Kings Notes: Mike Brown, De’Aaron Fox, Harrison Barnes

Mike Brown was named NBA Coach of the Year and the Kings had a banner season. And Brown said the fans can’t be thanked enough for coming along for the ride.

“The fans were absolutely terrific. Best in the NBA,” Brown said, via Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee. “I had a lot of people come through as guests this year and they were just blown off the charts at how electric this building was.”

The Kings were making their first playoff appearance since 2006. The future is undoubtedly bright with the likes of point guard De’Aaron Fox, center Domantas Sabonis, shooting guard Kevin Huerter, rookie forward Keegan Murray and multiple others.

Now, they can use the lessons learned in losing to the defending champion Warriors in seven games, Brown suggested.

“Probably the biggest thing that will haunt me all summer is their ability to offensive rebound,’ Brown said, via Anderson. “That was a controllable that made a huge impact on the series that we didn’t control.”

• Meanwhile, Fox was even better than Brown expected, he suggested. “I thought Foxy had a chance to be great or really really good, but he surpassed that,” Brown said, via James Ham of The Kings Beat.
• Forwards Harrison Barnes and Trey Lyles will both be free agents this summer, and both have made it clear their preference is to remain in Sacramento, per Anderson.
• Brown added that this should be just the start of good things to come. “This summer is going to be huge for us. I’m proud of everybody,” he said, via Ham. “I’m proud of what we accomplished in year one. I feel like we have the group to get it done.”
• In case you missed it, Game 7 between the Kings and Warriors was the most-watched first-round game in 24 years. We have the full details here.

? Game 7 of the GSW vs. SAC series on ABC – most-watched first round game in 24 years: 9.8M viewers

? First round games across ABC, ESPN, TNT & NBA TV is the most watched in 9 years: 3.4M viewers

? Won the night across all of TV among viewers under 50 on 13 out of 14 nights pic.twitter.com/mJRAqDb35h

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 2, 2023