From the Kings:

The Sacramento Kings’ Head Coach Paul Westphal today announced an addition to his coaching staff, reaching an agreement with Otis Hughley to join the team as an assistant coach.

“Otis has a wealth of experience working with young players and is ready to jump to the NBA,” said Westphal. “We’re very excited to add him to our staff to replace Bryan Gates.”

“It’s an exciting time,” Hughley said. “I’m looking forward to being with an organization that’s proven and that’s exhibited class. I’m really looking forward to working with Coach Westphal and his staff.”

Hughley had coached at LeFlore High School in Mobile, Ala. for seven years (2004-2010), guiding the Rattlers to six straight regional appearances and a 6A state title in 2007. While at LeFlore, he coached current Kings center Demarcus Cousins. Before coaching at LeFlore, Hughley was an assistant coach at several universities, including Wright State, Liberty, and Southern. Hughley’s experience also includes coaching for the league’s NBA China program and working over 10 years at Pete Newell’s “Big Man Camp.”

Nice video with a look into DMC and a typical day he had during the Vegas Summer League. He’s suffering from a busted lip (he busted his lip a few times during that week) so some of the talking seems very forced, strained and limited. But overall, it’s a fun look to see Daniel Shapiro controlling his diet and working on his conditioning.

Today might end up being Pooh Jeter Day if people keep writing about him.

Sebastian Pruiti (who is in the process of taking a stranglehold over NBA blogging) from Nets Are Scorching and NBA Playbook has been breaking down the games of guys with international pedigrees who are on their way over to the NBA this summer. He did one for today on Pooh Jeter and what he does well and doesn’t do well on the basketball court.

Check out the the post here. It’s a great breakdown and if you’re not reading NBA Playbook on a regular basis then you need to slap yourself for doing this internet thing wrong.

It’s amazing to me that Pooh Jeter has been around for so long but he’s never played a NBA minute. He’s been in the D-League or off in Europe proving himself to international scouts who probably came to see somebody else play.

Well our good friend Alex Kramers from When Kingdom Come decided to take a look back at the history of undrafted rookies who have played for the Kings.

I want to be excited about the Sacramento Kings signing undrafted rookie free agent Eugene “Pooh” Jeter to a guaranteed contract.  The speedy 5’9″ point guard averaged 14.4 points (48% FG, 80% FT) and 5.4 assists on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2010 Summer League team after honing his skills in the NBA Development League and everywhere else, from Ukraine to Jerusalem over the last four seasons.  A solid playmaker and an improved outside shooter (40% 3PT last year), Jeter, who actually began his professional career on the the Kings’ Summer League squad in 2006, drilled a game-winning three-pointer in the closing seconds against the Chicago Bulls on July 16 to cap off a fantastic 20-point, seven-assist outing.

But the Kings, like most teams, have been down this road many times before.  An NBA training camp invite, even one with a partially or fully guaranteed deal, doesn’t always lead to a regular season nod for a fringe player, with names such as Nik Caner-Medley, Rashid Byrd, Lanny Smith, Chen Hsin-An, and Zhang Kai, among others, appearing on Sacramento’s preseason rosters.  The Kings haven’t had much luck with signing undrafted free agents either, rarely striking gold while declining to keep several solid role players.  Here’s a look back at recent notable rookie signees, none of whom, of course, hold a candle to the legendary Michael “Yogi” Stewart, the one-time team ball boy who ranked seventh in the league in blocks (2.4 per game) and was named to the All-Star Weekend Rookie Game in 1997-98.

Alex does great work here as always. Check out the rest of the piece here.

After standing pat for three weeks and watching rival NBA GMs battle for the right to overpay free agents of various pedigree, Geoff Petrie has finally addressed the King’s glaring lack of backcourt depth in the form of Antoine Wright and Pooh Jeter. Lets take a look at what the two might bring to the table.

At 26 years old and 5 years into his NBA career, Antoine Wright is what he is at this point – a good to great defender that will give you little, if anything, on the offensive end. Tom Ziller had a fantastic breakdown of Wright’s defensive abilities at Sactown Royalty, which requires no elaboration on my part. He should compete with Donte Greene for the title of  the Kings’ go-to wing defender.

On offense, though, things start to get ugly. Wright has posted a PER of 8.63 for two consecutive seasons, after posting 0.70, 8.18 and 8.46, respectively, in his first three years. Say what you want about PER – it certainly has it’s faults – but a player who consistently posts a mark in the eights probably isn’t the answer to anyone’s hopes and prayers. The same goes with Wright’s true shooting percentage (hovering around 50 for 4 straight seasons).

