The Sacramento Kings started off the season red hot. Led by DeMarcus Cousins they were battering teams with ease. But then Cousins got ill and the Kings fell off dramatically. So dramatically of course they decided to fire head coach Michael Malone on December 14th.
The next man up was assistant coach Tyrone Corbin. He’s done this gig before. Filling in for Jerry Sloan when he got let go earlier this year.
And according to Cowbell Kingdom, the Kings have officially signed Corbin to a deal that has him as head coach for the rest of the season.
Under Corbin, the Kings have struggled to a 2-5 record, but played without star center DeMarcus Cousins in two of the losses. The team is playing an aggressive, uptempo offensive style, but has struggled on the defensive end.
During his introductory press conference, general manager Pete D’Alessandro gave Corbin a vote of confidence, but was noncommittal on whether he would coach the team for the remainder of the season.
“I give full support to Tyrone,” D’Alessandro stated. “You don’t put someone out there on the floor and say, ‘You don’t have full support of the organization.’ That would be totally unfair if I had that in mind. We’re going to try to get better, we’re going to make decisions obviously to get better, whatever that is. That’s the NBA, you know, that’s the NBA. But right now I’m standing right behind Tyrone and saying, ‘Let’s get this thing. Let’s open this floor up and see what we can do.’“
The Kings have a star in Cousins, a couple of good players in Collison and Gay. But they need more in order to be prominent in the Western Conference. I think Corbin will be a good stand in. Whether he deserves a full time position, that’s another story.
