Thursday, January 5th, 2012 at 2:38 pm  |  39 responses

Sacramento Kings Fired Head Coach Paul Westphal


Paul Westphal’s disastrous handling of the DeMarcus Cousins situation, coupled with the Sacramento Kings’ rough start this season (2-5) signaled the end of his reign in Sac-Town. From Sactown Royalty: “The Sacramento Kings have announced that Paul Westphal has been fired as head coach. Keith Smart takes over for the Thursday game against the Milwaukee Bucks.”

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  • http://redoftoothandclaw.ca/ niQ

    They’ve got some good pieces in Sac-town. Don’t know what’s up with Tyreke’s slow start though…I guess that injury from last year is still bothering him? He had some crazy handles in those summer games though.

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    DC is still going to be a knucklehead.

  • AD

    damn,…. looks like demarcus us staying.

  • T-Money

    Two words: Larry Brown.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Cheryl

    I figured that was coming. Flip Saunders is probably next. When you send in a player who’s not on the the active list for the night, that says something about your organizational skills and your commitment to the job.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Tarzan Cooper

    Finally. He obvoiusly wasn’t running any sort of offense and didn’t have the respect of the players. Many good pieces on the kings, they can be much better.

  • robb

    Larry Brown is too…rigid, after Paul Westphal’s anarchy, I don’t know if a dictatorship would be too tough for these young guys.

  • Fat Lever

    Westphal has the privilege of being the answer to: Who was the first professional coach, in a long line of coaches, that got fired because of Demarcus Cousins?

  • T-Money

    Nah, LB is perfect for the Kings. That’s his specialty: taking a cast of misfits back to respectability and the playoffs. Then he gets fidgety and wants to bounce.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Tyreke Evans, Demarcus Cousins, Marcus Thornton, John Salmons, w/ Larry Brown as the coach? haha that would never work.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Best coach for this team would be Rick Adelman. Or Lenny Wilkins if they could drag him out of retirement.

  • Heals

    Wow, wow, wow. Well Sacramento, thanks from the rest of the NBA for providing a blueprint on exactly how NOT to handle a situation like this. If only they could’ve have ended the season after beating the LAL on opening night…

  • Ben Ireland

    Keith Smart was good last year, and up-tempo is what this team needs… Cousins can flatout run, I’d love to see Smart with him. Tyreke could guard 3s, and they could easily have a 3-guard offence, and while I don’t think it’s a superb winning formula, they’d be competitive and fun to watch most nights, no?

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    I agree with that idea Ben.

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com Enigmatic

    They should hire Paul Westhead.
    And if that doesn’t work they can keep going back through the alphabet.

  • http://slamonline.com AlbertBarr

    cosign Ben and nbk.

    Sacramento should have NEVER gotten rid of Adelman.

  • http://shinefluid@aol.com yada

    if you are a coach you CANT go public with a spat u had with a player. id think coaches and players get into it quite often. once he went public he lost the entire team

  • http://slamonline.com YKnoT

    Good riddance to the anti-Mike Brown!

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    COSIGN ENIGMATIC lmao

  • http://staticseth.blogspot.com/ Seth

    Stevie Wonder saw this coming.

  • Gregg

    D-Cousins is pathetic. Send him to the D-League with meager pay for a year or two and see if that will change his attitude.

  • http://www.nba.com/analysis/rules_history.html Allenp

    Bout damn time. And Keith Smart can coach. He started the Warriors playing better defense last year, but David Lee’s injury hurt the team a lot on offense.

  • LA Huey

    They should hire D’Antoni after they replace him in New York with Whoopi Goldberg.

  • http://www.nba.com/analysis/rules_history.html Allenp

    Or Rhea Pearlman.
    Then they can run the scissor pick.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    lmao!!!!!!!!!!!

  • http://slamonline.com datkid

    keith smart was a good coach… the warriors upgraded but what happened to them wasn’t entirely his fault.

  • http://anyoldthing Ugh

    Phil Jackson should coach this team. He has a headcase – now all he needs is a ruthless scorer, a solid defender and someone from his previous team (which he can get next season when Omar is bought out by the Mavs) and his template for success is complete! BOOK IT/MAKE IT HAPPEN, MALOOF!

  • http://slamonline.com The Philosopher

    Called it last season…

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    I’ve already heard Jerry Sloans name as a serious candidate

  • http://www.slamonline.com J

    ^ that would be perfect nbk.

  • http://www.google.com/news BETCATS

    Jerry Sloan or Larry Brown would die from having to deal with Cousins. Cousins obviously doesnt buy into the ‘grumpy old man’ approach, which is basically why he hated Westphal.

  • http://dsjfklfl.com Jukai

    I’m with BETCATS. Jerry Sloan quit because of the players on UTAH… you think he can handle Sacremento??
    Larry Brown is too hit or miss. I can’t actually understand how he makes some headcases fall into line and others he can’t remotely handle. I may say give Brown a chance, but expect failure.

  • Lan

    Too bad coach. I could’ve suck it up and get on with work since, after all, I am the BIG MAN in Sacramento. Anyway see ya. Next!

  • http://slam.online house

    ^someone needs to put down the pipe

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    I wasn’t saying I like Jerry Sloan, just that I heard he was somehow in the mix. I actually like Keith Smart for this team.

  • rudy

    hahahaha whoopie goldberg. good early morning laugh. Eddie was d shiz nits

  • RunNGun

    Two Words: KURT RAMBIS.

  • https://plus.google.com/photos/106403650426394352312/albums/posts davidR

    you guys saying keith smart is a good coach, hell no. keith had no idea how to utilize the offensive talent the warriors had. he kept benching curry for no reason, and a lot of his offense consisted of monta bailing the entire team out with not much time on the shot clock.
    he did however get the team to play better defense, so i’ll give him that.
    don nelson brought a team of d-leaguers to win 26 games in 09-10.
    keith smart, the next year, with a healthy monta, curry, david lee, and dorrell wright, won 36 games.
    only a +10 improvement, with a much much much better team.

  • Dennis

    So looking back we can see what I already knew, Westphal was doing as good as possible with that attitude ridden prick, DC.

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