• The Kings’ first move post-lockout is apparently signing Chuck Hayes.  At Sactown Royalty, Tom Ziller explains why Hayes isn’t Kenny Thomas: “When Kenny Thomas arrived in 2005, he had five years and $40 million remaining on his contract, or an average salary of $8 million per season. Under the deal as reported, Hayes will have an average salary of $5 million for a shorter term. Keep in mind that the salary cap has risen. In 2005-06, K-9′s first full season in Sacramento, his $6.5 million contract represented 13 percent of the Kings’ salary cap. A $5 million year for Hayes now represents 8.6 percent. Further, K-9′s deal ran through a phase of the Kings’ history where the team needed to drop salary and rebuild. The Kings cannot really drop salary at this point, and it’s going to take a lot of bad contracts to make Hayes’ contract a killer that hurts the Kings’ ability to rebuild (again, within the next four years). If the Kings need to drop salary and rebuild within four years, something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.”

• Despite dealing him before last year’s deadline, John Reid of the New Orleans Times Picayune reports that the Hornets might be the Kings primary competitor in the Marcus Thornton sweepstakes. “‘It would not be a shock if Marcus came back here,’’ (Quincy) Pondexter, who is in his second year, said. `I know that he’s from this area and was great at times when he was here. I think it’s a great possibility that it does happen. If he wants to play for us, we’re all going to welcome him back.’”

• Who is new assistant coach Jim Todd? Reader KeenObserver shares some insight: “Jim Todd will be a great addition to the staff. Known as a relentless worker and for having great interpersonal rapport with players, his work with Josh Smith here in Atlanta 2 seasons ago had Smith on the verge of All Star status. Nice hire! I was sorry to see him go when Woodson was fired but that’s how the League works.”

• Jason Thompson was the only player to speak after yesterday’s workout session at the Kings practice facility.  News 10′s Ryan Yamamoto and Sean Cunningham captured video.  Here’s a quote: “‘We are young we know that we need to be together as much as possible to get some type of rhythm and continuity, it is a good sign that we are all here early,’ said Thompson.”

• Tyler Honeycutt has arrived in Sacramento.

• Bobby Jackson answers a fan question about the compacted-schedule during a live chat co-hosted with Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee:  ”There’s going to be ragged play in the first month of the season. But trying to cram in 66 games you’re going to get that in the beginning of the season. Back-to-backs are going to be hard because there are going to be so many and a lot of four games in five nights which is going to be tough for the young guys and the old guys because that’s a lot of basketball.”

• Former Kings assistant Mario Elie was officially introduced in the same role with the New Jersey Nets yesterday. Colin Stephenson of the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports: “‘I’m very excited to be here and just see the vision where this team is going,’ Elie said. ‘A great owner (Mikhail Prokhorov), they’re about winning. On the East coast, fans are a little rougher out here. It’s about winning. I’m going to be a part of it and me being from New York being a part of a team going to Brooklyn. I’m excited about it.’”

• Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee reports the arena in Natomas could become nameless again. “Cash-starved Power Balance expects to be sold soon, and court papers say the likely buyer doesn’t plan to maintain the marketing deal that turned the former Arco Arena into Power Balance Pavilion.”

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.

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You may be familiar with ESPN.com’s 5-on-5 roundtables, which feature opinion and analysis from ESPN writers and TrueHoop Network contributors on pressing NBA topics.  Along with other THN blogs, Cowbell Kingdom is bringing that format to a local level with the introduction of our own 3-on-3 roundtable.

The Sacramento Kings made some major changes to its coaching staff yesterday.  Kings President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie announced the hirings of both Bobby Jackson and Keith Smart to Head Coach Paul Westphal’s staff.  Jackson, a former fan favorite and 2002-03 NBA Sixth Man of the Year, had served the last two years as special assistant in the Kings front office.  Smart previously worked the prior eight seasons in Golden State, including serving as head coach last year.  Their hirings also meant the end for three of Westphal’s other assistants.  The contracts of Mario Elie, Truck Robinson and Otis Hughley were up after last season and were not renewed.

James Ham, Jonathan Santiago and special contributor Akis Yerocostas, associate editor of Sactown Royalty, share their thoughts on the Kings coaching hires and departures.

1.  Bobby Jackson: Your impressions on the hire.

James Ham:  Great hire.  The fans love him.  The players love him.  As a third assistant, Jackson will learn the ropes from two quality assistants in Jim Eyen and Keith Smart.  Jackson spent a lot of time around the Kings last season, so the transition to full-time assistant should be an easy one.

Jonathan Santiago:  I concur with James.  Not only has Jackson spent time in the Kings front office, but he’s played with some of their current players as well.  He’s the ideal bridge between the coaching staff and the roster.

Akis Yerocostas:  I love the hire of Bobby Jackson. He’s always been a leader on and off the court, and the returning players already know him and respect him.  It will be nice to see Bobby on the sidelines once again.

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Jason Jones had a nice little post on Mario Elie talking about Donte Greene’s defense on the Sac Bee Kings Blog.

Here is Elie’s quote followed by my quick thoughts:

“That’s going to be some work. This is my first real dose of Donte. He’s still a young player and that’s his thing. A lot of young players have got to understand offense is not going to get you on the court every time. Sometimes it’s doing the little things. Playing defense, making hustle plays and that’s how I got on the court. I got out there and Rudy T (former Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich) would tell me ‘Mario, go out there and shut this guy down’ and I had no problem doing that. And Donte’s got to understand sometimes it’s not going to be offense. We may need you to guard (Shawn) Marion, an athletic three. I think he has the capability of doing it. It’s just up to him, the willingness to do it.”

Alright, this seems like kind of a stretch to me when talking about the near future of Donte as a player.

From what I saw in Vegas, he does seem like a much more dedicated defender. He’s the perfect amount of size, length and athleticism to excel at the defensive end of the court if he wants to. He not only was a better shot blocker in the summer than he showed his rookie year but he was a pretty decent defensive rebounder as well.

But he still had trouble guarding guys like DaJuan Summers and Anthony Randolph when switched out on them and even Joe Alexander got him for a couple of baskets. Looking at last season’s numbers, DG had an atrocious defensive rating of 116 compared to his 84 offensive rating. Now, those numbers are definitely skewed because Greene received inconsistent minutes, played on one of the worst defensive teams this franchise has ever employed and was a rookie forward that couldn’t even legally drink for half the season.

Like anything (and this is what Elie seemed to stress the most in my opinion), defense is a choice of effort, especially with a guy like Donte. He has all of the physical tools to do whatever he wants to do on both sides of the court. Hopefully for the Kings, he makes that choice night in and night out.