The Kings’ main needs from a guard were ball handling and long range shooting. Wright gives neither. He has posted 1 assist and 0.8 turnovers per game throughout his career, and is a 30% career three point shooter, although he bumped that up to 33.5% last season. He gets a little better shooting long twos – he made 43% of his shots from 16 to 23 feet last year, after making 48% in 08-09. He also struggles at the line, shooting 67% for his career and 68% last season on only 1.2 attempts per game.

All in all, Wright should be considered a temporary stopgap, and the one year deal he signed should tell as much. He’ll give the Kings some hard nosed defense from the 2 and the 3, and will hopefully hit some outside shots with Tyreke and Run DMC setting him up. However, he should not be part of the rotation as far as long term plans go. The solid defense just isn’t enough to justify it, especially since Donte Greene has shown the potential to be a better defender with an actual offensive game. To be completely honest, I would have rather this roster spot go for a D-Leaguer or a summer league guy who might have some untapped potential, as opposed to Wright, who is extremely unlikely to show up at training camp boasting some new and extraordinary skill.

Moving on to Jeter, I must warn you that I am very nearly incapable of being objective regarding this guy. Not only is he nicknamed Pooh – and it’s not like Derrick Rose, who says it’s his nickname but never really uses it, this guy actually goes by the name Pooh – but he spent most of the 09-10 season with my beloved Hapoel Jerusalem, and was one of my favorite players to watch. Having said that, I think this is an absolute steal.

Generously listed at 5’11”, Jeter is a scoring point guard. His release is lighting quick, which makes him a very good shooter off the pick and roll, not unlike current King Beno Udrih. He also has virtually unlimited range. As someone who has spent the past season watching him play live, I can attest that I have never seen him take a shot that I didn’t think was going in. Of course, some of them don’t – 60% of them, last season – but this shows you that he has unlimited confidence in his game. Don’t let the 25% he shot from three in summer league fool you – the man can light it up.

Need proof? Jeter was responsible for one of the greatest performances in Israeli basketball. On March 27^th, against Hapoel Afula, he went off for 39 points (remember, in a 40 minute game), while shooting – get a load of this – 13 for 14 from the field, including 9 of 10 (!!!!) from three. Yup. I know. If that’s not enough for you, one of those threes was a game winner, as Jerusalem won 102-99. Jeter has shown his clutch ability in summer league as well, hitting a game winner for the Cavs against the Bulls (go here for a breakdown of the play by the fantastic Sebastian Pruiti).

Despite being primarily a scorer, Jeter is still a very capable ball handler. His assist numbers with Hapoel won’t knock your socks off – 2.6 per game in European play, 1.6 in the Israeli league – but trust me when I tell you that hardly tells the full story. European play rarely has bloated assist numbers (even Ricky Rubio had just over 5 per game in Euroleague play), probably due to stricter scorekeepers and less minutes as much as style of play. Jeter consistently gave Hapoel a calm ball handler, and set up the offense better than anyone else on the team. He showed as much at summer league as well, averaging 5.4 assists per game.

On the downside, Jeter’s confidence can lead to him becoming a bit trigger happy, and is a major flaw in his ball handling resume. Jeter did a good job controlling this at summer league, but at Hapoel, he had a tendency to take multiple bad PUJITs and heat checks. And when those didn’t go in, he hurt his team not just by the wasted possessions. As his shot goes, so does his game, and though he is calm and collected, shooting slumps can throw him off his game both as a shooter and a ball handler. This could be something to look out for – in an 82 game season, Jeter will have bad shooting nights, and will need to find other ways to contribute. If he keeps the contested pull ups to a minimum, he should be a very solid option at the point.

Defensively, Jeter’s size is obviously a major concern. While he was one of Hapoel’s better perimeter defenders – he’s lightning quick and stronger than he appears – the NBA has so much more size than anything Hapoel played against that it’s hard to take too much from it. He works his tail off all night long, which earns him a couple of deflections a night, and helps him collect more rebounds than you would expect from a man his size. But all the hard work in the world can’t compensate for the size advantage that almost every guard in the league should enjoy over him. I’m hoping that he shows the same defensive ability he did at Hapoel, but I may be too optimistic. It’s highly unlikely that he will be able to do anything against Chauncey Billups or Deron Williams type guards in the post, so he will probably be best defensively against quicker guys, and not back-to-the-basket beasts.

