Kings pushing hard to secure a deal with former Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger

The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported earlier this morning that the Memphis Grizzlies have fired Head Coach Dave Joerger, and that the Sacramento Kings are very interested.

It is unlikely that Joerger, 42, will be out of work for long. The Sacramento Kings have made him their No. 1 candidate and are planning to move quickly to secure a deal with him, league sources said. The Grizzlies sidestepped what could’ve been a lengthy negotiation with Sacramento about what would’ve turned out to be a conditional second-round pick as compensation for hiring Joerger, league sources said.

Needless to say, I think Joerger would be a great hire for the Kings. I don’t want to understate how much of a gift this is, particularly when you consider the pool of candidates they’ve been interviewing thus far.

ESPN’s Zach Lowe followed Woj’s report up by noting that there is ‘mutual interest’ between the Kings and Joerger. I would urge the Kings to close on this deal as soon as humanly possible if that ‘mutual interest’ note is correct. The Kings just lost McHale because he wasn’t interested, and a lot of the other top coaching free agents weren’t, either – this opportunity sort of dropped in the Kings’ lap, and I’d hate to see them lose out.

CBS’ Ken Berger also reported that Joerger is receiving interest from both the Pacers and Rockets, so don’t get too excited just yet.

Woj would later report that there was 'significant momentum' on Joerger-to-the-Kings, and that Sacramento has an opportunity to get a deal done, but this story is still developing, and moving very fast.