National Basketball Association

The Kings' latest coaching candidate will make you laugh

Published Apr. 19, 2016 3:03 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Sacramento Kings are a hugely embarrassing professional sports franchise, one that rarely makes the correct decision, thinks things through or has any clue what it's doing.

No bit of news involving their name can be dismissed as untrue, no matter how ludicrous it sounds.

Related: On Tuesday, it was reported that Sacramento plans to interview Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Mike Woodson for its open head coach position (via The Vertical):

As part of a broad search process for head coach, the Sacramento Kings plan to interview Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Mike Woodson, league sources told The Vertical. The Kings sought and were granted permission by the Clippers to meet with Woodson in the near future, sources said.

For any other organization in the league, this would be greeted with shock. Woodson isn't the worst candidate in the world, but, at his very best, the 58-year-old epitomizes mediocrity, with a career .463 winning percentage in the regular season and a .391 mark in the playoffs. With so many other superior candidates on the market, it's curious why any front office would ask Woodson to fax over his résumé.

He spent six seasons with the Atlanta Hawks and three with the New York Knicks, but never advanced past the second round with either team. Not all of this is Woodson's fault, of course. A few of those squads were really good, including a 2012-13 Knicks team that won 54 games, led the league in 3-point rate, broke up Boston's Kevin Garnett/Paul Pierce/Doc Rivers triumvirate and came within two wins of the Eastern Conference Finals.

But a year later, after Jason Kidd left to coach the Brooklyn Nets, the Knicks fell apart and Woodson lost his job.

Mike Woodson and Boogie pic.twitter.com/NkgddDGjq8
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) April 19, 2016

Is he the worst possible candidate Sacramento could hire? No. But heading into a new arena, in what may be a make-or-break season to keep DeMarcus Cousins happy through his prime, whoever comes in had better be the right guy. And given all this organization's general dysfunction over the past few seasons, it's hard not to wonder how many qualified candidates turned down Sacramento before Woodson's phone number slid across Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé's desk.

The Kings also plan to interview Vinny Del Negro, Mark Jackson and Sam Mitchell, three people with knowledge of the process told The Associated Press on Tuesday night.

Del Negro coached the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Clippers, going 210-184 with four trips to the playoffs in five seasons. Jackson coached the Golden State Warriors for three seasons before being fired in 2014 and is credited with help laying the foundation for the team that won the championship last season under Steve Kerr and won a league-record 73 games in the regular season. Mitchell is a former coach of the year with the Toronto Raptors and spent last season as the interim coach in Minnesota after Flip Saunders died just days before the season started.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.