SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Kings have made a decision regarding their head coach.

Doug Christie is finalizing a deal with the team to have the interim title removed and become the full-time head coach, a league source confirmed Tuesday. ESPN’s Shams Charania was first to report the news.

The decision comes less than a week after newly hired general manager Scott Perry said he would take time to evaluate Christie and other options for the team’s coaching position.

Christie, who played for the Kings in the early 2000s, took over after the Kings fired Mike Brown on Dec. 27. Sacramento went 27-24 with Christie the helm before finishing the regular season as the No. 9 seed and losing to No. 10 seed Dallas Mavericks during the first round of the play-in tournament at the Golden 1 Center.

“The goal here is to build a sustainable winner,” Perry said at his introductory press conference April 23. “In terms of his ability to have a presence on the court, I think he’s made a connection with players. We’ve had a few conversations up to this point. He was one of the first people I met with (April 22).

“... But that said, my phone has incessantly rang for interest in this job. So I’m going to have a few more conversations in and around about this job, and hopefully I can come to some sort of resolution within the next week or so in terms of having a decision or announcement to inform everybody.”

The Kings during Christie’s time had the NBA’s ninth-ranked offense averaging 116.8 points per 100 possessions while ranking 23rd defensively with the same 116.8 defensive rating. Sacramento backed into the play-in by losing 14 of their final 22 games after starting 19-10 when Christie first took over.

Christie’s team took many forms during his time as interim head coach. The Kings traded away star point guard De’Aaron Fox in a deal that brought back guard Zach LaVine just over a month after Christie took over. The team went 12-15 after the trade that turned over a significant portion of the roster and left the team without a true point guard. Additionally, the team lost guard Malik Monk to a season-ending calf injury April 7, days before the final play-in game.

Christie served as an assistant on the Kings staff for four-plus seasons before taking over as head coach. He worked under three different head coaches: Luke Walton, Alvin Gentry and Brown.

ESPN reported Christie will remake his coaching staff after inheriting Brown’s assistants when he took over midseason.

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