http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/35680.html
Kings Notes: Phew! Kings breathe easier
By Joe Davidson - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 1:00 am PDT Sunday, October 8, 2006
The best news of the day for the players leaning over and tugging their shorts? Two-a-days are done. History.
Kings coach Eric Musselman told his bunch if they had a spirited practice Friday night and Saturday morning, he would drop the Saturday evening portion of work. It was up to them.
The Kings responded, preferring nap time and good eats to more sprints.
Musselman said he was pleased with the first five days of training camp. But like any coach, he reminds that there is more work ahead.
"I would grade our effort in camp an A," Musselman said. "Our execution, we still need to clean some things up. For the first week, we got a lot in -- a lot of special situation stuff, some of our core philosophies.
"But we still need a lot of work on execution."
García returns, sort of -- Francisco García inadvertently was popped in the mouth in a Friday scrimmage, resulting in stitches. He missed part of Saturday's practice with a sore groin. Musselman said it was not serious and that it was the coaches who "yanked him off the floor."
Style points -- Musselman said this week he's not trying to force any particular offensive makeup on the Kings.
Quite the contrary.
"Our job is not to come in and play a certain style," he said. "Our job is to fit a style to the players we have."
And so far, he's still trying to figure everything out. Is it a half-court team? A shooting team? A running team? A bit of each? Musselman said he learned long ago not to force-feed anything.
"At Golden State (where he was the coach from 2002 to 2004), our first exhibition game we felt we had to walk the ball up the floor and play slow ball," Musselman said. "Later, we realized our players were (better suited) to run. We changed things midway through training camp."
Not kidding around -- Musselman's 10-year-old son, Michael, put on quite the dribbling and shooting exhibition after practice, with pops feeding the youngster the ball on shooting drills. Michael sprinted over to his father before the drills to chat, with the coach patting him on the head and saying, "I love those shoes, dude!"
Taylor ties -- Free-agent signee Maurice Taylor came to Sacramento last week already familiar with a few people within the organization.
Kings assistant coach Brendan O'Connor held the same position with the Knicks last season and worked with Taylor, who played for New York.
Taylor worked out with Shareef Abdur-Rahim when they were in college -- Taylor at Michigan and Abdur-Rahim at Cal. Also, Taylor and Kenny Thomas were teammates on the Houston Rockets.
"I feel like I've been around some of these guys forever," Taylor said.
About the writer: The Bee's Joe Davidson can be reached at jdavidson@sacbee.com
Kings Notes: Phew! Kings breathe easier
By Joe Davidson - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 1:00 am PDT Sunday, October 8, 2006
The best news of the day for the players leaning over and tugging their shorts? Two-a-days are done. History.
Kings coach Eric Musselman told his bunch if they had a spirited practice Friday night and Saturday morning, he would drop the Saturday evening portion of work. It was up to them.
The Kings responded, preferring nap time and good eats to more sprints.
Musselman said he was pleased with the first five days of training camp. But like any coach, he reminds that there is more work ahead.
"I would grade our effort in camp an A," Musselman said. "Our execution, we still need to clean some things up. For the first week, we got a lot in -- a lot of special situation stuff, some of our core philosophies.
"But we still need a lot of work on execution."
García returns, sort of -- Francisco García inadvertently was popped in the mouth in a Friday scrimmage, resulting in stitches. He missed part of Saturday's practice with a sore groin. Musselman said it was not serious and that it was the coaches who "yanked him off the floor."
Style points -- Musselman said this week he's not trying to force any particular offensive makeup on the Kings.
Quite the contrary.
"Our job is not to come in and play a certain style," he said. "Our job is to fit a style to the players we have."
And so far, he's still trying to figure everything out. Is it a half-court team? A shooting team? A running team? A bit of each? Musselman said he learned long ago not to force-feed anything.
"At Golden State (where he was the coach from 2002 to 2004), our first exhibition game we felt we had to walk the ball up the floor and play slow ball," Musselman said. "Later, we realized our players were (better suited) to run. We changed things midway through training camp."
Not kidding around -- Musselman's 10-year-old son, Michael, put on quite the dribbling and shooting exhibition after practice, with pops feeding the youngster the ball on shooting drills. Michael sprinted over to his father before the drills to chat, with the coach patting him on the head and saying, "I love those shoes, dude!"
Taylor ties -- Free-agent signee Maurice Taylor came to Sacramento last week already familiar with a few people within the organization.
Kings assistant coach Brendan O'Connor held the same position with the Knicks last season and worked with Taylor, who played for New York.
Taylor worked out with Shareef Abdur-Rahim when they were in college -- Taylor at Michigan and Abdur-Rahim at Cal. Also, Taylor and Kenny Thomas were teammates on the Houston Rockets.
"I feel like I've been around some of these guys forever," Taylor said.
About the writer: The Bee's Joe Davidson can be reached at jdavidson@sacbee.com
