Dave Joerger is reportedly being fired by the Sacramento Kings. Despite their allegiance to their current interim coach, the Minnesota Timberwolves would be well-served to pursue Joerger.
Dave Joerger is once again getting the short end of the stick.
The Minnesota native will be fired for the second time in four years, this time by a franchise that has lost it’s way and is busy handing the keys over to Vlade Divac. Will the Minnesota Timberwolves take advantage?
After three years in Memphis, where Joerger won 50, 55, and 42 games in successive years, including a trip to the second round in the 55-win campaign, he was fired. Then, he won 32 games in Year One in Sacramento and 27 games in Year Two as the team traded DeMarcus Cousins and gutted the roster.
This season, the Kings improved to 39-43, which is their best record since the 2005-06 campaign. To give you an idea of just how long ago that was, it was when Rick Adelman was their head coach. Before he went to Houston. And then Minnesota. And then retired several years ago.
But alas, it wasn’t enough for Divac, who is apparently cleaning the entire house.
Joerger engineered the Kings most successful season since 2006, but Divac is consolidating power around himself. Philadelphia assistant Monty Williams has been a primary target for Kings management, sources said. He's expected to be a candidate for openings elsewhere this spring. https://t.co/fyKLDDbRuH
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 11, 2019
The Kings have also dismissed Chris Clark, their long-time director of media relations, sources say -- to give you an extent of how wide-ranging the upheaval is going to be there today.
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) April 11, 2019
Clearly, the Kings want to start fresh. But it’s unclear just how fresh things will be if Divac remains in charge and ownership keeps doing Kingsy things.
Turning our attention the Timberwolves however, the fact that Joerger is available is certainly intriguing. Wolves fans may remember that back in 2014, when Flip Saunders ultimately hired himself to coach the team, Joerger was nearly lured away from Memphis to run his hometown club.
Ultimately, he chose to stay after a raise and some assurances from Memphis, who ultimately ended up firing him a year later after all.
Oh, and don’t forget Joerger actually called the potential opening in Minnesota “interesting” while still being employed by the Kings just a few months ago.
Yours truly ranked Joerger No. 1 on a list of potential Wolves coaching targets in the offseason, as his ability to get young teams to play some semblance of a defense and track record of overachieving compared to the level of NBA-caliber talent on his rosters are absolutely attractive.
Would things be messy with Ryan Saunders already in the fold? Possibly, but there’s certainly a scenario in which Joerger is hired on the condition that Saunders is given the lead assistant role, setting him up for next in line for the job.
Of course, Joerger may very well not be interested in simply keeping the seat warm for Flip’s son, as he’ll surely have other suitors. And there’s the news from earlier in the week that the Wolves are preparing to offer Saunders a multi-year contract extension to be the head coach.
But the clear interest that Joerger will have in the job and his level of experience compared to Saunders’ matters. And don’t forget that owner Glen Taylor was very involved in the 2014 talks with Joerger as well.
This is something to keep an eye on in the coming days and weeks as coaching news often moves quickly in the month of April…