I realize that it’s kind of absurd that I’ve come off as more optimistic about the summer league addition than the 5 year NBA veteran. However, I truly believe that Pooh is an NBA level player. Yes, I’ve seen Pooh against much inferior competition, and the one skill he lacks the most (size) is probably the one most important to an NBA player. But he is such an athletic freak (it runs in the family – sister Carmelita holds the second best time ever in the women’s 100 meter dash) and has so much skill that I don’t see why it can’t translate. Even if it doesn’t, I love this move by Petrie. There is absolutely no risk involved. If Pooh shows that NBA level competition is too much for him, than he’s still just a third string point guard. If, however, he shows the same explosiveness he has shown in front of me in Israel, the Kings have acquired a legit NBA talent for nothing at all.

That would be my bet.

Looks like an ankle injury suffered this past week will keep Tyreke Evans off the Team USA roster. NBA FanHouse is reporting:

The Sacramento guard, who suffered a sprained left ankle in Tuesday’s first practice of training camp that wiped him out for the week, is resigned to the fact he won’t be invited back for the Aug. 10-16 training camp in New York and for the World Championship, Aug. 28-Sept. 12 in Turkey.

It’s probably for the best. As cool as it would be to see Tyreke on Team USA at such a young age, keeping him nice and healthy is the way to go.

Maybe next time…

From the Kings Media Release:

SACRAMENTO, CA —- The Sacramento Kings today signed free agents Antoine Wright and Pooh Jeter to contracts, according to Kings’ Vice President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Wayne Cooper. Per team policy, terms of the contracts were not disclosed.

“Antoine Wright and Pooh Jeter are two solid players at their respective positions who will add to our roster’s depth,” said Cooper. “Wright has five years of NBA experience under his belt and Jeter is coming off of a great summer league showing as he played for Cleveland’s team in Las Vegas.”

Sebastian Pruiti, otherwise known as the guy taking over basketball blogging, put together a great piece on DeMarcus Cousins and the passing ability he’s shown early on in the Summer League.

One thing that a rookie big struggles to pick up when they come from college to the pros is passing.  This is because the ways that teams send doubles are different and more complicated, there is more ball pressure, and the defenders are bigger/quicker.  However, DeMarcus Cousins looks very comfortable identifying defenses and making the correct pass in the half court.  Cousins was only credited with one assist during his debut, but he showed the type of instincts you don’t usually see as a rookie, let alone a 19 year old rookie:

Check it out here.

“Beat L.A Beat L.A!”

That chant came from Clipper Darrell when he was watching the Kings turn an early 0-9 deficit into a glorious victory over the Lakers.

And while the rivalry wasn’t exactly renewed with Tuesday’s action, it was fun to watch the way the Kings’ meaningless victory happened.

Before we get into how the players played, check out my contribution to the Daily Dime on ESPN.com. Wrote about Devan Downey and how he changed the game for the Kings:

Downey’s biggest downside — his size (5-foot-9) — is also probably what allows him to be so effective in a setting like this. There’s no true zone defense to prevent him from driving to the basket. Teams can pack it in against him, but they still have to abide by man-to-man principles for the most part. Downey capitalizes by finding holes in the defense that only quick, small point guards can get into. And when he gets deep into the defense, he makes things happen for his team.

“Once you get in that paint, it’s going to suck everybody in,” Kings summer league coach Mario Elie said.” And it’s going to enable our players to get open looks.”

Click the link to check out the entire section.

- Devan Downey: Let’s talk about Devan Downey first and foremost. The Lakers were doubling Cousins instantly on the touch in the post and rotated very well to take away any flow of offense the Kings could muster. When Downey came into the game, he found ways to make things happen. The Lakers couldn’t stop him from getting into the lane. He’s simply too quick and he is able to use his size to get into places most bigger guards can’t. Downey’s vision and patience with the ball is pretty incredible too. He rarely rushed anything on offense and seemed to make the correct play every time.

Downey has a place in this league and games like this will get the narrow view of what a point guard looks like to go away. Downey is probably going to be the smallest guy on the court every game. It’s rare that he’ll have a size advantage or simply not be at a size disadvantage. But cases like him always make me thing of Earl Boykins and something he said. A reporter once asked him to describe how he’s able to be so effective despite his size. Boykins replied that he’s always been the smallest guy so it’s not an adjustment to him when he plays.

