The mid-season coaching change, swapping out Mike Brown for Doug Christie, didn’t pan out like the Sacramento Kings had hoped. That’s not to say that Christie didn’t do enough to extend his stay as the team’s head coach. It does say that under Brown, the Kings had made the playoffs in two consecutive years leading up to this one. Now, without Brown, they’re not participants. Christie may become a good coach, and it may still wind up being in Sacramento. As for the players, the uncertainty is the same, especially for someone like DeMar DeRozan, whose future with the Kings could be in question.
6x All-Star’s Future with Kings Clouded in Uncertainty
DeMar DeRozan’s future with Sacramento Kings up in the air
For a player of DeRozan’s stature, skill, and talent, he sure has traveled a lot in his NBA career. Since beginning the first portion of his career with the Toronto Raptors, he’s since moved from the San Antonio Spurs to the Chicago Bulls and now Sacramento. However, his stay in Sacramento might not be an extended one. The Bulls traded DeRozan to the Kings last summer. In his first season, the 6x All-Star recorded 22.2 points, 4.4 assists, and 3.9 rebounds per game, shooting 47% from the field. This season was considered a down year for DeRozan as far as statistics are concerned. That said, there’s no doubt that he is still one of the league’s, if not still the best, mid-range shooters around, and a significant offensive contributor and pure scorer.
Unfortunately, his numbers and impact weren’t enough to get the Kings over the hump. Of course, the departure of De’Aaron Fox to the Spurs didn’t help matters. DeRozan was brought in to be that third star alongside Fox and Domantas Sabonis. Now that Sacramento’s season is over, DeRozan’s future is clouded. Equally, so is Sabonis’s.
Uncertain feelings
With the recent firing of now ex-Kings GM Monte McNair and Scott Perry taking over in the role, it’s only another factor building on the uncertainty DeRozan admits to feeling. According to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee, DeRozan isn’t sure what the future holds for him when asked about the current state of the Kings organization.
“Just the structure and a foundation of a compete level,” DeRozan said. “I think all year we had such an uncertainty of everything. You can’t really operate in any successful environment if you have so much uncertainty, so I think for me, just the uncertainty of what it’s going to be going forward.”
Another factor in play here is if DeRozan’s time with the Kings is already over after one campaign, he will play for a fifth team next season. How DeRozan feels about that is uncertain—a common theme in the background of it all. Trading away Fox complicated things, there’s no doubt. For DeRozan, as great a player as he is, he isn’t a number one option. He alone can’t lead Sacramento on deep playoff runs. He may want to look for greener pastures elsewhere again. So, the future is undeniably murky for the Kings and for DeRozan.
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