected in matters pertaining to the Kings – even being the one to initially break the story about a growing rift between the organization and De'Aaron Fox.
Amick made a recent appearance on The Ringer's "Real Ones" podcast, joining Logan Murdock and Howard Beck to discuss the state of the union in Sacramento. During their conversation, Amick gave his unfiltered opinion on the Kings' decision to keep Christie on as head coach. Here is what Amick had to say:
“The Doug Christie decision…in my opinion, it’s nothing against Doug…as a general rule, whenever your hiring [someone] who would not have the shot at the job with 29 other teams, you probably need to think twice about that," Amick said.
Amick does make a good point here. If Christie was a free agent, it is unlikely that any NBA team looking for a head coach would choose Christie for the job. Amick may even argue that Christie wouldn't be an assistant on most benches. He made sure to mention that Christie wasn't added to this team per a head coach's request (remember, Christie has been an assistant with the Kings since 2021). Christie was brought on as an organizational hire.
This bleeds into the theory that Christie is the coach only because Vivek Ranadive really likes him. As Kings fans know all too well, decisions made by Ranadive don't age too well, and the team is generally better off when he takes more of a laissez-faire approach (see the 2022-23 season).
Amick believes that players from those famous 2000s Kings teams are revered too heavily by the front office (Christie was the three-and-D ace of those groups), and that putting them in major organizational positions hasn't really led to much success.
Is Amick right? Only time will tell. But if history is any indicator, this does not look good for the Kings.