On Tuesday morning at the team’s Experience Center on the corner of 7th and J Street in downtown Sacramento, Dave Joerger was introduced as the team's newest head coach by Kings VP of Basketball Operations and GM Vlade Divac. “It was not a long process for us, it was a bang-bang deal,” joked Joerger, who added that both sides came to a quick decision because of the “great fit professionally and personally.”
Growing up in a town of just under 3,000 people, the Staples, Minn. native is accustomed to smaller markets with passionate fanbases – spending the first seven years of his professional career coaching teams in North Dakota and South Dakota within the International Basketball Association, Continental Basketball Association and NBA D-League. It’s the fond remembrance of those times that drew Joerger to the vacancy in Sactown, “that is what we’re looking at here, it’s a very passionate [fanbase] and I’ve seen it from the outside.”
Meanwhile, Joerger’s own passion for coaching and the game of basketball stemmed from following the career of another notable Minnesota coach, the late Flip Saunders. Joerger cited Saunders as an influential part of his desire to coach, as Saunders similarly moved up the ranks from the minor leagues to the NBA. In seven years in the CBA, Saunders recorded seven consecutive seasons of 30 or more victories, two titles and two CBA Coach of the Year honors, while Joerger tallied three championships and two Coach of the Year honors in the same league.
"Coming from the minor leagues, you wanted to be like those guys. I always wanted to be like Flip Saunders. He gets credit for building great offensive schemes, but really, he was just a great basketball coach and mind.”
At the age of 23, Joerger’s journey into coaching began as an assistant with the Dakota Wizards. The role proved to be immensely helpful for for the young coach, as he learned directly from Duane Ticknor – another influential figure in his coaching journey. Ticknor was involved in minor league coaching between the IBA and CBA from 1989-2013 and joined Joeger’s staff as an assistant in Memphis once the Land of 10,000 Lakes native was appointed head coach.
“I was his assistant in Bismarck my third year out of college,” noted Joerger. "He showed me what it is to be a professional. He’d say ‘This is how you do it, this is how you treat players, this is what you expect, this is what you demand and this is what you do not allow.’ I used that as my blueprint.”
The blueprint succeeded, as Joerger netted five championships across three separate minor leagues (CBA, IBA and NBA D-League). Despite his successes, Joerger states his biggest learnings have always come from losses rather than victories.
“I made a lot of mistakes and I still make mistakes but you learn from them. When chances come around again, you use what you learned."
As one of the youngest coaches in the Association, Joerger has studied the habits and tendencies of some the League’s greats in addition to Saunders, including Gregg Popovich, Rick Carlisle and Phil Jackson. “You try to do what they did and then see if you can take it a little bit further. Popovich and Rick Carlisle also let me be around practices and training camps and let me pick their brain. I’m very lucky to have watched those guys work.”
In his time as a head coach, improving has clearly been a specialty of Joerger’s. The Grizzlies ranked among the NBA’s best in defensive efficiency year after year while closing games at a high level, both being categories that the newly appointed Kings coach prides himself on.
“Something that’s a big deal to me is winning close games."
"If you can sit down in the huddle in the last two minutes and win close games, that’s when your team can really come together.”
In three seasons under Joerger, the Grizzlies won 65 percent of their games decided by five points or less, ranking among the top six in the League in each season since 2013. Additionally, Joerger-led Grizzlies squads continually held their own on the defensive side of the floor, allowing among the fewest points per contest in the Association each season.
“Trust is built at the defensive end of the floor and chemistry is built at the defensive end of the floor. We’ll build our team through that end,” emphasized Joerger.
With a full offseason and the 2016 NBA Draft upcoming, Joerger now turns his attention to the 2016-17 season and beyond, where the team will continue to lay the foundation for the team’s New Era of Proud.
“We’re always going to have our arms around each other and it’s going to be fun. The best days are ahead. I’m looking forward to it.”
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