Speaking on Friday to NBC Sports California’s Mark Jones, Kings general manager Monte McNair briefly addressed the team’s decision to fire Mike Brown, stressing that he appreciates the veteran coach and has the “utmost respect” for him.
However, as Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports California writes, McNair was more focused on discussing the job that Doug Christie has done since taking the reins from Brown, praising the interim head coach for the love he has for the organization and the “passion” he has brought to the role.
“What I think he brings to the table is his optimism, his playing experience and what he feels he needs to give to those players because that’s what he needed when he played,” McNair said. “And right now, I think the guys have really responded to that.”
The Kings won their sixth straight game on Friday and are now back to .500 at 19-19, putting them firmly in the thick of the postseason race in the Western Conference. In his conversation with Jones, McNair made it clear that getting back to the playoffs after missing out last season is a priority for the team.
“I would say our goals haven’t changed,” McNair said, per Rodriguez. “We want to get to the playoffs. We want to continue to make noise there. I think what we’ve done is we’ve put ourselves in a bit of a hole. We’ve started to climb out of it but there’s more work to be done. We’re really right now on the fringes of the play-in, that’s certainly one way into the playoffs, we’ve seen teams take that path away and make some noise in the playoffs, so if that’s the pathway we have to go through, we’ll do that.
“But ideally, we’ll find a way to get into the top six and get a little rest going into the playoffs. But that’s what our goal continues to be, both this year and going forward.”
Here are a few more highlights from the Kings’ GM:
On the front office’s thought process with the February 6 trade deadline nearing:
“I think the first thing we’re looking at is we made a big change, so what does the team look like? We’ve seen a little bit of that, but we want to see a little bit more about how this team responds and exactly what we have. We’re always looking, that’s our job in the front office, we always got to find ways to improve this team especially in the Western Conference where it feels like every year there’s 10, 11, 12 teams that you got to compete with.
“Early returns have been good, we want to continue to see that. And then we’re about three or four weeks out from that decision point, and we’ll see if there’s a way to improve the team and keep climbing the standings.”
On whether the new CBA will make it difficult for the Kings to find a deal they like:
“I think teams are looking to improve, and there’s a lot of creative folks out there. We have quite a few in our front office. So it certainly puts some constraints on how you can maneuver, but I think we are well positioned with our current position and I think other teams continue to be creative to find ways that they can do it. You can’t stand still in this league for too long and you got to continue to find ways to make your team better.”
On the desire to add more talented defenders without sacrificing offense:
“I think we’ve seen Keon (Ellis) take some tougher assignments, so when he’s out there he can do it. At the same time, we’re continuing to look for two-way guys because what we don’t want to do is just solve one issue and open up another. So we want guys like Keegan (Murray), like Keon, like a lot of the other guys on our roster that can produce on the offensive end and then go and guard these tough guys on the defensive end. So we’ll continue to look for those guys. We’ll continue to challenge the guys that we have here to take on those responsibilities.
“And I think, certainly of late, we’re top five in defense over the last 10 days or so, and 15th or 16th on the season. Our goal is to be top half of the league and we’re right there.”
He was saying the exact same thing after Mike Brown’s first year.
At the end of the day, it all depends on the personnel that he brings in, in order to make use of the coaches skillset and, somehow, it’s always the coaches that don’t seem to know what they’re doing.
In either case, whether the coaches can’t coach, or the players can’t perform, he picked ’em. So he should go.
Imagine that, fire a crappy coach and replace him with a competent one that the players respect and you get results.