Head Coach Eric Musselman:
On waiving Justin Williams and Louis Amundson:Musselman: “Today was a very difficult day for Geoff, me, and a lot of the players. Both Justin and Louis were well liked by their teammates, Geoff, Coop, me, and our entire coaching staff. We’ll monitor those guys whether they play in the minor league system or overseas. They are young players that everyone in our organization can be in the NBA at some point in their careers.”
Why did you waive them?:Musselman: “We have a lot of veterans on our roster that will play ahead of those guys. Corliss has done a real good job throughout training camp and he’s ahead of those guys. You get to the decision if a guy is going to be on the inactive list, what is best for the team and what is best for the individual.”
“I can only speak from my personal experience and I think a lot of the players in our league end up on the inactive list for an entire year. Practice become limited over the course of an eighty-two game season and sometimes players improvement gets stunted, having spent eight years in the minor leagues, I think there is nothing better than a guy being able to play substantial minutes in a professional NBA type of situation with good coaching and with NBA rules. I think that is the way for those two guys to get back to the NBA level quickly.”
Kevin Martin’s status:Musselman: “Kevin is questionable now because he hurt his toe on the back of Shareef’s heel on the only live segment we did today.”
Point guard situation:Musselman: “We’re going to go back to Ron (Price) he shot six of seven and played a good floor game. The position will be played by committee between Price, Salmons, and Hart hopefully we can get it done.”
On John Salmons versatility:Musselman: “I have a huge comfort level with John Salmons coming off the bench because he can play three play positions. It’s nice being able to look down at the bench and if somebody gets in foul trouble I can put Salmons at the one, two, or three.”
Who is going to take crunch time shots with Mike Bibby out?Musselman: “We don’t even know who is going to be in the game, let alone a clutch shot. Our clutch shots we are going to look to our veteran guys, like Ron Artest and Brad Miller and Shareef.”
Ronnie Price:
Price: “I’ve played point all my life, (except) maybe two years in college. It’s the position that I really know.”
How do you feel about assuming the point position for Bibby?Price: “It’s unfortunate that Mike is hurt. It just so happens that I’m the guy that coach needs right now to take his place to lead the team and get us in our sets and to be productive on the court. I accept that roll and I am going to try and do it to the best of my ability.”
Scoring comes naturally to you, how do you feel you are coming at distributing the ball?Price: “It’s going well. We have a lot of different sets where a lot of different guys besides the point guard can make plays for others. I’m not the primary guy on the court that is forced to make plays for others. It’s just my job to get us in the right spots and if the time comes that I need to get somebody a shot then I have to do that.”
Ron Artest:
Are you looking forward to getting preseason over with?Artest: “No, I’m looking forward to getting one more game in. We have a couple things to work on.”
http://www.nba.com/kings/features/2006_Training_Camp_Quotes.html
On waiving Justin Williams and Louis Amundson:Musselman: “Today was a very difficult day for Geoff, me, and a lot of the players. Both Justin and Louis were well liked by their teammates, Geoff, Coop, me, and our entire coaching staff. We’ll monitor those guys whether they play in the minor league system or overseas. They are young players that everyone in our organization can be in the NBA at some point in their careers.”
Why did you waive them?:Musselman: “We have a lot of veterans on our roster that will play ahead of those guys. Corliss has done a real good job throughout training camp and he’s ahead of those guys. You get to the decision if a guy is going to be on the inactive list, what is best for the team and what is best for the individual.”
“I can only speak from my personal experience and I think a lot of the players in our league end up on the inactive list for an entire year. Practice become limited over the course of an eighty-two game season and sometimes players improvement gets stunted, having spent eight years in the minor leagues, I think there is nothing better than a guy being able to play substantial minutes in a professional NBA type of situation with good coaching and with NBA rules. I think that is the way for those two guys to get back to the NBA level quickly.”
Kevin Martin’s status:Musselman: “Kevin is questionable now because he hurt his toe on the back of Shareef’s heel on the only live segment we did today.”
Point guard situation:Musselman: “We’re going to go back to Ron (Price) he shot six of seven and played a good floor game. The position will be played by committee between Price, Salmons, and Hart hopefully we can get it done.”
On John Salmons versatility:Musselman: “I have a huge comfort level with John Salmons coming off the bench because he can play three play positions. It’s nice being able to look down at the bench and if somebody gets in foul trouble I can put Salmons at the one, two, or three.”
Who is going to take crunch time shots with Mike Bibby out?Musselman: “We don’t even know who is going to be in the game, let alone a clutch shot. Our clutch shots we are going to look to our veteran guys, like Ron Artest and Brad Miller and Shareef.”
Ronnie Price:
Price: “I’ve played point all my life, (except) maybe two years in college. It’s the position that I really know.”
How do you feel about assuming the point position for Bibby?Price: “It’s unfortunate that Mike is hurt. It just so happens that I’m the guy that coach needs right now to take his place to lead the team and get us in our sets and to be productive on the court. I accept that roll and I am going to try and do it to the best of my ability.”
Scoring comes naturally to you, how do you feel you are coming at distributing the ball?Price: “It’s going well. We have a lot of different sets where a lot of different guys besides the point guard can make plays for others. I’m not the primary guy on the court that is forced to make plays for others. It’s just my job to get us in the right spots and if the time comes that I need to get somebody a shot then I have to do that.”
Ron Artest:
Are you looking forward to getting preseason over with?Artest: “No, I’m looking forward to getting one more game in. We have a couple things to work on.”
http://www.nba.com/kings/features/2006_Training_Camp_Quotes.html
