Here are some tidbits I extracted from coach Paul Westphal’s post practice media session following today’s Sacramento Kings training camp:
Day three is come back to Earth day. After the first two days of camp, fatigue usually sets in so day 3 is devoted to diagramming plays and walking through coverages.
When asked about which young player is standing out after three days of camp, Coach Paul Westphal responded, “Pooh Jeter probably. He is a stand out in every way.”
As a follow-up, Westphal was asked which players came in to camp the most ready to compete, which he responded with, “The two players who have been in the best shape and the most consistently reliable have been Jason Thompson and Pooh Jeter”.
The competition at the small forward spot appears to be down to a two man race between Donté Greene and Omri Casspi. When asked about Francisco Garcia being in the mix, as Westphal had alluded to during Monday’s media day, he said, “there will be times when we see him at the small forward position this year…..we are looking at him at both the small forward and the two guard.” From both his body language and words, I interpreted this to mean that Garcia was not really in the mix for the starter spot going forward.
When asked about Landry or Thompson playing the small forward spot, the coach was much more definitive, “probably not,” maybe in some zone sets, but he didn’t seem to think either player could consistently cover the position defensively.
On impressions of Cousins, specifically in last night’s full contact practice: “Last night he was outstanding on the offensive boards, nobody could keep him off the boards. Really quite impressive.”
Antoine Wright and Samuel Dalembert participated in the non-contact morning session, but both players are expected to miss additional time due to injury. Westphal thought that Wright was getting close, but Dalembert was still a few days away. I caught up with Antoine Wright on the elliptical:
There is no morning session tomorrow so camp update will be late in the evening. Hopefully, Antoine Wright will be able to do more than break a sweat on the cross trainer tomorrow.
The questions surrounding 2010 NBA rookie of the year Tyreke Evans usually center around two things – is he a point guard or a shooting guard, and how good can this kid be if he can develop a jump shot? Well, the Kings have made question number one completely irrelevant. Tyreke Evans is our point guard, no matter what any of you think. But what about that second question?
Many of you have seen the edited 15 second clip the Kings floated out there of Tyreke hitting 4 three pointers in a row and thought, he looks good but….4 out of how many? Let me give you something new to chew on. Not only is Tyreke working hard to improve his most glaring weakness (perimeter shooting), but coaching legend, basketball hall of famer and Kings assistant coach Pete Carril is right beside him every step of the way to provide something I like to call perspective.
In a shockingly candid interview following the Kings second day of training camp, Pete Carril lays it all out there.
“Everybody in the whole league, the country, the whole world knows that his (Evans) in-between shot is suspect”
I don’t want to go all Bill Walton and speak in superlatives here, but one of the greatest basketball coaches in the history of the sport just said what? And I was not only standing there to hear it, but brought the flip video to make sure I could rewind and replay it repeatedly to ensure that I had heard him correctly. At least someone is being honest here. Someone has some perspective. And that man is 80-year-old basketball legend, Pete Carril.
It’s day 2 of camp, practice is officially over, but Evans is not done. Neither is the man the players call Coachie.
You can see the difference in Evans’ shot, even if all four of them don’t cut through the net. Gone is the arch in his back and the constant fall away. The shot looks clean, he is squared to the hoop and coach is impressed.
“His shot, I think is 1,000 times better than it was last year.”
The Kings training camp emphasis is clear. Evans, along with coach Carril and an assistant, worked the left elbow, the right elbow and the baseline. There is no catch and shoot from behind the arc, and like coach already told us, Evans can take anyone to the rack. If Tyreke is to elevate himself to elite status, he will need to improve the mid-range game.
“You can’t always go to the basket, sometimes you just have to pull up.”
So let’s look at Tyreke’s pull up through a series of pictures.
Evans looks strong and balanced. He squares both his lower body and upper body to the basket. Tyreke still has the slight fall off in his upper body reminiscent of his rookie season, but it is much less pronounced. The rotation of his shot is tight and his follow-through is refined. It is day 2 and the improvement from last season is evident. But still, Coachie is working him hard and to his credit, Evans is all ears.
Evans wants to be great. There is no questioning that.
Coach Carril also wants Tyreke to be great. Helping Tyreke Evans achieve greatness will go down as one of many achievements of his career. A little perspective can go a long way.
I tweeted during Media Day that Hassan Whiteside has put on 25 lbs since the Summer League (according to him) and he certainly looks like it’s true. He claims he’s been eating everything that he can and lifting like crazy.
I believe him too because to see him in person the other day was pretty startling to a lot of people. Now, check out him flexing for this Kings tickets promotional spot:
Remember that complicated land swap that would have put the State Fair in the old Arco Arena, some other stuff at Cal Expo and the brand spanking new arena into a redeveloped rail yard that rivaled some serious Monopoly wheeling and dealing?
Well, the Kings apparently couldn’t pass Go and the city of Sacramento didn’t land on Free Parking so the deal is dead. Instead, the Kings are stuck without a brand new arena deal and will start exploring their options if they’re smart. That doesn’t mean the city of Sacramento is losing its team by any means. People in Anaheim, Seattle and Kansas City will assuredly tell you the Kings are moving to their respective city and that the Kings have no chance of remaining in Sacramento.
Well, those people are idiots.
It doesn’t mean they won’t be correct about those sentiments. It just means their blind luck guessing is going to possibly come to fruition through no intuition of their own.
