As pressure mounts, Kings coach Mike Brown hopes no one has ‘one foot in and one foot out’
De’Aaron Fox’s future in Sacramento is suddenly in question and pressure is mounting inside the palace walls as the Kings struggle to carry the weight of their own expectations.
The Kings are 12th in the Western Conference — two games out of the final play-in spot — after losing three in a row to start a five-game homestand.
Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, general manager Monte McNair, assistant general manager Wes Wilcox and coach Mike Brown must be feeling a shared sense of angst following a 103-99 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Brown answered a series of tough questions before and after the game. He stressed the importance of a “bunker mentality,” saying he hopes no one in the organization has “one foot in and one foot out.” The most thought-provoking response came when Brown was asked how much the organization’s top bosses are collaborating to resolve roster and performance issues.
“It always has to be a collective effort,” Brown said. “One of the things I said when I first got the job here is we have to have an alignment vertically and horizontally. Not just during good times, not just when I first got here or when change happens, but you have to do it and it’s even more evident when you hit a little adversity.
“If that alignment is truly in place and people truly believe, then it’s easy to go through adversity. You know everybody has two feet in. ... You want everybody to have two feet in, but everybody’s human, so one person might have one foot in and one foot out whether it’s a player, somebody on my staff, it could be me, it could be somebody in the front office.
“It could be anybody who has one foot in and one foot out. You hope that’s not the case, but everybody is human, and you hope as a group, if they do have one foot in and one foot out, questioning stuff all the time, being negative, feeding negative stuff to people, trying to splinter us however it may be, you hope our group is strong enough to draw them back in.”
Brown’s remarks came hours after The Athletic reported Fox’s agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, met with McNair and Wilcox on Thursday to discuss “the danger zone the Kings have entered regarding the uncertain future of their franchise guard.” Sources said that conversation focused the organization’s plans and whether “this partnership ... is going to continue long term.”
Fox turned down a three-year, $165 million contract extension during the offseason. He will be eligible for a four-year, $229 million maximum extension this summer with an opportunity to qualify for a five-year, $345 million supermax deal if he earns All-NBA honors. If Fox doesn’t agree to a new deal, the Kings will be forced to explore trade possibilities before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2026.
Fox made it clear that money isn’t the only thing on his mind when he addressed his decision on the “Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis.” He also wants to know the Kings will put him in a position to win at the highest level.
“For me, man, it has all to do with the team, the organization, where are we going?” Fox said. “I want to make sure that we’re in a position to try to win in the future because that’s ultimately what I want to do. I feel like I’m continuing to get better as a player every year. But for me, it’s ‘Are we looking like we’re continuing to get better year after year, and are we going to be able to compete at a high level?’
“If we can show that this year, you know, you sign the extension now. If not, obviously I still have another year, but that’s where my mindset is. I love the city. I love being here. I’ve raised my family here. I would love to be here and retire here. How many people can say they played in one organization for their whole career? I want to be a part of that select few people, but at the end of the day, I also want to win.”
The Kings clearly need more size, length and depth, but why they aren’t winning with the most talented roster they’ve had in over 20 years is a confounding question.
They are No. 7 in the NBA in offensive rating (115.0), No. 14 in defensive rating (112.4) and No. 9 in net rating (+2.6). They rank eighth in scoring (116.0 ppg), eighth in plus/minus (+5.6) and 13th in point differential (+2.2). They are the only sub-.500 team in the NBA with a positive point differential.
Following Saturday’s loss to the Lakers, Fox was asked how the Kings are handling the pressure to win and where they go from here.
“We go out there on the court and that’s all we think about,” Fox said. “You go out there, you do your job and you trust that the guy behind you is going to do their job, and you just worry about winning basketball games. You’re not hearing whatever noise there is. You go out there and do your job, and you want to enjoy doing your job. We know that we’re not a super young team and we know how hard this conference is, so at some point we have to be consistent and take care of business.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
