At this point in the season, the Sacramento Kings don’t have much positive to talk about. Frankly, head coach Doug Christie isn’t helping the situation with his admirable but misguided defense at all costs mentality. The end result is misusing players like Zach LaVine, and giving up wins.
It’s no secret that the Kings are an unbalanced team weighted towards offense and undersized shoot-first guards who don’t play defense. Making the situation worse, a large portion of the team are long-time veterans who are so far on the wrong side of 30 that 40 looks as clear as day ahead of them.
This is all a holdover from the era when Monte McNair was the general manager. Both he and co-owner Vivek Ranadive seemed to be fascinated with smaller guards and veteran players. Reputedly, round two of the LaVine and DeRozan duo was concocted by at least one of them.
Doug Christie enters the conversation
The addition of Christie as head coach has created an entirely new problem. He is laser focused on defense, almost to the detriment of the offense. Players like Sabonis, LaVine and DeRozan are not exactly known for their defensive prowess, particularly at this stage of their respective careers.
Unfortunately, this has created a major issue in the team. Christie’s three biggest stars are all reportedly unhappy playing for him because of this. All of their stats are down, partially because they are trying to play against type as ordered by their coach.
Christie is no longer running the offense through Sabonis as former head coach Mike Brown did. He’s pushing LaVine to be a defender even though that has never really been part of his repertoire. Zach is in season 13, and his game isn’t changing much now. The same is true for DeRozan in season 17.
The Kings have bigger problem than they realize
Doug Christie’s goal of increasing the defensive presence of the Kings makes perfect sense. What doesn’t make sense is trying to force veterans who don’t play that way to play that way. LaVine is never going to be a defender, and his shooting is suffering from the pressure.
To get what Christie wants, the Kings need new players. According to GM Scott Perry, the rebuild will take up to five years to complete. In the meantime, Christie needs to start working with the players he has instead of fruitlessly fighting with them to turn them into something they’re not.
If Christie leans into LaVine’s strengths, the former Bull is capable of dropping 30 to 40 points a game. That will help get a few wins now. Long term, the Kings’ front office should pay close attention to Christie’s inflexibility because it could make the rebuild harder than it needs to be.