After Dave Joerger was fired by the Memphis Grizzlies, it wasn’t long before the Sacramento Kings started circling. It was rumored early Monday morning, and now it’s all but official: Joerger will be the Kings’ new head coach. Woj broke the contract details:
Joerger will sign three-year deal — with a team option for 4th — paying him $4M per year. Contract coming, possible news conference today.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 9, 2016
Joerger proved himself a competent coach in Memphis, but his frustration with personnel decisions apparently led him to seek work elsewhere, and that led to his firing. The Kings will be happy to have him, considering Joerger at his worst doesn’t even touch how damaging and divisive Sacramento’s last head coach, George Karl, often was. Joerger is most likely pleased to be in a new situation, but he may not find things exactly to his liking.
The Kings’ front office, run by Vlade Divac with support of owner Vivek Ranadivé, has been a running joke in the NBA for over a year now. Joerger’s complaints with Memphis were supposedly over personnel decisions, and while we don’t know how much input his new contract will give him there, he’s certainly not getting the coach/GM dual title. Now his personnel will be determined by a notoriously capricious group – and it seems that the tension might already be baked into this working relationship.
But the relationship more crucial to the success of Joerger’s tenure will be with his new star, DeMarcus Cousins. Joerger coaxed Lance Stephenson into some of the best basketball he’s played since he left Indiana, but Cousins is an even more talented and critical piece of the roster, and on the court he’s a different animal entirely. If Cousins takes a liking to Joerger, and if Vivek and Vlade (maybe we should start calling them Vlavek?) loop him in, this could end up being a very good hire.
(Via The Vertical)
