Sacramento Kings Director of Player Personnel and long-time color commentator, Jerry Reynolds, gives his take on the acquisition of Chuck Hayes for Kings.com. You have to love Jerry and his straight forward approach to player analysis.
With players trickling back to Sacramento, the Kings practice facility in Natomas was a bit livelier today. Francisco Garcia, DeMarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans, Isaiah Thomas, Jason Thompson, Hassan Whiteside and J.J. Hickson all wandered onto the practice court at various times this afternoon.
Since they’re currently not obligated to, none of the players addressed media only Jason Thompson addressed media (I had to leave before he did). But the curtain was raised while a few of them organized a light scrimmage session. We have some video (without audio) of that, plus additional notes after the jump.
You’ve probably seen LeBron James (twice actually) and more recently, Chris Paul handle their business against the younger generation. Now watch as Kings center Hassan Whiteside goes to work on kids at a student rally yesterday at Jesuit High School.
Hassan looked real good. Hassan Whiteside didn’t get a chance to play last year, injury-prone. So it was good to see him out there getting dunks and doing his thing.
Photo: Jonathan Santiago/Cowbell Kingdom
The NBA shut down all basketball-related communication from league front offices during the lockout. Yesterday afternoon, Geoff Petrie broke his silence, addressing media for the first time since June. After the jump are a few bullet-point takeaways from Wednesday’s media session with the Kings President of Basketball Operations.
Chris Tomasson of Fox Sports Florida caught up this weekend with Sacramento Kings free agent center Samuel Dalembert, who is currently in his native Haiti. Not surprisingly, Dalembert spoke glowingly about the prospect of playing for the Miami Heat, a team in desperate need of a center and only a two hour flight away from Haiti. Quotes like, “That would be fantastic” and “I’m keeping all my options open, but Miami could be a good fit for me,” might sting for some Kings fans who were hoping to retain the eight year veteran, but keep in mind that anything can happen in free agency.
The Miami Heat are under the luxury tax threshold coming into free agency, but can only offer Dalembert the mid-level exemption (MLE). Under the new proposed collective bargaining settlement, the MLE for non-tax paying teams begins at $5 million a year for a maximum of four years with annual increases of 3%. That is a far cry from the unlimited five year contract with 7.5% increases the Kings could offer Dalembert, but there is no guarantee that the Kings are interested in retaining last season’s starting center.
On the first day of training camp last season, Dalembert injured his adductor which caused him to miss all of pre-season and the first game of the season. Although he got off to a slow start, Dalembert played well from mid-January on, posting 15 of his 16 double-doubles on the season after January 18th.
In his interview with Tomasson, Dalembert mentioned the possibility of playing next to Amaré Stoudemire in New York or replacing the retired Yao Ming in Houston, as well as Miami. A possible return to Sacramento was not brought up in the article, but there is no telling if that was intentional or not. Either way, Miami is a lot closer to both Haiti and Dalembert’s off-season home in Boca Raton, Florida, so don’t be surprised if the Kings have a tough time retaining him.
For those of you who missed the Goon Squad Classic out at the UC Davis Pavilion on Sunday night, here is a taste of the action.
Our recap of the evening will be up soon and we have plenty of interviews to share with you over the couple of days.
Image by Kevin Fippin
Pending Donté Greene’s signature, a charity basketball game for Sacramento is a go.
Appearing on the Carmichael Dave Show this afternoon, the Sacramento Kings forward said the Goon Squad Classic is scheduled for Sunday, November 20th at the UC Davis Pavilion, with tip-off planned for 6:30 PM PST. Tickets are expected to go on sale Thursday, November 10th.
Greene said he was waiting on the recent negotiations between both sides to finish before signing a contract with the university. But with NBA owners and players unable to reach a new collective bargaining agreement, the game is an all but certainty.
The Kings forward also added some new names to the list of participants. Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant will compete and play on Greene’s team. Former Kings guard Kevin Martin, now with the Houston Rockets, has committed to the game, too. Chandler Parsons, also with the Rockets, has confirmed to play as well. Greene said he’s still working to convince Sacramento-native Matt Barnes along with teammate-to-be Jimmer Fredette to participate.
“I did talk to his manager, his assistant,” Greene said of Fredette. “And he said that he really wants to come out and play for the fans and get a chance to hang out with some of his teammates and what not. But he has a busy schedule. He’s a busy guy, so we’re just trying to get a yes from him.”
Greene also confirmed the participation of DeMarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans, Hassan Whiteside, Darnell Jackson, Jason Thompson, Isaiah Thomas, Jonny Flynn and John Wall.
