How large will Mike Brown’s immediate impact be?
The Sacramento Kings have lofty expectations for their new head coach. As reported by Marc Stein’s latest report on The Stein Line, the Kings’ front office expects Brown to have an immediate impact in Sacramento like Chris Finch had with the Minnesota Timberwolves this past season:
“Candidates were told that team officials are counting on a Minnesota-esque surge in the standings in Year 1 after a league-record 16 consecutive seasons out of the playoffs. The Wolves went 46-36 in Chris Finch’s first full season on the bench to secure just the club’s second playoff berth in an 18-season span.”
Last season, the Timberwolves finished with a record of 23-49, which saw them finish 13th in the Western Conference. This season, in Chris Finch’s first full season with the team, the T-Wolves made an impressive leap, improving their record by 23 wins and finishing seventh in the standings.
With the Kings finishing this past season at No. 12 in the Western Conference with a record of 30-52, a similar jump for them will mean winning 45-48 games. Most importantly it would be an end to the 16-year playoff drought. As the entire basketball world knows, Sacramento has been allergic to the playoffs for for quite a while. With Brown’s winning pedigree and experience on championship teams there is a bounty of knowledge he will be able to ingrain into the minds of the everyone in the Kings’ franchise.
Now that head coach is already marked on the off-season checklist, the Kings will now need to focus on improving the roster to make this goal into a reality.