http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/13665489p-14508283c.htmlA new NBA season: Kings' experiment begins
A host of newcomers has to blend with a good core
By Sam Amick
Geoff Petrie leaned against the wall with a stoic gaze Monday, assuming his favorite pensive position while the circus of Kings media day went on mostly without him.
He watched the event from afar. It must have looked like so many before it.
At least something looked familiar.
Training camp starts today with plenty of promise and not an ounce of proof for the Kings. Their practice facility could be dubbed Assimilation Station for the next month, the lab where the experiment of so many offseason moves and, as assistant Elston Turner called it, the "overhaul" will get under way.
New additions Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Bonzi Wells looked fit in their Kings uniforms, but how they fit in with returning starters Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic and Brad Miller is another matter. Which assumes that Abdur-Rahim will start over returning starter Kenny Thomas, a notion coach Rick Adelman deemed presumptuous right from the start.
Known commodities have been replaced by players like draft pick Francisco García and new point guard Jason Hart, who boast potential but are unproven. García's role could be backing up Stojakovic, or it could be Corliss Williamson. Or maybe Wells plays occasionally at that spot, which may be a stretch, except that almost everything's possible right about now. Such is Kings life when the team that looks so good on paper has yet to hit the court. Until today.
"We had a group together for four or five years, and there was a consistency in play," said Petrie, the Kings' president of basketball operations. "We had a greater sense of how they were going to play together. This is much more trying to see how it all fits together, how much trial and error there's going to be in terms of what you think you have and what you really have."
Turner said camp will be new in every way, a lot less cruise control and far more pit stops in practice every time there's a lesson to be learned.
Adelman called it a "new challenge," different in the sense that there are decisions to be made from the starters to the 13th man. Starting with the home opener against Dallas on Oct. 11, Adelman will take longer looks at every individual and how they fit in with the regulars, meaning starters will play more preseason minutes than usual out of sheer necessity.
Six cuts will also be made sometime in between, as 19 players arrived and the plan is to keep 13.
"It's sad that we lost all those guys, but it's a new challenge as a coaching staff to try and get these guys to come together," Adelman said. "I have to find out about the team, and guys are going to play longer in the preseason than they're used to in the past. You want to see guys play, and you want to find out about people."
Adelman expects Bibby, Stojakovic and Miller to help with the process. He wants them to help tutor the new players on the system, and to "get out of their comfort zone and try to do more on the court."
Bibby is willing.
"When we get on a comfortable level with each other, that'll tie into playing together, to our chemistry," Bibby said. "It ain't hard. Just share the ball, and you'll get it back."
Four years after parting ways as Bibby's teammate in Vancouver, Abdur-Rahim is already in sync with his point guard.
"We have to use training camp for what it's for, to quickly get acclimated with each other," said Abdur-Rahim, who came to the Kings as a free agent from Portland in August. "For myself, I think I'm an unselfish player and most of these guys that are here are unselfish, so that'll make it easier. I don't think it'll be hard."
Then again, seven straight playoff berths and five 50-win seasons didn't come easy.
"This group has to accept and embrace that we have a winning tradition here," Adelman said. "We have set a standard, and people aren't going to accept less. They have to rise to the occasion so we can have a good season. "That's our challenge to these guys."
A host of newcomers has to blend with a good core
By Sam Amick
Geoff Petrie leaned against the wall with a stoic gaze Monday, assuming his favorite pensive position while the circus of Kings media day went on mostly without him.
He watched the event from afar. It must have looked like so many before it.
At least something looked familiar.
Training camp starts today with plenty of promise and not an ounce of proof for the Kings. Their practice facility could be dubbed Assimilation Station for the next month, the lab where the experiment of so many offseason moves and, as assistant Elston Turner called it, the "overhaul" will get under way.
New additions Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Bonzi Wells looked fit in their Kings uniforms, but how they fit in with returning starters Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic and Brad Miller is another matter. Which assumes that Abdur-Rahim will start over returning starter Kenny Thomas, a notion coach Rick Adelman deemed presumptuous right from the start.
Known commodities have been replaced by players like draft pick Francisco García and new point guard Jason Hart, who boast potential but are unproven. García's role could be backing up Stojakovic, or it could be Corliss Williamson. Or maybe Wells plays occasionally at that spot, which may be a stretch, except that almost everything's possible right about now. Such is Kings life when the team that looks so good on paper has yet to hit the court. Until today.
"We had a group together for four or five years, and there was a consistency in play," said Petrie, the Kings' president of basketball operations. "We had a greater sense of how they were going to play together. This is much more trying to see how it all fits together, how much trial and error there's going to be in terms of what you think you have and what you really have."
Turner said camp will be new in every way, a lot less cruise control and far more pit stops in practice every time there's a lesson to be learned.
Adelman called it a "new challenge," different in the sense that there are decisions to be made from the starters to the 13th man. Starting with the home opener against Dallas on Oct. 11, Adelman will take longer looks at every individual and how they fit in with the regulars, meaning starters will play more preseason minutes than usual out of sheer necessity.
Six cuts will also be made sometime in between, as 19 players arrived and the plan is to keep 13.
"It's sad that we lost all those guys, but it's a new challenge as a coaching staff to try and get these guys to come together," Adelman said. "I have to find out about the team, and guys are going to play longer in the preseason than they're used to in the past. You want to see guys play, and you want to find out about people."
Adelman expects Bibby, Stojakovic and Miller to help with the process. He wants them to help tutor the new players on the system, and to "get out of their comfort zone and try to do more on the court."
Bibby is willing.
"When we get on a comfortable level with each other, that'll tie into playing together, to our chemistry," Bibby said. "It ain't hard. Just share the ball, and you'll get it back."
Four years after parting ways as Bibby's teammate in Vancouver, Abdur-Rahim is already in sync with his point guard.
"We have to use training camp for what it's for, to quickly get acclimated with each other," said Abdur-Rahim, who came to the Kings as a free agent from Portland in August. "For myself, I think I'm an unselfish player and most of these guys that are here are unselfish, so that'll make it easier. I don't think it'll be hard."
Then again, seven straight playoff berths and five 50-win seasons didn't come easy.
"This group has to accept and embrace that we have a winning tradition here," Adelman said. "We have set a standard, and people aren't going to accept less. They have to rise to the occasion so we can have a good season. "That's our challenge to these guys."
