Vlade Divac and Vivek Ranadive hired Dave Joerger to coach the Sacramento Kings back in 2016 to what felt like universal praise. Considering where the Kings were in their coaching search, and how unappealing this position was after the George Karl fiasco, when the Grizzlies finally made Joerger available, that praise felt justified. Vlade’s growing list of candidates was getting less inspiring by the day, and Joerger sort of fell into their lap after considerable tension with Grizzlies front office and ownership became too ugly to reconcile.
Joeger has certainly lost some goodwill in Sacramento since 2016, and the criticisms lobbed in his direction these days do have merit.