Kings fire Mike Malone

Sources: Kings fire coach Michael Malone after differences in style

After a season-plus of an uneasy partnership, the Sacramento Kings fired coach Michael Malone, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

Malone was informed of the decision on Sunday night, in the wake of losing seven of nine games without ill star center DeMarcus Cousins.

Tyrone Corbin will take over as the interim coach, likely for the term of the regular season. Around the NBA, there's a strong belief that general manager Pete D'Alessandro will pursue ex-Denver Nuggets coach George Karl, but a high-ranking Kings source insisted Sunday night that it is unlikely a full-time replacement will be hired during the regular season.

There has been significant tension between management and Malone on several fronts over the past year, and the firing ultimately turned out to be another cautionary tale in what happens when ownership doesn't put together management and coaching staffs that have similar philosophies and a shared partnership.

Differences in style = Mike Malone refuses to tank

Differences in style = Mike Malone refuses to tank

Yeah.

I was stunned when I first heard. Sadly, tanking is one theory I hear about why. Maybe when Boogie got meningitis and we dropped off from our hot start, the FO realized playoffs weren't going to happen and want to try and keep their top-10 protected pick. If it is really just a 'difference in style', then why not change staff and roster last summer to fit your desired pace? If it's wins, then it makes no sense. Malone gave them the best start and most successful on-court results the team has had in a decade.

My biggest fear is that Vivek is moving towards a Jerry Jones/Al Davis role as a owner with all kinds of input on personnel moves and on-court stuff. There's a video of the Kings' draft-day war room where Vivek is quite vocal in support for taking Stauskas and everybody else agreed quietly and didn't really offer any counter-arguments for anybody else. The FO seems to envision a team that wins and is run-and-gun at the same time. Not so easy, especially when your star is a bigman who dominates and can draw doubles all game long in half-court sets.

There's a video of the Kings' draft-day war room where Vivek is quite vocal in support for taking Stauskas and everybody else agreed quietly and didn't really offer any counter-arguments for anybody else.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim left the team after getting into an argument with him, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond on draft night over that pick. And he had been arguing with them over the teams draft strategy for some time beforre.

There's a video of the Kings' draft-day war room where Vivek is quite vocal in support for taking Stauskas and everybody else agreed quietly and didn't really offer any counter-arguments for anybody else.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim left the team after getting into an argument with him, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond on draft night over that pick.

Yes, I recall. My outsider's perspective is that Vivek, Mullin, and Pete have a vision that is set in stone (much of it stolen from GS by Vivek and Mullin) of a fast-paced team that shoots 3s. But they have Boogie Cousins, not Steph Curry. I'm afraid they don't want to adapt their plan to fit their personnel. I fear the powers that be believe in this certain plan and don't leave themselves open to debate or persuasion, even if the roster supports another strategy. Shareef wanted something different and got internal flak for it. Malone stuck to his guns and his gameplan (that got a .500 record for the first time in a decade practically) and got the bad side of the FO. He was against a possible Josh Smith trade for good reason, but apparently the FO wanted to make it (DET said no and closed the talks before).

And he had been arguing with them over the teams draft strategy for some time before.

Yeah, supposedly he wanted Kawhi instead of Jimmer. He was right on that one for sure.

Looks like Chris Mullin is the top candidate to replace Malone long-term.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/sacra ... h-methods/

some good ideas in here

Vivek Ranadive has spent much of the last 24 hours lobbying Chris Mullin to replace Mike Malone despite his lack of NBA coaching experience.

Mullin has been in an advisory role with the Sacramento Kings since Ranadive assumed ownership in 2013.

Sources say that Mullin, in recent months, has indeed expressed some interest to associates about trying his hand at coaching down the road.

Sources told ESPN.com on Monday that the Kings are determined to give interim coach Ty Corbin "a shot" for the rest of the season to see if he can manufacture a more up-tempo style to suit the wishes of Ranadive and the Kings' front office.

George Karl is a likely candidate should the Kings decide to not keep Corbin.

So, it might be Tyron Corbin or George Karl?

Jesus, vivek is trying so hard to turn the kings into the warriors, which isn't gonna happen with their roster. I don't blame him for that but Chris Mullin is not the answer. It's a shame, because Malone did a good job this year when cousins played

Dumb dumb dumb. Kings were playing great ball - 9-6 with the most difficult schedule before their star player went down. Now they want to employ a run-and-gun system (perhaps with cherry picking?!) despite having their two star players being perhaps the most traditional small forward and center in the league. Glad Ranadive isn't my team's owner.

I'm not sure if Cousins is in their future plans now, despite him being amazing this year. It would hurt to lose Wesley Matthews, but I'd consider this: http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=qcoamy7

The Nets and Sacramento Kings have engaged in trade talks involving Brooklyn point guard Deron Williams, league sources confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com, but no deal is imminent.

Sources confirmed Saturday that the Kings have inquired about Williams. Yahoo! Sports reported that Sacramento has proposed swapping guard Darren Collison and forwards Derrick Williams and Jason Thompson in exchange for Williams.

The Kings are pretty much a pawn shop. They somewhat fixed Gay and Collison so perhaps Williams's career can be salvaged as well.

The Kings also want Plumlee to be included in the trade. I doubt Brooklyn will give up Plumlee.