Kings Coach Dave Joerger And The Sacramento Front Office Are Reportedly At Odds

Despite back-to-back losses to the Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors, the Sacramento Kings are playing some of their best basketball in recent memory. The team is sitting with a .500 record in late November and, while that may not seem like much, it represents real progress compared to the previous baseline from Sacramento.

Not everything is beautiful with the Kings, however, as rumblings began earlier this month of potential discord involving head coach Dave Joerger. Since then, things have heated up considerably and, on Thursday, everything came to a head with a strange bit of tension between Joerger and the front office.

Sam Amick of The Athletic reported that Joerger “has long been of the belief that Kings assistant general manager Brandon Williams would like to replace him as coach.” From there, the reporting grows to note that Joerger “asked that Williams not be present for the team’s shoot-around” before Sacramento’s game against the Clippers on Thursday and the drama continued from there with various buzz.

With that in mind, Kings general manager Vlade Divac released a statement essentially deflecting from the rumor mill.

Then, there was, of course, a game to play, meaning Joerger faced the media on Thursday evening and was prompted on the situation and the potential for distractions.

It remains to be seen as to whether more fireworks will go off around the Kings in the near future but, given the (very) apparent discord between the head coach and at least one member of the front office, there is no guarantee for improvement. Some of the reporting has centered on Joerger’s deployment of various young players but, with the results he is coaxing out of a team that entered the season with low expectations, it is easy to see why Joerger is digging in his heels.