Paul Westphal Fired: Why the Sacramento Kings Made the Right move

The common rule in the NBA is that when a star player clashes with a coach that hasn't won much in the league, the player always wins.

That's even the case when a player with star potential like Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins has frequent problems with coach Paul Westphal.

The end result is that Westphal gets fired.

That's exactly what happened today when the Kings fired Westphal, according to Devin Blankenship, the Kings media relations manager who was the first to confirm the news.

Overall, it's the right move by the Kings organization.

The team finished only 51-120 under Westphal, who, before taking the Kings job, hadn't coached in the NBA for over a decade.

The Kings had to make this move; their future is too bright.

Only one of two things could have happened. Either Westphal had to go, or the Kings would have had to deal Cousins. It makes no sense to do the latter, so right or wrong in the situation, Westphal had to go.

It would be different if the Kings were performing well under his watch, but they aren't so keeping the promising young core of the team intact is the priority here.

Sacramento has enough young talent at the moment that they could still be competitive this season. Keith Smart gets the first crack, as he will coach the team tonight against Milwaukee.

As for the situation with Cousins, does he have a lot of growing up to do? Certainly, but he also has the potential to be an All-Star over and over. He's a major part of their future to go along with a young talented backcourt.

Sacramento has some of the pieces already in place to get this team back to the playoffs. It's taken years of smart drafting to get them. By no means would they jeopardize that to keep Westphal in place.

The Kings will be competitive again; now, they just need the right head coach.