Kings coach Mike Brown says ‘nobody’s position is sacred’ after blowout losses to Rockets
Kings coach Mike Brown said no one’s position was safe after his team suffered another unsightly loss to the Houston Rockets on Monday night.
Brown was considering changes after the Kings got blown out twice in 48 hours at Toyota Center in Houston. Sacramento trailed by as many as 40 in a 122-97 loss to the Rockets two days after getting beat 107-89, an unacceptable showing for a team that went to the playoffs as the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference last season.
The Kings are struggling to establish their identity with Brown demanding more physicality and defense – and with De’Aaron Fox missing the past three games due to injury – but the reigning NBA Coach of the Year isn’t ready to compromise in his belief that his team must get tougher to achieve real postseason success.
“I’ve got to evaluate some things,” Brown said. “In this business, you always have to have a sense of urgency, but you have to believe in what you do whenever you make any type of change or any time you do this instead of that. For me, I’m going to go back and I’m going to watch the film, and if I feel the same way after the film, then I’ve got to try to make sure I keep trying to put five guys out there who are going to do what we ask, which is to play together and play the right way while playing fast and bringing a sense of physicality.”
Brown wouldn’t specify what he might do differently when the Kings open a three-game homestand against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday at Golden 1 Center, saying he would take some time to consider his options.
“I always have a 24-hour rule, especially after something like this,” Brown said. “So, I’m going to sleep on it and I’m going to watch this film, and if you earn a chance to play, I’m going to play you. Nobody’s position on this team is sacred.
“Obviously, you have Fox (and) you have (Domantas) Sabonis, who have a longer leash probably than everybody else. But everybody gets paid great money. Everybody gets paid to perform. And these last two games – now, the Rockets had something to do with it, so I give Ime Udoka, his staff and the team a lot of credit – but we have to play the way that we’re capable of playing without letting it impact us spiritually, and I’m not seeing that right now.”
Veteran center JaVale McGee said: “We’ve just got to play harder, more physical. We’ve got to bring it to the other team before they bring it to us, and tonight we didn’t do that.”
How can the Kings do that?
“Playing physical on offense. Playing physical on defense. We can’t be reactive,” McGee said. “Right now, we’re in reactive mode to where we’re letting them figure out what they’re going to do and then we react. We can’t play like that.”
Asked how hard that adjustment can be, McGee said: “It’s not a hard adjustment at all. If you got it, you got it. You’ve got to f---ing step it up. We’re grown men at that, and we’re going against grown men. Some people don’t have it, but they can get it. You just got to work on it. I feel like in practice, we can work at it, and I feel like we can light some fires under some guys’ asses also.”
Brown wants his team to be physical without fouling, but Sacramento committed 17 fouls and sent the Rockets to the free-throw line 22 times in the first half of Monday’s game. The Kings are 23rd in the NBA with 21.2 personal fouls per game.
“I’m OK if we get a foul with our chest, sliding your feet or going vertical at the rim, but if you watch the game, we just reach,” Brown said. “And we do it not just one possession, but we do it possession after possession after possession. We lead with our hands instead of our chest and we have to lead with our chest. If they score, look at the bench and point at us. We’ll take the blame, but right now we’re reaching when we get beat instead of relying on our help defense.”
Physicality and defense have been Brown’s biggest talking points since training camp began. He believes the Kings have to improve in those areas after losing a seven-game series to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs.
In the meantime, the Kings seem to have lost their way offensively. Last season, they led the league in scoring (120.7 ppg) while recording the highest offensive rating (119.4) in NBA history. They were No. 2 in the NBA in field-goal percentage (.494) and No. 9 in 3-point percentage (.369).
So far this season, the Kings rank 18th in scoring (113.2 ppg) and 20th in offensive rating (109.9). They are 28th in field-goal percentage (.434) and 24th in 3-point shooting (.326).
Brown is confident those numbers will improve, but he is more focused on physicality and defense.
“For me, that’s what our identity is,” Brown said. “We want to play fast, we want to play physical, and we want to play the right way together. We know what our identity is. It’s a matter of can we get five guys on the floor who believe in it and will go do it, and that’s my job.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2023 at 8:35 AM.