“On the heels of the disappointing – but not surprising – action (or inaction) of the state and Cal Expo board, it is fair to say that the NBA has ceased its activities on the Sacramento arena front,” league representative John Moag said in an e-mail to The Bee. “However, we will continue to monitor and respond to the activities and options of others that might reasonably ensure the competitiveness and viability of the Kings’ franchise.”
• San Jose is out of the question because new Warriors owners Joseph Lacob and Peter Guber paid too many millions to let another team move into their TV territory.
• Anaheim is San Jose squared. Why would the Los Angeles Lakers and L.A. Clippers agree to crowd the market?
• Seattle is dragging its feet on getting a new arena, and that’s the reason the Sonics left.
• Las Vegas is still talking about an arena. It hurt its chances when it flubbed the 2007 All-Star Game. Besides, third-shift workers are not good season-ticket holders.
• Kansas City? The Kings have been there, done that. And K.C. is the 31st-ranked media market, 11 spots behind Sacramento, so it would be a stretch to think it could sustain three pro teams.
So what now if you’re a Kings fan?
Renovating the building about to be formerly known as Arco Arena is out of the question. The building has been sapped out of its energy and usefulness in the same way I get when I’m forced to enter a Sephora shop. There is no life left in the building. It’s intimate and it’s unique in the fact that NOBODY in the league would want it as their home. That’s not to say you can’t have a good time at a Kings game there. When it’s packed and the crowd has energy, it’s still one of the better experiences you can have on any given night. But the arena is so outdated that the Kings won’t be able to thrive as a franchise without a new place.
You can build around the area Arco currently resides but that still can provide limitations in getting fans out and into the action on game nights when the transportation options to games are so impacted and unreliable.
The solution is still to try to get a place into downtown Sacramento. That has to mean redeveloping the rail yards and that’s going to cost a lot of money the city and economy can’t afford to give. The Maloofs were willing to contribute a boatload of money when the land swap proposal was being bandied about because they were getting out of a big debt owed to the area AND getting a lot of future profit from parking around the new building. Will they get afforded the same financial opportunity with the new proposals? That could be the key to getting them to support a new arena deal as much as they did with the prior idea.
The good thing with this arena situation is that even though the NBA has pulled out its efforts, the proposals are still going to come in and it will be relatively soon. The local developers involved are bringing in something called VisionMaker Worldwide to bring more money and equity to get funding for the next proposal possible.
“We don’t have it all figured out, but we have enough critical elements that it’s very promising,” Taylor said.
The city and Convergence have an exclusive negotiating agreement through the end of October on the original proposal. Mayor Johnson sought to end that exclusive arrangement early, saying he felt it was no longer valid because the initially proposed plan has failed.
The council, however, voted to wait until its Oct. 26 meeting to hear what Kamilos has to report and decide then whether and how to move forward on any arena plans.
So if these developers with the exclusive deal can’t get anything of substance in the next month (even though they have “ideas”), we’re all back to the drawing board. And when we’re all back to the drawing board, some new developer can come in with their big ideas and try to get something done. While NBA-less cities will try to taunt you with our lack of an arena deal in place, opening up the floor to new developers might be the way to go to get this thing back in motion.
And who knows? Maybe a great new company like Prestige WorldWide will come in and sweep the city off its feet…
In a not so shocking turn of events, the NBA, via e-mail to the Sacramento Bee, gave Kings fans a nice kick to the teeth at a time when excitement for a new season is at its highest. The day after training camp opens, the NBA has this to say:
“On the heels of the disappointing – but not surprising – action (or inaction) of the state and Cal Expo board, it is fair to say that the NBA has ceased its activities on the Sacramento arena front,” league representative John Moag said in an e-mail to The Bee. “However, we will continue to monitor and respond to the activities and options of others that might reasonably ensure the competitiveness and viability of the Kings’ franchise.”
The blogosphere is in a preview posting frenzy right now and we have the best previews for the Pacific Division teams right here. Just point and click.
I’m already a big DMC fan. He’s a very personable and funny person when you get a chance to talk to him. But you can’t have the nickname “Boogie” if you’re going to sound like this:
You know it’s bad when you make Donté Greene leave the area. Donté is best friends with JT, which means he’s heard JT freestyle a lot. And yet, he had to leave because of DeMarcus’ vocal stylings. Let’s just hope this doesn’t impact his Rookie of the Year campaign.
S. Dalembert left adductor strain and A. Wright left quad strain….neither will participate in tonight’s practice.
The severity of Dalembert’s adductor strain(groin), which can vary greatly, will be crucial in determining how much time he will miss. Both Wright and Dalembert, new comers to the Kings, come in as veterans with established roles. These two injuries might give some much needed time to rookie Hassan Whiteside and the myriad of young wing players fighting for minutes/roster spots, at least for a couple of days.
As we find out more about the severity, I will give updates on both players status. Keep your fingers crossed Kings fans.
During his first media day blitz, Sacramento Kings rookie Hassan Whiteside was asked and answered a very personal question regarding rumors about his draft day slide.
While I was not the one who asked the question, it was clear to me that Whiteside was caught off-guard. Earlier in the day, I had the privilege to take part in a group interview session with Hassan Whiteside. I found him engaging, funny and extremely likable- more on that later.
Draft day rumors about immaturity and possible learning disabilities caused Whiteside to fall from his projected top 15 status, into the second round where the Kings were happy to grab him. If this summer was any indication of where Whiteside is heading as a pro, the Kings got the steal of the draft. The 7 foot tall, shot blocking 21-year-old spent the summer adding a noticeable 25 pounds of muscle and working out with NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwan.
