Doug Christie and Scott Perry vow to fix Kings ‘come hell or high water’
Sacramento Kings coach Doug Christie and general manager Scott Perry looked back on a season of frustration while looking forward to building a brighter future during exit interviews Wednesday at Golden 1 Center.
Christie and Perry held separate press conferences to address the media less than 72 hours after the Kings concluded one of the worst seasons in franchise history with a 122-110 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Perry reiterated that the Kings are in the early stages of a rebuild that will require a patient, prudent and opportunistic approach. Christie vowed to bring winning basketball back to Sacramento.
“We will get it right,” Christie said. “Come hell or high water, we will make it happen.”
Perry praised Christie’s work ethic and willingness to learn as a first-time head coach while explaining his decision to keep him as head coach. He specifically pointed to Christie’s work with rookies Nique Clifford, Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell, who showed tremendous growth over the course of the season.
“That was one of the main reasons in making sure Doug Christie came back as head coach,” Perry said. “Doug’s relentless energy, his leadership that he exhibited with these young guys, his patience, never wavered throughout a challenging year.”
The Kings (22-60) matched their second-lowest win total in the Sacramento era, tied the Utah Jazz for the fourth-worst record in the NBA and missed the playoffs for the 19th time in 20 years. Christie noted that the Kings were “ravaged by injuries.” Perry pointed out that they used 34 different starting lineups.
Domantas Sabonis only appeared in 19 games. Keegan Murray only played 23 games. Zach LaVine played 39 games.
Christie was asked how the pieces might fit if the roster remains mostly intact with healthy veterans and a collection of youngsters who showed tremendous growth this season.
“It would be nice to plug those guys in and have all that,” Christie said. “We didn’t have it, but I can see how all of that would fit because the ability to shoot, the ability to defend and the ability to rebound are absolute musts, and those guys help in all those categories.”
Perry didn’t sound particularly interested in a run-it-back scenario when asked if the roster would have been good enough to compete at a higher level if not for the injuries.
“I think that’s very hypothetical,” Perry said. “It’s hard to say. I wouldn’t want to venture down that path. Individually, a lot of guys had strong resumes in this league. ... Talent doesn’t always dictate wins and losses. You need time to play together, and these guys never had time to play together, so we’ll never know the answer to that.”
Instead, Perry will try to retool an aging and expensive roster that is projected to be $20 million over the luxury tax and $3 million over the second salary apron.
“There are a lot of mechanisms to work around the cap,” Perry said. “I will just say this. From the time I started in this league 23 years ago, my philosophy is never to be a team going into the luxury tax unless we were a roster worth of that, ready to compete for a champion. We’re not there yet, so we have a number of avenues over the next three, four, five months to make sure we’re in compliance with that and also put the very best roster we can out there for next season.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 2:45 PM.
