Fan frustration with the Sacramento Kings is easy to understand. They've been a terrible franchise for a long time, and this year is especially bad. Keeping that in mind, this is not the fault of the players. As such, fan anger needs to be directed correctly, to the coaching and ownership.
When you stand back and really look at the Kings' roster, it's disturbingly imbalanced yet still has some serious weapons on it. The problem is that this team wasn't constructed with any cohesive strategy in mind, either on defense or on offense. It is a slapdash group of guys trying to win.
It's a difficult situation. At this point in their careers, players like Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Domantas Sabonis, and Russell Westbrook probably thought they would be playing on a legit contender. That is definitely not the Sacramento Kings, who are last in the Western Conference.
The roots of the problems are not found on the roster
No one on this roster chose to be in Sacramento. They were traded for, signed as free agents, or drafted as rookies. They all ended up on the Kings and are doing their best to make something of it. The problems don't come from them. That all starts with ownership, management, and coaching.
Co-owner Vivek Ranadive is at the core of this. He's the one who has mismanaged the team for well over a decade, consistently putting people with no understanding of basketball in positions of power. To make matters worse, he played a big part in the decisions that created this imbalanced roster.
More recently, Doug Christie and his coaching staff have created new problems. His myopic focus on creating a defensive powerhouse with a roster stocked with shoot-first guards is baffling. Instead of using players to their strengths, he's trying to force square pegs into round holes.
Kings' players are the ones paying the price
Unfortunately for the players, they are the faces of the franchise. That means fan frustration with their eight-win and 24-loss record this season is directed squarely at the roster. Zach LaVine even got into an altercation with a hometown fan who was yelling at him to play defense.
Shockingly, screaming at a 13-season veteran who is known for his shooting over playing defense doesn't suddenly turn him into Defensive Player of the Year. That's the problem with the current Kings. Big expectations from the coaches and ownership with no real plan on how to get there.
Sacramento fans have more than earned their frustration over the years, particularly this season. But they also need to direct their anger to the right places. That's not the guys on their court doing their best to turn a mess they did not create into something Sactown can be proud of.