With Vlade Divac out from the front office, the Sacramento Kings announced in their team release that all personnel moves will be on hold until the team hires a new general manager:

This language implicitly suggests that Luke Walton will not be fired despite a disappointing first season in Sacramento, and Sam Amick of The Athletic confirmed explicitly that Walton will be returning to the Kings next season, whenever that happens to be.

Source also tells @TheAthleticNBA that Kings coach Luke Walton is safe. While the two were on the same contractual timeline (through 2022-23), and Vlade hand-picked Luke, there won't be another domino falling here.

— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) August 14, 2020

Walton signed a four-year contract last April and still has three years left on that deal. It is likely that the Kings are merely guaranteeing Walton’s employment through next season rather than for the life of his contract. It is also possible that the new GM will have latitude to decide Walton’s fate once that person is hired, though James Ham of NBC Sports reports that the Kings are committed to Walton no matter what.

I have now confirmed through a league source that Luke Walton will coach the Sacramento Kings next season. He is safe for now.

— James Ham (@James_HamNBCS) August 14, 2020

It is worth noting that even if the Kings are assuring Walton’s job security, things change fast in the NBA. When Arturas Karnisovas was hired as the VP of basketball operations for the Chicago Bulls season, he indicated that then-head coach Jim Boylen was safe. This morning, Boylen was fired.

Even if Walton sticks around, the Kings will have to fill an important role on the bench now that lead assistant Igor Kokoskov has left the NBA to coach Fenerbahce in Turkey.

With so much money left on Walton’s contract, the organization would have to be confident that a new coach would be an upgrade. That seems like a fairly easy task to accomplish, but nothing is ever quite so simple with the Sacramento Kings.