Sacramento Kings Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Sixers Notes: Embiid, Gentry, Simmons, COVID-19

November 28th, 2021 at 9:01am CST by Arthur Hill

The Sixers lost in overtime in Joel Embiid‘s return from COVID-19 Saturday, but the star center was just relieved to be back on the court, writes Tom Moore of the Bucks County Courier Times. Embiid missed the team’s last nine games after testing positive for the virus and described it as a frightening experience.

“I mean, I really thought I wasn’t going to make it,” he said. “It was that bad. I’m thankful to be sitting here.”

Embiid started slowly, making just one of four shots in the first eight minutes of the game, but he eventually became his usual dominant self. He played more than 45 minutes and scored 42 points, with 25 of those coming in the fourth quarter and overtime.

“I didn’t think I was going to play tonight,” Embiid said. “To me, it’s a miracle I played this many minutes, but it’s good.”

There’s more from Philadelphia:

Alvin Gentry, who became the Kings‘ new interim coach when they fired Luke Walton last weekend, decided to join Sacramento’s staff in the offseason even though the Sixers made a more lucrative offer, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report. There has been speculation that the Kings might shake up their roster in their quest for a playoff spot, but there have been no recent talks with Philadelphia about Ben Simmons, Fischer adds.
Simmons was seen working out at the Wells Fargo Center before Saturday’s game, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Simmons completed his session before the team’s walkthrough, then left before the game started. There has been no progress in his standoff with the team, Pompey adds, as Simmons continues to contend that he isn’t mentally ready to play, while the Sixers want him to return unless mental health experts confirm that he can’t.
The Sixers fell to 10-10 with the loss, but injuries and COVID-19 have hounded the team through the first quarter of the season, Pompey notes in a separate story. Saturday marked just the seventh time that all five starters have been played together, and the team has played just twice with a full roster available. “We showed the potential that we have,” Danny Green said. “With our guys being out, it just shows how great we could be. We just have to show the rhythm and that chemistry. But we never know if we’ll get that with the guys back. But that potential that we have and how good we could be, and the way we were playing without our guys, I think it shows a lot of character and how great we can be.”

Harrison Barnes, Richaun Holmes Likely Won't Be Sidelined Longterm

November 27th, 2021 at 2:31pm CST by JD Shaw

James has played positions 1-through-4 at different points of his career. Having the ability to also play the five is unprecedented, but it’s something he may need to do when Anthony Davis sits this season. Having lost to the Kings on Saturday, the Lakers dropped to seventh in the Western Conference (10-11).

Kings forward Harrison Barnes and center Richaun Holmes both missed Saturday’s game, but interim coach Alvin Gentry is confident the duo won’t be sidelined for long, James Ham of ESPN 1320 tweets. Barnes is day-to-day with a sprained right foot, while Holmes is dealing with a non-COVID-related illness.

Two Warriors Assistants Could Receive Consideration For Kings' Coaching Job

November 26th, 2021 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Before he became the controlling owner of the Kings, Vivek Ranadive was a minority stakeholder in the Warriors, and he still has a “stubborn fascination” with his old team, writes Marc Stein at Substack. According to Stein, there’s buzz in league circles that a pair of Warriors assistants – Mike Brown and Kenny Atkinson – will be among the candidates who receive consideration for the Kings’ head coaching job if the team doesn’t retain Alvin Gentry beyond this season.

Fox, Haliburton Remain Off-Limits In Trade Talks

November 26th, 2021 at 9:55am CST by Luke Adams

The Kings made a head coaching change on Sunday, but there’s no indication that a major roster shakeup is around the corner, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, who hears that guards De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton remain off-limits in trade talks.

Pincus Thinks Kings Could Be Among Most Active Teams At Trade Deadline

November 24th, 2021 at 12:40pm CST by Luke Adams

Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report tries his luck at predicting which teams could be most active in trade talks leading up to the February deadline. Lottery teams like the Kings, Thunder, Magic, and Pistons are among those Pincus views as the best candidates to make moves.

Kings Notes: Gentry, Christie, Fox, Ranadive, Thompson

November 23rd, 2021 at 1:35pm CST by Arthur Hill

Alvin Gentry wanted to avoid the “interim” tag after taking over head coaching duties when the Kings fired Luke Walton on Sunday, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic.

Sources tell Amick that Gentry was unsuccessful because the front office believed it had another viable candidate in first-year assistant coach Doug Christie. Even though general manager Monte McNair, assistant GM Wes Wilcox and chief strategy officer Joe Dumars all supported Gentry, having Christie as an option gave the organization leverage in its negotiations with Gentry.

