Kings Coach Mike Malone Fired

Headlines in Sacramento morning news will read: Kings Coach Mike Malone Fired! So, the first ax of 2014-2015 has fallen and we can all move on to deciding who’ll be the next casualty of war this season.

Sacramento has fired coach Mike Malone, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) December 15, 2014

I’ll admit I had my money on Brian Shaw of the Denver Nuggets and not just because the Rockets beat them Saturday. The Nuggets have a team with depth at every position and yet they’ve been at best fair to middling since Shaw took over from George Karl (who coincidentally is rumored by some to be the replacement).

Natural candidate for Sacramento will be George Karl, whom D’Alessandro worked with in Denver. Still, Kings insist he isn’t on deck now. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) December 15, 2014

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Therefore it came as a bit of a surprise to me that Sacramento made this move . Granted, the Kings jumped out to a great start to the season before succumbing to mediocrity of late, but without their franchise star DeMarcus Cousins available it initially struck me as odd. It’s obvious the team is and Cousins in particular was close to Malone and although they’ve lost 8 of their past 10-games it has been without the big man’s services.

When I did some digging it came to light that Malone and management just weren’t on the same page. Makes you wonder if Cousins return is imminent given they chose to let the ax fall prior to the star’s return to see if the team could regain their early season success.

It’s not unusual for coaches and management to have different opinions on team direction or for the coach to take the fall for previous regimes decisions. A year following his Coach of the Year Award for example Sam Mitchell was unceremoniously shown the door by new General Manager Bryan Colangelo citing similar circumstances.

Despite star DeMarcus Cousins missing past nine games, Malone didn’t meet win-loss expectations of ownership, sources tell Yahoo.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) December 15, 2014

GM Pete D’Alessandro hadn’t hired Malone, and had never been strong bond between them. Still, ownership’s expectations are unrealistic. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) December 15, 2014

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Reports indicate the initial head coaching responsibilities will be assumed by assistant coach Tyrone Corbin and tweeter is abuzz with theories on who will rise to take over at the helm. A quarter of the way through the season it’s just as likely the Kings will let Corbin finish out the season and hire a full time replacement this summer.

Now to figure out who will be next. Who’s your pick?

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