1:06pm: The Kings have officially confirmed that Gentry won’t be back as the team’s head coach.
“The entire Kings organization is grateful for the leadership of Alvin Gentry, who stepped up when he got the call mid-season,” GM Monte McNair said in a statement. “We appreciate his leadership on and off the court.”
Although Gentry is out as head coach, he still may stick with the organization. Wojnarowski reports (via Twitter) that Gentry and the Kings are discussing a possible front office position, with a resolution expected later this week.
12:37pm: The Kings have informed Alvin Gentry that he’s no longer the team’s head coach, according to Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic (Twitter link), who report that Sacramento will immediately launch a “comprehensive” search for a new coach.
Gentry was named the Kings’ interim head coach just 17 games into the 2021/22 season following the ouster of Luke Walton. After starting 6-11 under Walton, the Kings were hopeful that Gentry could lead the team to at least a spot in the play-in tournament. However, Sacramento went just 24-41 the rest of the way and finished in the lottery for a 16th consecutive season.
Gentry, who has previous head coaching experience with the Heat, Pistons, Clippers, Suns, and Pelicans, previously stuck around following interim stints in Detroit and Phoenix to become those teams’ permanent head coaches, but that won’t happen in Sacramento. It appears he’ll be in the market for a new job this spring despite having spoken on Sunday about wanting to remain with the franchise.
“Obviously, I have a desire (to stay),” Gentry said, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “I love it here and I think we’re on the right path. We’ve got some good pieces. We’ve got good people from our medical staff all the way up to the top. It has been done here before. It’s not something that’s impossible to do. It’s been done here before, so you just have to wait and see, but all of those things, I don’t make those decisions, so whatever happens, if it doesn’t work out, then I’ve had a great two years here. Love the people here. Love the franchise.”
The Kings, meanwhile, will conduct a wide-ranging search that includes candidates who have previously turned lottery teams into playoff clubs, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Marc Stein previously identified Terry Stotts, Mike D’Antoni, Mike Brown and Steve Clifford as names who have come up in coaching circles as possible targets for Sacramento. Wojnarowski confirms that Clifford and Brown are expected to be considered and adds Kenny Atkinson, Mark Jackson, and Bucks assistants Charles Lee and Darvin Ham to the list of potential candidates.
Rick Adelman was the last coach to take the Kings to the postseason, back in 2006. Since then, Sacramento has employed 11 different head coaches — the new hire will be the 12th.
The kings are a joke. I’m sure Gentry is happy with this news
They can save a lot of time & $ by just hiring Bobby Jackson & forgoing the candidate search/interview process
Kings are so badly run no coach is safe
Coaches must never be safe, they are a bit like a Kleenex, you use them & you throw them, they are a dozen a dime… don’t have much value in hoops, star power wins always, a good HC won’t affect a team, but a bad one will make you worst!
What the Kangz need is to relocate and leave their team history behind in Sacramento
Seattle in Line 1
That won’t help if Vivek is still the owner. Guy is a clown.
Vegas is ready. An investor group has a couple hundred million to build an arena casino resort complex to get an NBA team. Knights, Raiders, A’s and Kings. Vegas will be a 4-Sport mecca.
:(
8 guys on their roster next season have no future with this team. Sabonis, Fox, Mitchell is the squad. They need someone like AJ Griffin to fall to them.
That or they do some wheeling and dealing. Hornets want out of Hayward. He’d be a fit and they have the expiring contracts to make the trade happen. Probably the best SF they could acquire.
Why would they trade for an injury prone and overpaid SF? Harrison Barnes averages more ppg and rebounds and actually plays.
@Mahmoud great minds think alike.
Why? Because they’re the Kings. They traded away Haliburton and acquired Sabonis for similarly foolish reasons.
I could actually see this having some legs if only for that reason.
I like Hayward, but Barnes is 13 million dollars cheaper, a year and a half younger, nearly as productive and whole lot more available.
It seems quite strange that 16 years of lottery picks could not result in a competitive team. Ownership needs to look in the mirror, not can the coach. Not many good draft picks here, and most of the good ones were traded away:
link to en.wikipedia.org
Rough indeed, man they were so good in that early 2000’s stretch. One of the best teams to never win one IMO of the last 30 years
They played such good team ball back then
Vegas is ready. An investor group has a couple hundred million to build an arena casino resort complex to get an NBA team. Knights, Raiders, A’s and Kings. Vegas will be a 4-Sport mecca.
Tim Donaghy’s fault or Kings would’ve won WCF and then the Championship. Only time I’ve ever seen a face foul an elbow.
Kangz deserve everything they get
Only Jackie Moon can save the Kings.
He’s their only hope.
Kenny Atkinson would be a smart decision.
Kenny took the Nets to the playoffs after a long drought and built abit of a culture with Dlo LeVert Allen and those guys. Atkinson could do the same thing taking them to the playoffs after a long drought and build success around Fox AJ Griffin and Sabonis. They have a promising young roster with Mitchell, Divancenzo, Holmes, etc etc
My sources tell me that Doug Christie will be the next HC of the Sackofexcremento Kings.
Nice one!
I’ll be the next fall guy. They can blame everything on me, make fun of me in the media, and give me the worst possible roster. So long as they cash the checks we’re good.
Straight up
Kings gonna King
These are the hard-luck KINGS ……… they’ll probably hire a retread coach, like Vogel or Mike Brown, then about 2 seasons later, won’t even have a play-in stint to show for.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Christie must be, if not MDA or even Clifford… all the rest are just a bunch of useless dross, bums even!
Tim Donaghy’s fault or Kings would’ve won WCF and then the Championship. Only time I’ve ever seen a face foul an elbow.