The next coach in Sacramento needs to be a "jazz director" in the eyes of owner Vivek Ranadive.
The Sacramento Kings have begun their search for a new head coach, and owner Vivek Ranadive has some interesting criteria for who should get the job. Ranadive says the replacement for recently fired Michael Malone needs to be a "jazz director," who embraces the offensive side of the game as much as the defensive one.
Speaking with ESPN's James Ham on Wednesday morning, Ranadive said the Kings need to go "from a rules-based organization, which was important when you had chaos, to a values-based organization -- from kind of a programmatic offense to a read-and-respond, free-flowing offense."
The Kings owner then changed gears by bringing up music, which is either eccentric or silly depending on who you ask.
"I like to use a music metaphor. We had a Sousa marching band, which was needed when there was chaos," Ranadive said. "But now we need to shift to a jazz band, where people can be individually showcased and improvised. What we need is a jazz director. I think that's the kind of leadership moving forward."
The Kings fired Malone on Monday despite posting a 11-13 record with star center DeMarcus Cousins missing significant time. The move elicited shock around the league as Sacramento had been considered a pleasant surprise early this season and only struggled once Cousins was sidelined by viral meningitis.
Ranadive grew impatient with the process led by Malone, however, and hopes a new coach can get the team playing a more exciting brand of basketball. While things often aren't that simple when it comes to professional sports, Ranadive argued that complacency wasn't an option.
"The NBA has become like the high-tech business," Ranadive told Ham. "Just because you invented the iPhone doesn't mean you can rest on your laurels because somebody else is building a better iPhone. Just because you win 50 games doesn't mean you can be satisfied with the status quo.
"So we live in a time when good enough isn't, and we need to keep getting better. So while we have a good foundation, we needed to pivot. We needed to go."