Warriors' Mike Brown, Kings Reportedly Agree to 4-Year Head Coach Contract

Mike Brown will be the next head coach of the Kings after they declined to continue with the current coach, according to Adrian Wojnarowski.

Adrian Wojnarowski @wojespn

Brown will finish the Warriors’ playoff run before moving onto his full-time duties with the Kings, sources said.

According to reports, the two sides agreed to a four-year contract.

Brown has been on the Golden State Warriors staff for six years. He was a head coach for eight years with the Cleveland and Los Angeles Lakers.

During his first run in Cleveland, the Cavs won 60 games on two occasions and reached the NBA Finals.

The associate head coach was promoted to the position of head coach.

There was more to the deal that was reported at the time.

Adrian Wojnarowski @wojespn

Sources: Alvin Gentry will become the Kings’ interim coach. Gentry is already under contract through 2022-2023, gets a raise to take interim job and agreement on some benchmarks of success rest of this season with team to try and keep job longer.

The Kings didn't fare much better under the stewardship of Gentry. At the time of the coaching change, they had a 6-11 record and finished with a 24-41 record.

The organization has not had a playoff appearance in 16 seasons.

The Kings pulled off a trade at the deadline that made it hard for them to even qualify for the play-in tournament.

The most puzzling part of the move was that the Pacers got Domantas Sabonis, Jeremy Lamb and Justin Holiday from the Kings.

He averaged 13.6 points and 6.3 assists through his time with the Kings, and he wrote about how he was left in tears upon first being told.

In his time with the Kings, he put up 18.9 points and 12.3 rebound per game.

The front office wanted to take a clear step forward now that they had traded for an All-Star center who was under contract for two more years. Sam Vecenie of The Athletic argued that it felt like a case of lost priorities.

"At the end of the day, big picture, you're limiting the window to two years beyond this one, where you're already not contending for a title as it is and probably still have under a 50 percent chance to make the Play-In given that you're still two games out with two teams ahead of you in the standings. You're also decreasing your odds for getting a top-four draft pick because you'll see some marginal improvement that pushes you toward the Play-In but maybe not enough to actually make it."

Failing to even muster a top 10 finish was a huge disappointment and will add more fuel to the fire of those who questioned the trade in the first place.

Kellan Olson @KellanOlson

I feel like a lot of people are missing the point beyond the players that Sabonis is a UFA in 2024 and Haliburton still has TWO years left on his rookie deal before he's an RFA. That's what the baseball folks refer to as having a guy under team control. Insane deal for the Kings.

There are some reasons for optimism with Brown at the helm.

In 11 games after the All-Star break, Fox was the unquestioned No. 1 option in the backcourt. His three-point shooting went up a lot, even though he only made two of his long-range jumpers in the first half.

Mitchell had an encouraging year as well. According to NBA.com, the Kings were better on defense with him on the floor.

Mitchell should make some nice improvements in 2022-23, considering how hard it is for young guards to learn.

There will be a full off season in Sacramento. It can be difficult to get an important player into the flow of the offense when a team is trying to get their season going.

If nothing else, the pieces should be there for Brown to mount a better challenge at a top-six seed in the West, guaranteeing safe passage to the first round.