Kings hold players only meeting, look to hold each other accountable

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Players only meetings are nothing new in Sacramento. They’ve happened plenty of times over the fourteen seasons I’ve covered the Kings and the results vary. There is no exact science to one of these meetings, especially for teams that are usually on the outside looking in on the postseason picture.

This one feels different. When the Kings players asked for the room late last week, pushing coaches and staff out the door, it was the first time we’ve seen this scene from a winning team. 

It’s easy to point fingers and air grievances when there is no escaping the inevitable outcome of a losing season. But for a team in the hunt for the playoffs that is still clearly missing something, this type of meeting has potential. 

“Championship level teams, it comes from within,” Mike Brown said Sunday following practice. “As a coach, you can take it so far, and you keep pushing them, but it’s kinda like your parents -- ‘hey, shut the hell up!’”

Brown has been a part of some incredible teams in the past. He won his first ring as an assistant coach on Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs staff back in 2003. He took the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2005-06 and then won three championships on Steve Kerr’s Golden State Warriors staff. According to Brown, all of those teams had a moment when the players accepted a new level of ownership of the team.

“The players took over the team and the real stuff started to evolve and happen the right way when they truly believed it and embraced it at the highest level,” Brown said. “I welcomed that meeting. Is it the turning point of the season? I don’t know, but I know this has to be their team at the end of the day for us to really obtain true heights.”

As for the meeting, Brown likely received the cliff notes version from his leadership council, or at least a brief summary of things that the players might want to see changed from the coaching level. For Brown, the fact that this type of meeting took place is a signal of a team that is starting to self regulate at a higher level. 

“I don’t even really care what they talk about, it’s just the fact that they were in the room and they opened up and talked to one another,” Brown said. “That has carried over. You want that to continue, not necessarily in meetings, but during the game and it happened during the game.”

Throughout this season, there have been moments when Brown says something that is jarring to hear from an NBA head coach. While he carefully navigated questions regarding the team’s inability to defend the 3-point line in early February, he threw some unexpected jabs and was brutally honest.

“At some point, we have to say, you know what, I’m going to do it the right way, at the highest fricken level, and if it doesn’t work, I’m going to point and say we need to change things up,” Brown said following an embarrassing 133-120 home loss to a six win Detroit Pistons teams. “There’s nothing to change up right now because we’re not doing our job.” 

It doesn’t feel as though Brown has lost the attention of his squad, and the players only meeting isn’t an indictment on him or his staff. Sometimes it takes strongly worded discussions from your peers to gain a new perspective. 

“If you’ve ever been a player of any kind of sport, you’ve been around guys that don’t talk openly when there are coaches around,” De’Aaron Fox said. “When you were a kid, when you were in high school, when you were in college…we’ve had guys that kinda don’t want to say anything when coaches are around. I think that’s what’s good about player meetings, cuz nothing has to leave the meeting.”

Fox said that you give the coaches some of the main points of the conversation, so they aren’t completely left out of the loop, but the bulk of the meeting is left there in the room. 

“At the end of the day, when you’re a team, you’re an organization, you have to have a middle ground,” Fox added. “Obviously there are some things you want to do that coach doesn't want to do or coaches want you to do this, that you don’t want to do, and you have to find that middle ground and everybody talks to each other and communicates and we go out there and make it work.”

The key to this entire puzzle is accountability, but change only happens if there is follow through. Talk is cheap. Actions speak much louder than words. 

The fact that the Kings went into Minnesota and beat a top tier Timberwolves team in overtime without Fox and with Domantas Sabonis fouling out late is a good sign, but it takes more than one game. 

“That’s something that we’ve got to keep in our minds for the rest of the season,” Ellis said. ”So we can finish out the season playing strong, like that. I think everyone will keep that in the back of their minds, just all of us going out there and trying to play for each other.”

Why Trey Lyles calling the meeting matters

According to Fox, it was veteran Trey Lyles who came up with the idea of a players only meeting. He brought the idea to Fox and the group and they were on board with the plan.

“I just think at this point in the season, we just needed to come together,“ Lyles told reporters following shootaround on Monday. “It’s been an up and down year I think, consistency-wise, so we needed to challenge one another as a team and as an individual to hold each other accountable.“

Lyles, a journeyman forward on his fifth NBA team, has been developing as a leader over the last two seasons. Quiet by nature, Lyles is known for carrying a new book under his arm every couple of weeks and he even has a book club you can join. 

In media scrums there are times when Lyles’ voice trails off so much that you can hardly make out his words. Behind the scenes, he is becoming one of those glue guys that teams need. On the court, he is the one guy who has been willing to get into a physical altercation when need be.

Lyles was clear last season when he was approaching free agency that he wanted to stay in Sacramento. He said this was the first real family he had found during his time in the league and he signed a two-year deal to continue to be part of the group.

All of this matters. When a player like Lyles steps up, it is with the purest of motivations. As a middle of the rotation player, he connects with both the starters and the group trying to earn time.

He is someone looking to keep the family vibe going, not someone with nefarious intentions. 

What now?

This is the million dollar question. The Kings sit at 34-25, the exact same record they had last season through 59 games. They are in a sprint to the finish line and they needed a boost after a lackluster stretch.

It is possible this is a galvanizing point for the team. They put their differences on the table and are looking to move forward as a cohesive unit. There is also a possibility that this was just another small chapter in an otherwise frustrating and confusing season.

Only time will tell. The grievances have been aired. The suggestion box emptied. It is now on the players to hold each other accountable in real time, on the court, where it matters.