10 worst NBA front offices

To be fair, the Sacramento Kings have done two smart things in the 2016 offseason by hiring former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger and not overspending in a salary cap explosion in 2016 NBA free agency. However, Sacramento continues to do things that nobody else does in the NBA, thus making them the most dysfunctional organization in the NBA.

The Kings were able to stay in Sacramento thanks to the efforts of mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson and new owner Vivek Ranadive. Sacramento has a fantastic fan base and will be able to play in brand new Golden 1 Center downtown next fall. Let’s not forget that they arguably have the best center in basketball in the enigmatic DeMarcus Cousins.

However, let’s just look at some of the weird situations the Kings have found themselves in since drafting Cousins No. 5 overall out of Kentucky in 2010. Joerger will be Cousins’ sixth head coach in seven seasons. Replacing Rick Adelman has been almost impossible in Sacramento and the only coach that Cousins seemed to have a great rapport with was Michael Malone.

Ranadive fired Malone mid-season in 2014-15 because he wanted his team to play pace-and-space. Malone catered towards Cousins’ slower offensive approach. Ranadive seriously considered having interim head coach Tyrone Corbin run a defense with a box of four and one guy trying to steal the ball every possession.

Sacramento basically told everybody that former head coach George Karl was going to be fired mid-season last year, pulled out of their decision in the last minute, and then fired him at the end of the 2015-16 campaign.

Then there’s the general manager job with the Kings. Pete D’Alessandro was handpicked by Ranadive to be the Kings’ general manager in 2013. He was on the job for two years before going back to the Denver Nuggets to be Tim Connelly’s assistant. D’Alessandro couldn’t trade the Kings out of perpetual mediocrity.

Enter former Kings star player Vlade Divac to replace D’Alessandro. Divac may one day be a good general manager for the Kings, but was under-qualified in getting the gig in the first place. The best example of this was that he didn’t know how to use the mid-level exception in 2015 NBA free agency.

Divac traded away 2014 first round pick Nik Stauskas to the Philadelphia 76ers for almost nothing to create extra cap space to sign shooting guard Wesley Matthews. Matthews tore his Achilles’ playing for the 2014-15 Portland Trail Blazers. He would sign with the Dallas Mavericks.

For now, Cousins is growing increasingly frustrated with the Kings front office. They keep drafting big men to clog the lane, thus making it harder for Cousins to do his job as the team’s best player. Sacramento hasn’t made the NBA Playoffs in a decade and will presumably have the longest active playoff drought in 2017 once the Timberwolves get a top-eight seed.

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