With Downey he’s not at a disadvantage because he knows how to play as the smaller guy. He can get his shot off amongst the trees because he sees the floor so well. When he gets in the paint, he sees the play developing and already knows how it will finish. On defense, being so low to the ground allows him to guard against the dribble better than anybody. He can be a smaller Lindsey Hunter or a slightly smaller Ty Lawson. There is a place for a guy like Downey who just knows how to play. I’d be shocked if he’s not on a NBA roster this season.

- DeMarcus Cousins: I got giddy pretty quick over Tyreke Evans last year because you could just tell he was better than everybody on the court. He was bigger, stronger and quick enough to get wherever he wanted on the floor. With DeMarcus Cousins, it’s the same thing all over again. He’s the best player on the floor. He’s so good and so feared that he’s being doubled immediately when he touches the ball in the post. In Summer League! This guy has every tool to be one of the best big men in the NBA. There’s no way the Kings can’t or shouldn’t start him at the center position on opening night.

Cousins posted a 19 and 12 double-double while showing skills all over the court with his passing, defensive positioning and shot blocking. He struggled from the floor with an 8/20 shooting performance. He battled Derrick Caracter early and actually was pretty frustrated with the way he played. Caracter’s defense was nice but Cousins still got a lot of shots he wanted. They just didn’t fall. Defensively, I think it’s clear that he can’t guard guys that stretch the floor. Caracter was able to get out to 20-feet and knock down the jumper and DMC looked uncomfortable out there.

Overall, DeMarcus is just better than every big man here. He’s one of those players that you can just tell is going to be a huge problem for his opponents.

- Donté Greene: Donté was nails out there against Gerald Green and the other wing players. He knocked down a couple of threes on the left side of the floor and perfectly stretched the defense off of guard penetration. The best part of his role here in Summer League though is being a coach on the court. Donté’s basketball IQ is on display here and it’s really high. He knows the right places to rotate and relays the info pretty quickly to his younger teammates. I’m not sure how much of his game here is being worked on but his leadership is definitely getting some reps.

- Hassan Whiteside: Whiteside’s defense looked a lot more controlled to me in this game. He only ended up with two blocked shots but he wasn’t flying all over the place and getting himself out of position. Offensively, it’s pretty awkward. He needs a lot of work on just getting the ball up to a shooting position efficiently. Once he gets to the shooting position, his touch and spatial awareness are really poor. Offensively, he’s strictly an alley-oop or tip dunk kind of weapon. But as long as he’s protecting the basket and rebounding, it doesn’t matter.

- Omri Casspi: Omri struggled quite a bit out there. He faded unnecessarily on a couple shots and his free throw shooting was horrendous at 1/6. I’ve always thought the free throw shooting form would be fine but he really doesn’t look comfortable or confident shooting them. Good thing it’s just summer league.

- Donald Sloan: Donald Sloan is not blowing me away with the way he is playing. He’s struggling to get the offense going, his defense is just okay and he’s not a threat to really get his own basket. I don’t think he’s a player that has no place in this league because he’s clearly managing the game and trying not to commit a bunch of turnovers. But I’d like to see him turn it loose a bit. Devan Downey did more yesterday than Sloan’s done in two games.

- Sylven Landesberg: This guy knows how to score the basketball. Aside from getting to the lane really easily, his defense was also on display. He’s not a lockdown guy by any means but there aren’t a lot of weaknesses in his game. At least, he hasn’t shown any yet.

- Wayne Chism: Chism doesn’t make sense on the Kings roster because they’re so deep in the frontcourt but he’s showing a real ability to score the ball. He’s very quick and decisive when he has the ball and that’s what you need in a forward off the bench.

Extra Notes
- There was a play in the second half in which the Kings had a side-out-of-bounds inbound pass to Downey who went backcourt to take it. Unfortunately, that’s against the rules and he was called for the backcourt violation. Mario Elie screamed at him that this wasn’t college anymore and he couldn’t do that. Downey turned to John Wall who was sitting courtside and said he didn’t know it was against the rules. Rookies…

- The Maloofs were courtside for the game and in the area they were all very impressed by the newfound size and length of their young frontcourt players. At one point, someone in the area exclaimed, “Look how we play with those trees in there. This is a lot different than when Kenny Thomas was with us.” Poor K9.

- Expect Dionte Christmas to get some big run in today’s game. Sounds like it’s his time.