Gentry received a raise as part of his new duties, Amick adds, and he has a contract that runs through the end of next season. However, his future as the head coach in Sacramento will depend on how successful he is at turning the team around. Amick notes this is the fourth time in his career that Gentry has received this type of promotion, and he was able to earn long-term coaching stints with both the Pistons and Suns.

As the lead assistant, Gentry already had a huge influence on Sacramento’s offensive strategy, so other than possibly increasing its pace, the team won’t look much different with him in charge.

“This is not about making mass changes or changing philosophies or anything like this,” Gentry said. “I think we’ve got a good system in place. So I think what we have to do is we have to have our players perform better. I’ve got to be better. All the other coaches have to be better, and our players have to be better. I think it’s a group thing.”

There’s more from Sacramento:

The Kings’ next major decision should be determining whether they can build a contender around De’Aaron Fox, Amick adds. Fox has gotten off to a terrible start in the first season of his five-year, $163MM extension, shooting just 42.1% from the field and 24.% from three-point range. Three-guard lineups with Tyrese Haliburton and Davion Mitchell haven’t been effective, observes Amick, who wonders if a roster upheaval may happen before the February 10 trade deadline.
Gentry is the sixth coach in eight years for owner Vivek Ranadive, writes Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee. Ranadive has a history of being impatient, Biderman adds, and his desire for change caused the organization to part with Michael Malone, who has become a perennial playoff coach in Denver.
Tristan Thompson, who was acquired over the summer to provide veteran leadership, said after Monday’s loss to the short-handed 76ers that it will take an organization-wide effort to recover from the poor start (video link). “I think everyone has to look in the mirror,” said Thompson, who also publicly expressed frustration with the team’s situation last week. “It’s not only just players. Yes, it’s a player’s league … but in terms of building a team, it takes a collective group. It takes everyone from the top to the bottom. From ownership to the trainers, to the equipment managers, to the players, to (the physical therapist), to the GM to the assistant GM. It’s all of us.”

Fox Says Team Has To Keep Pushing

November 22nd, 2021 at 9:52pm CST by Dana Gauruder

De’Aaron Fox said it was a bit of a shock that Luke Walton was fired at this stage of the season, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. However, he added that the Kings have to put that behind them quickly. “You’ve just got to keep on pushing,” Fox said. “Obviously, you have some guys who have been through it in the middle of a season before, but you can’t go into the game worried about what happened. We’ve still got games to play.”

Kings Notes: Walton, Gentry, Hines, Fox

November 22nd, 2021 at 10:04am CST by Luke Adams

Addressing reporters on Sunday, Kings general manager Monte McNair explained why the team fired head coach Luke Walton just 17 games into the season after initially deciding to bring him back for the 2021/22 season.

“The start of the year was a lot of what we were hoping for, and we really thought it could have been even better,” McNair said, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “I think we saw a lot of the things that we thought this team could do, but these last eight games were a change, and, for me, the question became what’s the best way to move forward, and that’s my job at every point in the season.”

The Kings began the season with a 5-4 record, but have since dropped seven of eight games. That stretch included losses vs. San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Minnesota, and Toronto, all of whom are multiple games below .500.

“It wasn’t any one thing,” McNair said. “It was a combination of things, but sitting here with where we’ve been the last two weeks, we felt we weren’t getting the consistency and certainly the results we wanted. We all need to be better. This is not on any one person, but we did feel this was the change that was best to get us back to where we need to go.”

Here’s more on the Kings and their head coaching change:

McNair said on Sunday that he still believes the Kings have enough talent to make the playoffs and thinks Alvin Gentry is capable of leading them there. The team chose Gentry over other assistants – like Doug Christie – as its interim replacement due to his previous head coaching experience, McNair added (Twitter links via Sean Cunningham of ABC10 Sacramento).
Kings player development coach Rico Hines will move to the front of the bench as one of Gentry’s assistants, McNair said (Twitter link via Anderson).
Michael Pina of SI.com and Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer take a look at what’s next in Sacramento following Walton’s exit, with Tjarks suggesting that the Kings will soon need to determine whether De’Aaron Fox is still the player they want to build around.
The timing of Walton’s dismissal is another “Kangz” moment for Sacramento, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic, who notes that a coaching change made in the first third of a season probably should’ve just been made during the offseason.

