Keith Smart fired, Mike Malone hired as Kings coach

Sam Amick | USA TODAY Sports

Keith Smart saw it coming.

Of course he saw it coming.

The Sacramento Kings coach who was informed a few days back by new owner Vivek Ranadive that he would not be retained for the final season on his contract has been through this before, back when the Golden State Warriors were the team with the new owners and the same writing was on the wall leading up to his April 2011 ousting as head coach. Men who pay exorbitant amounts for NBA teams tend to want their own people in place, and so it is that Smart is out and Warriors assistant coach Mike Malone is in after he came to terms with the Kings to be his replacement, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because the deal is not finalized.

But just because he saw it coming doesn't mean he's not disappointed by the irony in place here: his first firing came after the Warriors group that was headed by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber but which also included the then-minority owner, Ranadive, paid a league-record $450 million for their new team and – despite the team's record improving by 10 games in his one season under them — always saw him as a transition coach for the post-Don Nelson season that led to the eventual hiring of Mark Jackson. Now this pink slip comes with Ranadive actually calling the shot, this after his group topped the Warriors' purchase price by paying a valuation of $535 million for the Kings and moving quickly on Malone.

If only Smart could coach a team that doesn't have new owners.

"A good friend of mine called me, he lives in Miami and is a lawyer, and he said, 'Man, I've got to tell you, what you've done every place you've gone is you've increased the value of the franchise. It's unfortunate you don't get to watch the program grow, but you definitely increased the franchise value,'" Smart told USA TODAY Sports with a laugh. "I was in Cleveland (as an assistant coach from 2000 to 2003), near the draft and they get LeBron (James the following summer). I was a couple steps away from coaching LeBron, but I didn't get a chance at that. And then you had the same scenario in Golden State."

Again, more irony: Malone, as it so happens, became a Cavaliers assistant in 2005 and was a pivotal part of James' formative years in the league as the lead assistant for Cleveland coach Mike Brown. But beyond the strangest of coincidences in place here, Smart's frustration stems from the fact that he saw the coming season as a major turning point in this program he was trying to build.

The record – 20-39 after taking over for the fired Paul Westphal early in the 2011-12 campaign and 28-54 last season – wasn't showing much progress. But there were growing pains that he's sure were going to pay off, most notably the ones relating to franchise centerpiece big man DeMarcus Cousins.

The two were close in Smart's first season as head coach, as he connected with Cousins in ways that Westphal never had and there was a productive harmony for long stretches as a result. But over time, Smart demanded more of his big man (specifically on the defensive end) and realized the need to share the love, so to speak, with other teammates when it came to managing the team. The third season together, as Smart saw it, would have been the one where it all balanced out.

"We put a lot of pressure on a 22-year-old to carry the franchise right now, and he's probably not there yet," Smart said of Cousins. "But that's why I just thought all the work that you had to go through to get to a certain point and understanding how to manage a player, now you go into that third year, that next stage and (you're in a good place).

"I understand him and he understands me now. And that's where you grow…You get a chance to develop that relationship. You had to push, you had to fight, you had to argue. But you come back, and you're able to trust each other."

Smart is confident he'll be a part of the NBA landscape somewhere next season. He noted how the Maloof family that sold the team to Ranadive was "very good to (him)," and raved about the Kings fans for whom he rooted when the city was fighting to keep its team from moving to Seattle. He's happy for them, even if he won't take part in the turnaround they're all hoping for.

"When I came in, I said, 'it's going to take about three years to get this thing moving in a certain direction," Smart said. "That's the tough part."