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http://www.sacbee.com/351/story/41431.html
Taylor is in center of it all
By Scott Howard-Cooper - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, October 18, 2006
LAS VEGAS-So maybe what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas.
The Kings got a new backup center during their visit, playing Maurice Taylor there at 6-foot-9 and playing him early enough and often enough to signal the transition with everything except flashing neon. He's in and Vitaly Potapenko and camp hopeful Loren Woods are, well, somewhere else.
Taylor at center is not breaking news -- he estimates he had that job half the time he played for New York last season -- and it's entirely realistic in the smallish Western Conference, as opposed to the Knicks just trying to use anyone with a pulse during their implosion. But significance still came Tuesday night as part of the ragged 96-91 exhibition victory over the Los Angeles Lakers before an announced crowd of 12,587 at the Thomas & Mack Center, where Taylor played for the first time as a King and played a lot.
"I got a lot of action, and I felt fine, surprisingly," he said. "I didn't think I'd feel that good if I played the whole fourth quarter."
Which Taylor did. He went 19 minutes in all in his first important moment of camp, enough to overshadow to Taylor himself and the Kings the six misses in seven shots and the two rebounds in that extended time.
Taylor didn't sign as a free agent until Oct. 3, then was hampered by a sore right calf, then missed the exhibition opener Thursday in Dallas. When he finally did play, it was ahead of Woods in a telling sign and far ahead of Potapenko, who remains out of shape and out of uniform.
Woods and Potapenko are true centers, but Taylor has immediately become the backup center. It's not only in the patchwork moments of exhibition play, either. When the Kings signed him, it was with the intent of playing Taylor behind Brad Miller, not merely a safety net against Woods' journeyman history and whatever passes for Potapenko's offseason conditioning program.
"We thought he could play some center, especially in the West," Geoff Petrie, the Kings' basketball president, said before the game. "So many teams are playing smaller lineups for significant portions of games. With him and Kenny (Thomas) and Shareef (Abdur-Rahim) and Brad, in order for all these guys to get productive minutes, he would have to play some center."
Beginning right away. Taylor replaced Miller with 4:40 remaining in the first quarter and got a matchup with 6-9 Brian Cook and the Lakers' version of small ball as Kwame Brown sat with a sprained right shoulder. When Cook went out, Taylor got another hybrid power forward, Ronny Turiaf. Never did Taylor have to contend with either 7-footer, Andrew Bynum or Chris Mihm, who is recovering from surgery on his right ankle.
The important subplot to a Kings roster with little genuine intrigue otherwise came in a poor overall performance. Five nights after appearing polished in beating short-handed Dallas, shooting 47 percent and committing 14 turnovers while holding the Mavericks to 39.7 percent from the field, Sacramento sloshed to 40.3 percent and 26 turnovers and wasted a 15-point lead from the third quarter before pulling ahead at the end.
Go to: Sacbee / Back to story
Taylor is in center of it all
By Scott Howard-Cooper - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, October 18, 2006
LAS VEGAS-So maybe what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas.
The Kings got a new backup center during their visit, playing Maurice Taylor there at 6-foot-9 and playing him early enough and often enough to signal the transition with everything except flashing neon. He's in and Vitaly Potapenko and camp hopeful Loren Woods are, well, somewhere else.
Taylor at center is not breaking news -- he estimates he had that job half the time he played for New York last season -- and it's entirely realistic in the smallish Western Conference, as opposed to the Knicks just trying to use anyone with a pulse during their implosion. But significance still came Tuesday night as part of the ragged 96-91 exhibition victory over the Los Angeles Lakers before an announced crowd of 12,587 at the Thomas & Mack Center, where Taylor played for the first time as a King and played a lot.
"I got a lot of action, and I felt fine, surprisingly," he said. "I didn't think I'd feel that good if I played the whole fourth quarter."
Which Taylor did. He went 19 minutes in all in his first important moment of camp, enough to overshadow to Taylor himself and the Kings the six misses in seven shots and the two rebounds in that extended time.
Taylor didn't sign as a free agent until Oct. 3, then was hampered by a sore right calf, then missed the exhibition opener Thursday in Dallas. When he finally did play, it was ahead of Woods in a telling sign and far ahead of Potapenko, who remains out of shape and out of uniform.
Woods and Potapenko are true centers, but Taylor has immediately become the backup center. It's not only in the patchwork moments of exhibition play, either. When the Kings signed him, it was with the intent of playing Taylor behind Brad Miller, not merely a safety net against Woods' journeyman history and whatever passes for Potapenko's offseason conditioning program.
"We thought he could play some center, especially in the West," Geoff Petrie, the Kings' basketball president, said before the game. "So many teams are playing smaller lineups for significant portions of games. With him and Kenny (Thomas) and Shareef (Abdur-Rahim) and Brad, in order for all these guys to get productive minutes, he would have to play some center."
Beginning right away. Taylor replaced Miller with 4:40 remaining in the first quarter and got a matchup with 6-9 Brian Cook and the Lakers' version of small ball as Kwame Brown sat with a sprained right shoulder. When Cook went out, Taylor got another hybrid power forward, Ronny Turiaf. Never did Taylor have to contend with either 7-footer, Andrew Bynum or Chris Mihm, who is recovering from surgery on his right ankle.
The important subplot to a Kings roster with little genuine intrigue otherwise came in a poor overall performance. Five nights after appearing polished in beating short-handed Dallas, shooting 47 percent and committing 14 turnovers while holding the Mavericks to 39.7 percent from the field, Sacramento sloshed to 40.3 percent and 26 turnovers and wasted a 15-point lead from the third quarter before pulling ahead at the end.
Go to: Sacbee / Back to story