Kings Fire Luke Walton; Alvin Gentry Named Interim Coach

November 21st, 2021 at 1:56pm CST by Rory Maher

1:56pm: Alvin Gentry will become the interim coach of the Kings, per Sam Amick of The Athletic (Twitter link). He was previously serving as associate head coach under Walton.

Gentry’s last stint as a head coach was with the Pelicans from 2015-20, compiling a 175-225 record in five seasons before being fired. He has a total win-loss record of 510-595 across 17 partial seasons with the Heat, Pistons, Clippers, Suns and Pelicans. His most successful team was the 2009/10 Suns, who reached the Western Conference Finals and lost to the eventual champion Lakers in six games.

12:06pm: The Kings have fired head coach Luke Walton, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

The Kings have struggled in the early portion of the season, losing seven of their past eight games and currently sit with a 6-11 record. They lost some seemingly winnable games during the slide, including games to the Pacers, Spurs, Thunder, and Raptors.

The team went 31-41 in each of the past two seasons under Walton, so he compiled a 68-93 overall record with the Kings. He’s under contract for one more year beyond this season and the team will be on the hook for the remainder of his salary.

Woj also relays that Alvin Gentry, the team’s associate head coach, is a strong candidate to serve as the interim coach. However, he hedged that statement by noting that a decision has yet to be made (Twitter link).

Another possible candidate to serve as interim coach is former Kings player and first-year assistant Doug Christie, Woj tweets.

We noted earlier today that Kings fans have been regularly chanting “fire Luke Walton” at home games and there was a report last week that indicated the head coach was firmly on the hot seat. There has been increasing urgency for the Kings to snap their 15-year playoff drought. The front office views the current roster as one capable of making the postseason, hence why Walton was fired after a 6-11 start.

It’s tough to see the team making the playoffs outright as a top-six seed, especially having started five games under .500. There are definitely talented players among the group, but the fit is questionable. It will be interesting to see if this decision has any impact on trade talks, or if the Kings will stick with the roster they have.

Sacramento was consistently a bottom-tier defensive team under Walton; the club ranked 20th in defensive rating in 2019/20, 30th last season, and 23rd through 17 games this season. It ranked 27th, 30th, and 24th in total rebounds across the same time period. Obviously not all of that is on the coach, but it’s partly why the Kings have struggled to compete at the level they were hoping for.

Pacific Notes: Walton, Poole, Iguodala, Ayton

November 21st, 2021 at 10:40am CST by Arthur Hill

“Fire Luke Walton” chants have become a regular occurrence at Kings‘ home games as fans continue to turn on the embattled head coach, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento has suffered three straight double-digit losses since a report surfaced earlier this week that Walton’s job could be “in peril” if the team doesn’t become more competitive.

General manager Monte McNair has been very open about his desire to reach the playoffs this season, but with a 6-11 start the Kings don’t look like much of a postseason threat. However, Walton’s players are remaining loyal to him as speculation grows about a potential coaching change.

“I got his back,” Tyrese Haliburton said. “I’m pretty sure we all do. I don’t have to say I’m pretty sure. I know we all do. He’s put a lot of time and a lot of trust into us as players, and when you get that from a coach who invests in his guys, it’s hard not to like him.”

Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee contends that getting rid of Walton won’t solve the Kings’ larger problem, which is a poorly constructed roster. He also questions why McNair didn’t make a coaching move when he became GM last year or before the start of the season if he doesn’t have faith in Walton.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

Jordan Poole has become a dangerous scorer for the Warriors, especially on the nights that Stephen Curry doesn’t play, notes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Poole has expanded his offensive capabilities in his third NBA season, and coach Steve Kerr recognizes the difference in his game. “He’s physically stronger,” Kerr said. “He’s able to absorb contact. He’s just got more confidence. You think about his first year, if he had a clear lane to the rim, he could dunk the ball, but it now looks like he’s getting up 6 inches higher. Athletically, he’s much improved from two years ago. That extra power and bounce is really paying off.”
Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala will miss his third straight game today because of a swollen right knee and the team isn’t sure how long he might be sidelined, Slater adds. “He said (the swelling) is better today,” Kerr said Friday. “But just given where he is in his career, age-wise, it’ll be a day-to-day thing.”
The Suns played well with JaVale McGee and Frank Kaminsky at center while Deandre Ayton was sidelined with a knee injury, and Zach Lowe of ESPN wonders how that will affect Ayton’s leverage in contract talks next summer.