On Thursday morning, Vlade Divac, Sacramento Kings GM, agreed to terms on a four-year extension. I was thrilled. Vlade has earned my trust, as a Kings fan, with the decisions he’s made and the positives that have come from these decisions. Decisions that, at first, seem highly questionable, but with time, have turned out to be some of the best decisions for the Kings in the last decade and beyond.
One example of this was the trade of DeMarcus Cousins. This infuriated most Sacramento fans. He was the best player on the team, and one of the best big men in the league. What moron would trade a franchise player?? It didn’t make sense, but over time it’s turned out to be a great thing.
Buddy Hield became the first player to ever make 300 3PTs in his first three seasons. He also made the most 3 pointers in a season in Kings history. So, it’s safe to say that one worked out fine. There have been others, like passing on Luka Doncic to draft Marvin Bagley. Many were confused by that decision. As Bagley has progressed, however, we can’t help but be excited to see what he’ll become.
Well, Divac made another one of those decisions that sent shock waves around the NBA. Woj dropped the “Joerger-Bomb” just before 10:30 AM. Just like that, the coach that had led Sacramento to their best season in over a decade was jobless. The two had a face-to-face meeting right after Divac fired assistant GM Brandon Williams who had stirred up front office trouble earlier in the season. Joerger was hired by Vlade himself in 2016 and had played a major role in the overall positive shift of the team and especially the rise of the De’Aaron Fox/Buddy Hield duo this year.
A big part of me is upset. I’m nowhere near as qualified as the recently inducted Hall of Famer Vlade Divac, but I can’t help but scratch my head at the decision. Fire a coach who has one year left on his contract. A coach that brought you the most wins in more than 10 years. The only way I could possibly understand why this happened now is that I underestimated the dispute and disagreements between Divac and Joerger throughout the season.
It was known that the two bumped heads when it came to playing time for various Kings this season. While I assumed it was a small enough issue to work out, it may have been more serious than that. At most, I’d understand a warning that if the team doesn’t finally make the playoffs next year, then the franchise would probably need to look into other coaching options and move on. I didn’t expect Dave Joerger to be canned less than 24 hours after the end of the regular season.
While most of me is confused and upset at the decision to get rid of the leader of what seemed to be a team headed in a positive direction, part of me leans on my trust that’s been built up for Divac over the course of his tenure as GM. In a press conference Thursday, Divac said that Joerger did a great job in taking that next step. The GM, however, still felt it was time to move in another direction. He was asked smart, valid questions but didn’t seem to give a full answer to any of them. He mentioned the confidence he has in the decision and future of the team. On top of that, he praised Joerger for the job he did.
This isn’t the first time the basketball world has been shocked by a Divac decision, nor will it be the last, I’m sure. However, what I’ve learned from the ones before this is that they take time to come to fruition. I have enough trust in Vlade that I can’t knock his decision until it’s had time to prove itself. All I know is that there’s no time for anything else but improvement, and if next year doesn’t top this year, there’ll, once again, be plenty of unhappy fans throughout Cali’s capital.
With that being said, a big thank you and shout out to Dave Joerger for a fun couple of years. Wherever he lands will be blessed to have him. Now, onto finding someone to take over, and with the exciting season the team had this year, I believe there’ll be solid options to look into. One being Luke Walton (just fired from his position in LA) and Spurs assistant Ettore Messina (won four European championships and has a handful of years under legendary NBA coach Gregg Popovich). We’ll see what Vlade Divac does next in this already eventful offseason.