Marvin Bagley (or more accurately, his dad) finally got his wish: for Dave Joerger to be terminated from his position as head coach of the Sacramento Kings. A strange decision by Vlade Divac, to fire the coach that turned one of the jokes of the league into a respectable almost-playoff team, but after seeing the Kings choke a huge lead against the Blazers “starters”, I can see how frustration would get the better of him.
I’m not convinced that the Kings didn’t tank this game away to mess up playoff seeds for one team or another. That’s a more comforting explanation than that they straight up lost to a team with Anfernee Simons (literally who) as its best player. That’s the great thing about tanking; losing sucks, but you can turn it around and say that’s what you were TRYING to do so it’s okay.
The Kings won’t be tanking anymore, though. They’ve got something resembling a young core, they won more games than they ever won with DeMarcus Cousins, actually, they’ve won more games than they have since… 2005????? Holy crap. The Maloofs must’ve really ruined this team. Anyway, there’s hope for the future now. Bagley, after looking iffy at the start of the season, has firmly implanted himself in the team’s core, which has some other sort-of okay players in it like De’Aaron Fox, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Kosta Koufos. That’s a core you can build around. That’s the future, right there.