Doug Christie’s grip on the Sacramento Kings’ head coaching job looks shaky, and the preseason hasn’t done much to calm that down.
The Kings already made the abrupt move to fire Mike Brown, the only head coach to bring the franchise any level of success since Rick Adelman, and Christie stepped into the job after serving as an assistant with Sacramento since 2021. He had been a former Kings player in the early 2000s, and he took over for Brown in 2024.
That first full season at the controls went badly. Christie didn’t have a clean handoff, either. He inherited a roster the source describes as lopsided and poorly balanced, and injuries buried any realistic chance of even an average year.
But the rough patch wasn’t just about health. Christie’s strong emphasis on defense reportedly created tension with some players, and he also came across as stubborn about changing course unless injuries forced his hand. Even then, the Kings never really found steady footing.
Sacramento still brought him back for 2026-2027, which made sense on paper because the roster had improved. There was also hope that a healthier season might be coming. The preseason, though, has not looked promising, with injuries already becoming an issue and an unusually large number of Kings sitting out for no clear reason.
The bigger problem, from the outside, is that the situation feels chaotic. Sacramento has been testing out strategies that don’t make much sense, or at least don’t appear to have much thought behind them. Random is the best word for it.
When Christie is asked about what’s going on, the answers tend to circle back to plans people outside the room supposedly don’t understand and a need to trust the process. Kings fans have heard versions of that message for years, dating back to the end of the Adelman era in 2006.
One specific example has been Christie’s praise for Ben Simmons in practice. He has talked a lot about Simmons.
Early on, fans only saw eight okay minutes from Simmons in one preseason game. In the latest one, he finally delivered a real outing and played quite well.
That gap between what Christie talks about and what shows up in games has become the defining issue. Injuries explain some of it, but not all of it. A chunk of the blame falls on leadership, and that points straight back to Christie.
His contract includes a team option for the 2027-2028 season, but if the Kings look anything like they do now, this season could go badly again. At some point, the front office has to decide whether this rebuild can really work with him leading it.
There is still a path where Christie turns things around. If that happens, the hope is to be proven wrong.
But if this season turns into another disaster and Sacramento still keeps him, the rebuild will be hard to take seriously. There are too many capable head coaches available for the Kings to keep wasting seasons on the wrong one.
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Kings Face One Early Concern Even With Sabonis Ready
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Even so, the biggest early question may be less about who is on the floor than how often each piece gets to stay there. With so many potential contributors and plenty of roster change to sort through, the coaching staff has to establish rotations on the fly while also being mindful of smart minutes management, something Sabonis pointed to as the group settles into the grind of the season. [Read more 🡒]