After firing Mike Brown, the Sacramento Kings took a big chance on rookie head coach Doug Christie. His first season as the bench boss wasn't exactly great. The Kings needed 20 more wins for it to even be mediocre. With a team option coming for 2027-2028, Christie has to prove himself now.
A former player with the Kings turned assistant coach, Sacramento going with him as Brown's replacement both was and wasn't a surprise. Being that the franchise was familiar with Christie, it made sense to look at him as the next head coach. They're not the first team to do that.
The other side of that coin is the fact that Christie had never been a head coach before. It also didn't seem like the Kings had put much effort into looking at other potential options. There have definitely been questions about the level of "due diligence" that went into his hiring.
That question mark has only gotten bigger with the rebuild process the Kings have undertaken. Pretty much everyone was unsure about him under normal circumstances. A rebuild is a difficult process for an experienced coach, let alone one as green as Christie.
Christie's defensive vision has to start taking shape
His first full season as head coach wasn't pretty. The Kings finished with a record of 22 wins and 60 losses, missing the playoffs by a country mile. Admittedly, that wasn't all Christie's fault. He was still dealing with the fallout of the previous season as well as a catastrophic number of injuries.
That doesn't change the fact that the fans need to see improvement, or they will start calling for a new head coach. The easiest way to do that is by getting more wins. Current projections show the Kings getting 21.5 wins in 2026-2027, which makes no sense. It's 0.5 wins less than last season.
If Christie can get the Kings to even 30 wins, that's still better than what fans saw in 2025-2026. Even more important is being able to point to real, meaningful changes to the Kings' middling defense, which is something Christie has been highlighting since the day he took over.
After the completion of this season, the Kings have a team option in Christie's contract. If they don't like what they're seeing, they cannot afford to wait for him to improve. The rebuild needs a steady hand at the tiller. Sacramento needs to move on sooner than later if that's not Christie.
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