On Friday, the Sacramento Kings responded to their slow start to the season by firing their head coach, Mike Brown, six months after signing him to an extension.
While the Kings were indeed struggling (they currently sit at 13-19 and 12th in the Western Conference), the firing of Brown has largely been viewed as inexplicable, as he was the one to end their embarrassing 16-year playoff drought and lead the team to their most successful two-year run in the last decade and a half.
We will likely never know the true reason why Brown was fired. Maybe there was something happening on the inside that makes the decision make more sense. However, from an outsider's perspective, it feels like Brown is being punished for something that is not his fault.
The Lakers seem to understand roster building better than the Kings
As I've discussed on numerous occasions this season, this Kings roster is incredibly flawed. They have an abundance of offensively-slanted on-ball creators who can't really space the floor in De'Aaron Fox, DeMar DeRozan, Domantas Sabonis, and Malik Monk (Monk can space the floor, but you get the point). Meanwhile, they have a scarcity of big wings/forwards who can space the floor, defend the perimeter, and offer supplementary rim protection.
This will not change by firing Brown. Maybe having a new voice in the locker room will help galvanize the troops to play with more effort. But at the end of the day, the roster will continue to have the same imbalances.
That is why I like the trade the Los Angeles Lakers made on Sunday. In case you missed it, the Lakers traded D'Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis, and three second round picks to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton.
BREAKING: The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed on a trade sending D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks to the Brooklyn Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton, sources told ESPN. pic.twitter.com/V175zGtmKW
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 29, 2024
The Lakers realized they had a similar problem to the Kings (too many one-way players and not enough two-way guys). So, they used their redundancy to acquire a resource they didn't have enough of.
They didn't blame head coach JJ Redick (although one can argue they did that with his predecessor Darvin Ham). They correctly identified the real issue on their team and did something to address it.
For that, they appear to be the smarter California team between themselves and the Kings. Sacramento punished Brown for something that was largely out of his control (at least, to our knowledge). Hopefully, they learn from this mistake sooner rather than later.