Nine Candidates to Become the Sacramento Kings Next Head Coach

The Sacramento Kings are once again looking for a new head coach. Sacramento moved quickly after mutually parting ways with former general manager Monte McNair just minutes after an embarrassing Play-In loss, hiring longtime executive Scott Perry on Wednesday. Perry will now be tasked with hiring the next head coach.

Interim head coach Doug Christie is the early favorite to be the next full-time head coach. Christie is deeply ingrained in Sacramento basketball history. He is tight with important figures with the Kings, and ownership purportedly backs him. His move from color commentator to Mike Brown’s coaching staff was largely seen as a nudge from ownership as they hired Brown.

Christie led the Kings to a 27-24 regular season record after taking the helm in late December, which was enough to land a Play-In appearance (in which they were embarrassed). Not bad for a first-time head coach thrust into action in the midst of a turbulent season.

There are some warranted gripes with Christie’s coaching style. The offense frequently resorted to mismatch hunting instead of running set plays, and their pace was considerably slower than before.

They were blown out on several occasions, with players simply noting they did not show up ready to play. The roster certainly deserves the lion’s share of blame for not competing, but the head coach typically shares at least some blame in that. This is particularly disappointing considering the passion and grit Christie consistently displayed during his 15-year playing career.

Christie is by no means a perfect coach, but that should not be expected after just 52 games as a head coach. He did well enough to show he may turn into a serviceable head coach, and has repeatedly said he wants to be the coach in Sacramento, which just might be good enough for the Kings.

Doug Christie on his uncertain future and a wild season taking over a Kings team in turmoil: pic.twitter.com/5KtjWeY0Ha
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) April 17, 2025

While there are only 30 NBA head coaching jobs in the world, the job in Sacramento has been defined by frequent turnover, even for respected coaches who were succeeding. With this sentiment in mind, external options like those mentioned below may be reluctant to coach the Kings.

If Sacramento opts for an external hire, expect them to begin with the rivals down I-80. The Kings have long tried to mirror the Golden State Warriors, where Ranadive was previously a minority owner.

Sacramento has gone to this pipeline several times during the Ranadive era. During the 12-year Ranadive era, the Kings have hired five head coaches. Three of them (Michael Malone - Ranadive’s first hire, Luke Walton, and Mike Brown) came directly from the Warriors.

If the trend holds, Warriors assistant coaches Terry Stotts and Jerry Stackhouse will likely be the first calls.

Stotts is best known for his nine-year run as Head Coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. He boasts a 517-486 career record - clearly a known entity who knows how to consistently win. He is a respected offensive mind who has significant experience with offense-first backcourts, building a Damian Lillard - C.J. McCollum backcourt into a consistent winner.

Stackhouse brings a lot of the same qualities as Christie, but with more experience. He has G League (Raptors 905) and college (Vanderbilt) head coaching experience, and now runs the Warriors’ defense. He would also command player respect, enjoying a productive 18-year playing career that ended in 2013.

Smart money would be on one of the above candidates landing the job. However, there are plenty of others outside of the usual pipeline that would make sense. Some quick hits on other potential candidates:

Boston Celtics assistant Sam Cassell has been a hot name for several years now. Cassell played until 2008 and has moved from the Clippers to the 76ers to the Boston Celtics as an assistant in recent years, learning under Doc Rivers and Joe Mazzula. Maybe the Celtics are the new apple of ownership’s eye, and they now want to copy the Boston model.

Micah Nori was a popular name last coaching cycle, and should be considered for the Kings' job. Nori spent several years with the Kings on Mike Malone’s staff from 2013 to 2015. He was then a lead assistant in Detroit and now has that same role under Chris Finch in Minnesota. Finch (who Sacramento was interested in before hiring Mike Brown) was also on the Denver staff under Malone.

Nori would likely bring a faster pace and run Sacramento’s offense through Domantas Sabonis, which could recapture some of what helped Sacramento break their playoff drought in 2022-23.

Caron Butler is a former King and current assistant with the Miami Heat. Butler retired in 2016 after one season in Sacramento and has coached in Miami since 2020. Butler would immediately command respect given his notable playing career, and his short experience coming in the Heat organization gives him more credibility than most coaches with this amount of experience.

Chris Quinn would be another way to bring Heat Culture to Sacramento. Quinn had a six-year playing career and has coached with the Heat since 2014, ultimately taking the Associate Head Coach role when David Fizdale left in 2016. He is widely respected around the league.

Bobby Jackson, in attendance during the Play-In trouncing, is another former King who has built a solid resume as an assistant coach with some head coaching experience under his belt as well. Jackson served as Head Coach of the Stockton Kings in 2021-22, then was an assistant coach in Sacramento under Luke Walton. He has been an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers under Nick Nurse since 2023.

A final candidate warranting mention is Lindsey Harding, whose coaching career truly began with the Kings. She worked in player development for several years before becoming an assistant coach in Sacramento for the 2022-23 season.

Harding then became Head Coach of the Stockton Kings for the 2023-24 season, earning G League Coach of the Year. She is now an assistant coach on J.J. Redick’s Lakers staff. Harding has been a fast riser up the coaching ranks and should certainly be considered for head coaching vacancies moving forward.

This offseason will once again bring significant change in Sacramento, which has already begun with the Perry hire. The Kings are already off to a better start than we have seen in the past by hiring their GM before their coach.

Here’s hoping that Perry fills out the rest of his front office with qualified individuals (particularly those well-versed in salary cap nuance as the team gets more expensive over the next couple of years), and hires a coach who can collaborate with ownership and the front office to maximize what they have on the roster come October.

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