SACRAMENTO - 30 jobs. That is what Sacramento Kings fans must keep saying to themselves. Regardless of how dysfunctional the Kings might be, it’s still one of only 30 head coaching jobs in the NBA.
Over the next few weeks the Kings are going to bring in a bevy of hopefuls. Some will be courtesy interviews for one side or the other, but make no mistake, Sacramento will find more than one coach willing to put his reputation on the line.
The list of candidates the Sacramento Kings would love to interview for their head coaching vacancy continues to grow. Sam Mitchell rolled through Sacramento last week, and there are rumors that Vinnie Del Negro and Mike Woodson aren’t far behind.
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Some of the league’s best prospective coaching options are still locked up in playoff battles. In order to get an interview, the Kings have to ask and receive permission from their current employer before they can even open a dialogue.
There is no word yet as to whether the Kings have called the Indiana Pacers about assistant coach Nate McMillan, but he has been mentioned multiple times as a someone the Kings want to talk to and he might be a perfect fit for the job.
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McMillan finished his 12-year playing career with the Seattle Supersonics following the 1997-98 season and joined their coaching staff a season later as an assistant. He got his first shot to run the team a little over a year later when he took over the Sonics for Paul Westphal 15 games into the 2000-01 season.
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Over four-plus seasons in Seattle, McMillan led the Sonics to a 212-183 record, including a 52-30 season during his final year with the club. He led Seattle to two postseasons berths, making it out of the first round in his final season before falling to the Spurs in the second round.
He left to join the Portland Trail Blazers following the 2004-05 season, where he would spend the next seven years of his career. He led the Blazers to a 266-269 record as he delivered one of the league’s most dysfunctional franchises out of the doldrums and into a perennial playoff contender.
“There is no question he can provide a cultural change, it happened in Portland,” CSN Northwest’s Jason Quick said. “When he took over, the Blazers were a mess - they were the ‘Jail Blazers.’ They had Zach Randolph, Darius Miles, all kinds of off the court issues and Nate cleaned that up real quick.”
Quick has spent the last 17-years covering the Blazers and there are few in the media world that know McMillan better. While McMillan was eventually “run out” of Portland, his impact during his time with the team was tremendous.
“He put a ton of time and effort into coaching the Blazers,” Quick said. “He was prepared through film study, he put a lot of effort into communicating with his players and I just think in today’s NBA coaching world, there’s not a lot of guys that will outwork him.”
If not for a series of franchise changing injuries to both Brandon Roy and Greg Oden, there is no telling where the Trail Blazers may have gone under McMillan. But by the end, his young stars were gone and a new group of veterans tuned him out. He was relieved of his duties midway through the 2011-12 season, leaving the team with a 20-23 in the strike-shortened season.
After a year away from the game, McMillan joined Frank Vogel’s staff in Indiana before the 2013-14 season. He’s worked with one of the league’s best young coaches for the past three seasons.
It’s clear that McMillan is looking for the right fit for his skill set. Sacramento might not be what the 51-year-old veteran coach is looking for. He’s already been a savior for one franchise and he may not want the task of taking on another club that is in disarray.
But there was a time when McMillan was among the best coaches in the league. He’s not a re-tread. He’s a coach that has had plenty of success in the past and he might just be the voice the Kings need to right their ship moving forward.