“Timeout!”. “I’d like to challenge that play,” setting rotations and running practice. Is that all worth $10 million a year? Well, that oversimplifies what Kings head coach Mike Brown does.
The public negotiations between Mike Brown and the Sacramento Kings had become embarrassing, confusing, and on-brand for this Kings organization. Fortunately for Kings fans, this all ended Friday evening with the Kings and Brown agreeing to a 3-year extension that runs through 2026-2027.
The Kings have a proven track record for butt-fumbling every time something goes their way. The Kings get the second pick in the NBA draft…they take Marvin Bagley. Then, after winning 39 games for the first time in 13 seasons, they immediately fired their coach and hired Luke Walton.
I believe the Kings were right to pay Mike Brown, but I will examine the reasons for paying him and for waiting to pay him.
Pay Mike Brown!
After trying to decide between Mark Jackson and Mike Brown, the Kings landed on Mike Brown. He talked about culture and building one in his first press conference. Brown mentioned not being afraid of the longest playoff drought in the NBA at that time.
In Brown’s first season, the Kings landed with the best NBA offense and the third seed in the West. However, they lost in seven games to the Warriors because they’re the Kings.
Nonetheless, Mike Brown won unanimous coach of the year. He completely changed the culture and the Kings were no longer the NBA’s laughing stock. That value is worth a lot of money to Kings fans. Not having writers, podcasters, and analysts constantly crap on the Kings and how stupid they are was nice.
The glass-half-full view of this past season is this: The general manager made virtually no changes to the team while teams internally improved (Timberwolves and Thunder). Other teams such as the Suns and Clippers brought in players to improve their team. The Kings just brought back the same team that won 48 games the prior season and ended up only winning two more games this season.
That two-game drop isn’t massive. Yes, it dropped them from a three-seed to a nine-seed. But, two games are only two games. The team went from the hunters to the hunted and instead of being just another game on the teams’ schedule, they were the “beam team,” coming to town.
Defense Wins Championships
Mike Brown is not an offensive coach, or at least that’s not his reputation. The Kings were incredible on offense his first year and less incredible his second. The Kings jumped from 24th to 14th in defensive rating from Brown’s first to second year.
Player development is a huge aspect of coaching. There’s a reason why all first-round picks don’t work out and all second-round picks don’t ride the bench. Keon Ellis was an absolute revelation on defense this season. He took the assignment of the best guards down the stretch after starting two guards Kevin Huerter went down. Along with an injury to Malik Monk, Ellis had to step up. He did.
Keegan Murray was supposed to take a supreme second-year jump on offense. He didn’t. Instead, he leveled up on defense. Murray guarded the team’s best offensive player the whole season, whether it be a guard or forward.
Coach Brown deserves credit for developing these two young players and putting them in schemes to help them succeed.
The two teams in the NBA finals, the Mavericks and Celtics, ranked 6th and 1st in defensive rating this season, respectively.
Wait and Pay Mike Brown
I don’t think you can make the argument to not pay Mike Brown. He deserved a raise of some kind. However, the Kings did have a regression from season one to season two.
Their offense, which was incredible and historical his first season, took a step back. Yes, some players struggled to make shots. But, the coaching didn’t seem to help out the players to adjust to the misses.
The Kings lost games to teams they shouldn’t have lost to. Teams like the Pistons, Wizards, and Hornets. Not being prepared for the games they should win falls on the coach and his staff.
Even more, the worst part about the Kings was the times they were up 10-plus points and lost. They blew 15 of those types of leads. Again, blame has to be put on the coaching staff for some of this. Blown leads happen, but they can’t keep happening like that. If the Kings were able to hold onto just a third of those leads, they would’ve ended the season tied for fourth in the Western Conference.
Would it have hurt to wait and see how the Kings did next season? No, it wouldn’t. Ty Lue was coaching on an expiring contract this past season and just got paid. It clearly wouldn’t be unprecedented. If Brown and the Kings didn’t improve, then maybe evaluate where he stands and if he’s the right man going forward.
Keon Ellis’ Weird Year
I gave Mike Brown credit for Keon Ellis’s development. However, I have to run back a couple of paragraphs and take some of that credit back. Ellis was only shoved into the rotation after an injury to Kevin Huerter in mid-March.
Ellis averaged 10.5 minutes a game the four months before Huerter’s injury. From March onwards (including the two play-in games) Ellis averaged 28.2 minutes a game. It seems Ellis and the team would have benefited from more game time and development. Was Brown a little too loyal to Huerter, who continued a poor shooting season from the playoff series against the Warriors?
What the Kings Did
The Kings have never had a coach as good as Mike Brown since Rick Adelman. They won’t find a better coach who wants to come to Sacramento on the market. Due to the rising coaching market, Brown had a window to demand more money.
Brown has entirely changed the Kings’ image, and these public negotiations hurt the Kings more than Brown. It was weird to haggle with someone who’s achieved so much set against the backdrop of the team’s decade in a half prior.
Brown ended up with something around a 3/30 extension. He’s earned it, and I don’t want to imagine where the Kings would be without him.
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