Luke Walton, Kings coach. For now.
When the Knicks entered their game against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, New York was 24th in offense, scoring 107.5 points per 100 possessions. When the game was over, not only had the Knicks scored 140 points on 58.6% shooting—both season highs—but they’d bumped their offensive ranking to 23rd, up to 108.3 points per 100 possessions.
That’s reminiscent of February 12, when the Kings gave up 123 points to Orlando (their third-best offensive night this season), lifting them from 28th in the NBA at 105.1 points per 100 possessions to 27th at 105.8.
For both teams, a full spot up in the NBA’s offensive rankings. This is what playing against the Kings’ defense can do for even the worst offensive teams these days.
The Kings are the worst defensive team in the NBA this season, and it is only getting worse. They are on a nine-game losing streak during which they have allowed 126.3 points per game, yielding 53.0% shooting and 45.9% 3-point shooting. This was exactly the reason that the Kings brought in coach Luke Walton back in 2019 almost as soon as he was let go by the Lakers—to shore up the team’s wretched defense.
It has not worked, and Walton is on borrowed time, at best, because of it. With the Kings in a familiar position—playing for a coach who is working for a general manager who did not hire him—Walton figures to be next up on the NBA’s firing line.
Luke Walton Failed On 2 Key Promises
He should be ready to go. He has not come close to delivering on the vows he made two years ago when he took the job. That started with defense, taking over a team that ranked 21st in defensive efficiency in 2018-19, before he arrived. That got only marginally better last year, when the Kings were 19th, before this year’s bottoming-out.
“We’ll put a huge emphasis on our defense, challenge our guys daily, start practices with defense at the front of the practice plan to prioritize how important it is to us,” Walton said back in 2019. “You have to want to be a good defensive team, and from what I’ve been told, we have a group that loves that kind of challenge.”
Kings general manager Monte McNair.
Walton may want to go back and check his sources on that one. The Kings have not put an emphasis on defense, and this group shows no inkling of wanting to change that.
Walton also said at the time that the Kings, who were fourth in 3-point shooting the previous season but only 20th in attempts, would launch a lot more from the arc. “We’re going to shoot a lot of 3s,” he said.
Quick check on that: Sacto is 19th in 3-pointers attempted, at 33.5 per game. The Kings are making 36.8%, which is 12th, just a tick below the league average (36.9%). Last year, they were 12th in attempts (34.9) and 12th in accuracy (36.4%).
They are not shooting a lot of 3s, by any measure. If Walton’s goal was to make this a 3-and-D team, he’s failed utterly. There is not much reason to think he will resolve that problem, either.
So it comes to new general manager Monte McNair to pull off what has become a tradition for Kings executives in recent years—to fire the coach he inherited when he took the Kings job. Pete D’Alessandro did it with coach Mike Malone, Vlade Divac did it with George Karl and, now, McNair will have to do the same with Walton.
A new coach alone won’t fix the Kings, of course. But the defensive issue with this team—the thing Walton most strongly emphasized—has gotten out of his control. It’s only a matter of time before Walton is shown the door. Sad-sack offenses like those in Orlando and New York will miss him, greatly.