(Updated at 9:11 pm PST following latest labor news)
The Portland Trailblazers are still without a general manager after the club parted ways with Rich Cho in May. It appears they’re interested in the Kings President of Basketball Ops per ESPN’s Marc Stein (via Twitter):
The two names other execs are talking about RE: Portland search for new GM are Sacramento’s Geoff Petrie and Utah’s Kevin O’Connor. But Kings told me Blazers have NOT called for permission to talk to Petrie and Yahoo & @tribjazz say POR has not yet called to talk to O’Connor
Marc Stein
STEIN_LINE_HQ
Petrie has spent the last 18 years in Sacramento after a four-season tenure as the Blazers senior vice president of operations.
Straight from my SLAM story earlier today…new details are in bold.
Social Media played a major role to keep the Kings in Sacramento for at least one more year. And now, it’s playing a vital role to bring basketball back to California’s capital during the NBA Lockout.
Kings forward Donté Greene is organizing a charity exhibition game for the Sacramento region, thanks in large part to Twitter. A Sacramento Kings fan tweeted the idea yesterday to Greene, who took the message to heart and put the thought into action.
Speaking to KHTK Radio in Sacramento this afternoon, Greene said he’s already reached out to a number of NBA players who are interested in playing in the game dubbed the Goon Squad Classic. Greene said Kings teammates DeMarcus Cousins, Hassan Whiteside, Jason Thompson and rookie Isaiah Thomas have expressed their desire to play. The Kings forward also said that Washington Wizards point guard John Wall has interest as well.
“We’re definitely going to go out there and play,” Greene said in a phone interview on the Carmichael Dave Show. “It won’t be no nonchalant game. I’ma tell guys let’s come out and put on a show. Give the fans something to look forward to.”
New Kings big man J.J. Hickson announced on Twitter last evening that he would play, too. Greene has also extended invitations to DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers, Jonny Flynn of the Houston Rockets, Matt Barnes of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings teammates Tyreke Evans and Jimmer Fredette.
“I don’t think he wants the upper- decker so he might want to show up to the game,” Greene said jokingly of a rookie hazing ritual Fredette could face if he doesn’t play.
Planning is still in the early stages, so a venue is still up in the air. With the ongoing labor strife between players and owners, Power Balance Pavilion is off limits. Greene said the Pavilion on the campus of UC Davis, which seats 8,000 at maximum capacity, is his preferred option.
“Right now there’s nothing set in stone,” Greene said. “Everything is (a) blueprint. UC Davis isn’t even set. That’s just a site I would like to host it at. But we’re still in talks with them.”
Greene would like to host the game the weekend before Thanksgiving, just a few days before the NBA season is scheduled to start if a new labor deal is reached in time. He’s hoping to get tickets on sale by November 1st.
Charities for the game are still being determined. However, the Kings forward said he would like some of the proceeds to go towards breast cancer awareness.
“That’s my charity (because) my mom had breast cancer,” he said. “That would be one of the charities that I’m definitely going to donate to is breast cancer.”
Sponsorship for the game is also being explored. Greene sent an open invitation to local Sacramento businesses to get involved. But he also said he will reach out to Nike, which has been sponsoring many of the exhibitions that have been played during the lockout.
“Nike sponsors most of the games and of course I’ll call Nike try to get them to sponsor this game,” Greene said. “Basketball never stops – that’s the slogan.”
Today was supposed to be media day at Power Balance Pavilion. It’s kind of like the first day of school. You get to see a bunch of friends that you haven’t seen all summer, meet the new kids and take pictures. Sure, there would be a little bit of homework after, but this was supposed to be a good day, a day of new beginnings.
We were supposed to get a “state of the Kings” address from Geoff Petrie today, followed by a jam packed introduction to the 2011-12 Sacramento Kings training camp roster. Today we were supposed to meet a new free agent acquisition or two that would make the team and then another handful of NBA hopefuls with very little chance of donning the purple and black in a regular season game.
Jimmer Fredette, Tyler Honeycutt and Isaiah Thomas were supposed to begin a season of first’s – first presser wearing a Kings jersey, first meet and greet with the coaching staff, first taste of NBA life.
Today we were supposed to see if DeMarcus Cousins came to camp in the best shape of his life or if we would have to spend all camp long talking about weight or cardio issues circa Donté Greene, 2010.
What we are missing today is the opportunity to collect new content. We are missing the bold proclamations of Marcus Thornton, the chance to see Tyreke Evans healthy for the first time in a year and Coach Westphal’s calm and positive message about new beginnings.
While I should be packing up a gear bag for training camp tomorrow, I am instead waiting and watching a twitter feed for new crumbs of information telling me that the basketball hiatus is over.
Regardless of the schedule, today we missed day 1 of the 2011-12 NBA season. Boo lockout.
