The Sacramento Kings will reportedly keep Doug Christie as their coach

Sacramento entered this season with dreams of the playoffs and a return to how the team played in 2023. Instead, the 22-win, injury-free Kings are 15 games out of even the No. 10 seed and again looking to the NBA Draft Lottery for luck.

Coach Doug Christie won’t pay the price. Multiple reports they say Christie will be retained as the Kings head coach, with The Athletic’s Sam Amick be the first.

Announcement

There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that the Kings’ struggles are much more about roster construction than coaching: More than one person in the league told NBC Sports, “I don’t know how good of a coach Christie is” because of the talent he had to work with. Christie took over midseason in 2025, after Mike Brown was fired just after Christmas. Not long after taking over, a huge roster shake-up began after De’Aaron Fox requested a trade. This season, the Kings have dealt with injuries to key players and have also tried to start trading veterans and rebuilding.

The Kings also reportedly liked the way young players like Maxime Raynaud and Nique Clifford developed under Christie.

It’s also worth noting that Christie, a former Kings player, is reportedly a favorite of team owner Vivek Ranadive and parts of Sacramento’s front office. Christie is also popular among fans. Christie signed a three-year contract with the Kings last summer and is guaranteed next season, so if he were let go the Kings would still pay him.

Whatever the Kings roster looks like next season, Christie will coach it.