Sunday, December 22, 2024

Kings coach Mike Brown agrees to contract extension after previous impasse with team, per reports

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Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown has agreed to a contract extension that will tie him to the team through the 2026-27 season, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania. The deal reportedly carries a base salary of $8.5 million, with bonuses that could reach $10 million per year.

Brown and the Kings had previously been reported to be at an impasse over a potential contract extension, with the coach’s contract set to expire after next season. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported last week that the two sides had tabled talks over the gap.

On Thursday, Charania reported the Kings had offered Brown a three-year, $21 million deal that can reach $27 million with bonuses, while Brown was said to be seeking $10 million annually. The figures reported Friday would indicate Brown, who was set to make $4.5 million next year, got most of what he wanted.

A $10 million average annual value would tie Brown with Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers for what appears to be the sixth-largest salary in the NBA, though the numbers as reported would indicate Brown comes just behind him. The coaches known to be ahead of them:

All of those deals have been signed since Williams reset the market with his deal, one year ago to this day. Any contender with a good coach can probably expect to be paying him eight figures in the near future.

Brown just finished his second season with the Kings, a tenure that has seen the team go 94-70. The addition of Brown saw the team take a massive leap forward on offense last season and make the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

This year was less successful, even if the team only won two fewer games than in 2022-23. A 46-36 record was only good for ninth in the Western Conference and a berth in the play-in tournament, where the Kings got some nice revenge on the Golden State Warriors, but had their season end three days later against the New Orleans Pelicans.

Still, the Kings will definitely want to move forward with their core of DeAaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis and Keegan Murray, and that means not letting the guy who made them work together walk away. They still have some moves to make, though, and it’s unclear where they go from here.

At the very least, Sacramento has the No. 13 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. There are also contracts, such as those of Harrison Barnes and Kevin Huerter, that could conceivably be moved, while Malik Monk is set to hit free agency.

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