There was much speculation about the Sacramento Kings future after they finished the season with one of the franchise’s worst records at 18-64. Although the Kings’ performance last year can mainly be attributed to their weak roster, a fresh coaching perspective is not a bad thing for a team struggling as badly as Sacramento either. Thus, Kings President Geoff Petrie decided to hire Paul Westphal to take over coaching duties for Sacramento. Westphal has been around the NBA for a while and comes with previous coaching experience in Seattle and Phoenix. Moreover, he holds a very respectable 267-159 record and already managed to make it to the NBA Finals with the Suns in 1992-1993. After spending the last few years as assistant coach with the Mavericks he said to be very excited about helping the Kings to re-build from scratch. According to Petrie, Sacramento also considered hiring Eddie Jordan or Rambis, but the franchise preferred Westphal due to his vast experience in coaching NBA basketball.

Nonetheless, Sacramento’s problems go much deeper than some problems with the previous coaching staff. There have been rumors about the Kings going to cut their payroll due to the economic downfall which raised many questions. Most importantly, it is a general assumption that the combination of being one of the league’s worst teams and trying to save money does rarely lead to any measurable improvements in the next season. On top of all these issues the Kings did not have any luck in the draft lottery where they ended up fourth despite having the best odds to come away with the number one overall pick. While in some years the difference between the first few picks may be rather marginal, this summer it looks like there could be a huge gap after the first three picks. Although Sacramento’s means are very limited, the franchise is expected to look for trading up their draft pick if the opportunity presents itself.

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