The New Orleans Pelicans may be at the bottom of the Western Conference standings, but they might not be the team that's worst off in the West after all. This past week, the Sacramento Kings became the first organization to fire their coach this season, dismissing Mike Brown just two years after he won Coach of the Year for his work in the 2022-23 campaign.
Purely in terms of record, Sacramento is much better off compared to New Orleans, as the Kings are 13-19 and are within arm's reach of the 16-16 San Antonio Spurs for the 10th seed and the last Play-In spot. Theoretically, they could go on a run under Interim Head Coach Doug Christie or whatever new play-caller they hire and wind up back in the playoffs. More realistically, though, this kind of midseason upheaval usually doesn't work out as expected for a team in distress. Squads in disarray usually don't improve just by finding a scapegoat and creating more chaos in the middle of a campaign.
The Pelicans are also a team in shambles, but they at least have some sort of direction. The franchise has seemingly chosen to tank and reset the team by making all of its veteran star players available in deals. They might have a sticky cap space situation but some shrewd moves before the trade deadline would quickly solve that. While they're headed for a rebuild, they have the luxury of starting several steps ahead instead of building from ground zero like most tanking teams.
Thankfully for the Kings, they retain all of their own first-round picks after this upcoming draft. The Pelicans not only hold all of their own selections, but they also have a few extra from previous trades. Most importantly, New Orleans has already given up, both on this season and on their current core. Sacramento refused to face the limitations of its roster and instead fired Mike Brown for sins that weren't his. It was clearly a move bred out of desperation, and their despair almost led them to make a panic trade with New Orleans instead.
The Sacramento Kings almost traded for Brandon Ingram instead of firing Mike Brown
The Kings firing Mike Brown was somehow shocking but also simultaneously predictable. Sacramento has become infamous for keeping its coaches on short leashes. No play-caller has lasted more than three seasons with the Kings since Rick Adelman, who last coached them in the 2005-06 season.
Sacramento's frustrations with their start to the 2024-25 campaign were made very public, leading to sharks circling the waters to propose mock trades for De'Aaron Fox. Between their struggles and their previous history with coaches, many people saw Mike Brown's dismissal coming, even though he was the COTY just two seasons ago and barely had a chance to get started this season before he was ultimately canned.
Just because it was predictable doesn't mean it wasn't controversial, though. Plenty of pundits have come out of the woods to disparage the Kings' ownership for their shortsighted firing of Mike Brown. Reports came out that the move blindsided people within the organization and many of them were against it. Blame was passed all around, from the owner to newly acquired All-Star DeMar DeRozan to De'Aaron Fox.
The franchise has whipped itself into a frenzy to deny these claims. Fox has refuted any rumored friction between him and his former coach. ESPN's Ramona Shelburne came out with a report stating that Sacramento exhausted its options before dismissing Coach Brown, including doing the homework on a potential Brandon Ingram trade:
"The Kings inquired about Chicago's Zach LaVine, New Orleans' Brandon Ingram, Brooklyn's Cam Johnson and Washington's Kyle Kuzma, league sources said. They looked at smaller moves, 'just to change things up,' as one source put it. They even asked Brown if there were moves to make with the roster or the staff that might help, sources said."
Depending on what was on the table, the Pelicans may have missed an opportunity here; an opportunity to take advantage of a team backpedaling hard, the opportunity to find a willing buyer for Brandon Ingram, and the opportunity to save a man's job. While firing Mike Brown wasn't the right move, they probably made a wise decision not to trade for BI, as his presence probably wouldn't have made them into a title contender.