The Dave Joerger situation in Sacramento is getting increasingly uncomfortable in his third season, with Joerger requesting that assistant GM Brandon Williams not be present at a team shootaround on Thursday, according to The Athletic’s Sam Amick.
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports first reported the team’s tension with Joerger nearly two weeks ago, a sentiment denied by Kings GM Vlade Divac. The report stated that the Kings were unhappy with Joerger’s handling of their young core and the minutes they were receiving, particularly No. 2 pick Marvin Bagley.
“Dave [Joerger] has our full support and confidence,” Divac said at the time, according to Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee. “We continue to work together to develop our young core and compete.”
Joerger, according to Amick’s report, believes Williams purposely leaked the false information to Haynes in order to jeopardize his job security. Joerger pushed the Kings to punish Williams, but the organization has yet to take a firm stance on the matter.
Divac attempted to calm the conflict by scheduling a meeting between Joerger, agent Warren LeGarie, owner Vivek Ranadive and himself on November 21, Amick reports, and Joerger left that meeting feeling somewhat satisfied with a belief Williams would be punished. However, in the absence of any punishment, there’s now “an even stronger sense than before” that the Kings aren’t fully behind Joerger, per Amick.
“I have advised my front office and coaching staff to not focus on drama and rumors, but instead to focus on continuing to develop our young and exciting team,” Divac said. “And that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Kings have received praise this season from several coaches and players around the league for revamping their culture since trading DeMarcus Cousins. As Amick wrote, the rift between Williams and Joerger appeared to briefly settle down last week, but its evident the relationship must be repaired for the Kings to continue pushing a healthy atmosphere.
Sacramento has a promising young core of Bagley, De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Willie Cauley-Stein and others, making it imperative that the group receives substantial playing time to develop their skills for the future. Joerger coached the Grizzlies to multiple playoff berths prior to joining the Kings in 2016.
the Kings management mad that Dave winnings games without playing Bagley & they salty about Luka playing like a superstar for the Mavs should have picked Luka #2 y’all already had too many PF/C in the 1st place
Exactly right. The front office is just upset that they are looking dumb. Bagley is going to be a great player but just worried he isn’t showing up yet. My question to them would be wouldn’t u want the guy who has turned around the team and is slowly building a contender or winning team at least.
I’ve never liked the philosophy of playing the young guys to develop them and then in turn be okay with losing, for now.
I’m a firm believer no matter what stage of development your team is to win every game you can.
Tanking doesn’t work because look at the Kings draft the last 15 years. You can have a high pick and still screw it up and teams drafting in the teens and 20s draft really great players.
And I also believe young guys develop in practice going against the starters… the veterans. Yeah it’s not game situation but they’ll still improve and learn how to play the game.
You’ve got to win now and not always look to two years away.
Fact is the kings have always been two years away from being 2 years away.
It wasn’t until they hired this great coach that thing started looking up.
Exactly
Gary, Gary, Gary. Shame on you. What about Steph, Klay, Draymond, and Harrison Barnes? Without them, where would the Warriors be now?
For the Kings, I have the answer. If he’s healthy enough, bring George Karl back.
Ptn, the Warriors didn’t tank on purpose. Believe me they were trying during those 22 win seasons.
What is your point? You just listed some players. Yes, they exist.
I think he’s saying without those high draft picks the Warriors wouldn’t be good as they are now.
Duh.
Picking between 7 and 35 doesn’t mean purposeful tanking was in effect.
The situation with SAC is that that a veteran is starting and outplaying a rookie and some say the veteran should be swept aside to the detriment of team performance for the sake of some future.
Did that happen with GSW in their runup to 2015? Monta Ellis was not better than Curry and about the same age anyway. David Lee was pushed aside but GSW was title-level at that point. Carl Landry let go for Draymond maybe?
Seems like the GSW stars won their jobs naturally, by being the best.
Barnes and Curry were the 7th picks, Klay the 11th and Green the 35th. They were not very high picks they were smart picks and developed on a team that was not trying to lose.
Point being: the Warriors roster was built through the draft. Iggy and Durant came later. Durant says the Warriors aren’t a superteam because teams didn’t want Curry, Klay, or Draymond in the draft.
What? Steph was #7, Thompson #11, green was a 2nd rounder, and Barnes was #7 as well.
That means the warriors were better than at least 6 teams who drafted before they chose.
If they tried tanking they would be at least 4 not 7s and 11s.
Nail on the head. Young guys that grow up in a winning culture do well. Spurs draft low and guys earn minutes on a team that is always trying to win. It has worked well for them and other teams.
Fire his a**, Bagley should be starting PERIOD.
Fire the first decent coach the organization has had in a decade? Makes sense.
oh dionnis. you should have your chat revoked. i hope your just trolling and not actually this ridiculous. kings have been unstable for years and have been bringing in new coaches year after year. 3rd toughest schedule in nba so far and they are 10-11. fair to say most if not everyone didnt think kings would have more than 5 wins after 21 games let alone 10. maybe joeger thinks bjelica is a better defender than bagley. maybe he thinks bagley is too raw right now. the kings dont have a 1st round pick this year so the “put in the young guys and tank” strategy doesnt work well without a pick. point is they were overachieving without bagley starting so why mess with that?
More important than player moves is a change in culture. Joerger has seemingly done the latter. Successfully.
So much for a chaos free environment for the young guys to grow in. Has there ever been a drama free period of time in the Kings recent history… at least not since Vivek took over.
Bagley should be starting, almost every game he is their best player, specially on the frontcourt is game in game out their best player, so why does Bjelica & WCS keep on starting? Fire the coach because as nice as it might be to win a bunch of games for the Kings, they will need near 50 wins to go to the playoffs, we all know they are not at that level. Also you must fire a HC who is as petty as Joerger, I mean why go chasing management to punish a guy, I mean how childish is that, he is ruining the team, time to bring a young coach to learn & grow with the team.
Bagley is a poor defender and a poor three point shooter. He doesn’t space the floor and doesn’t fit in with their best lineup on a team full of bigs (Doncic would fit in great but whatever).
He needs time to grow and still is top 10 in rookie minutes. He doesn’t have to “start” to develop, let him lead some bench minutes.
Kings are getting the player they thought they were, why they chose to construct this roster around him is baffling. They have to decide if they want to throw away potentially winning basketball for a slight chance that Bagley will develop faster/better. As talented as he is I don’t think he’s good enough to gamble their entire future on.
For once I agree. Of all the top draft picks, Bagley is the only one not starting.
Whether you agree or disagree with what Brandon Williams said he should still be fired for the leak. Stuff like this is an embarrassment. Also, the team is playing hard. Are you really going to fire the coach to get Bagley 5 more minutes a game of playing time?
Is it possible dionis and that cesc hack get together and funnel moonshine before logging into hoopsrumors?