Selected paragraphs on Kmart from the full article, "Five Star Pro Training Private Workouts: Diaz, Johnson, Kelly," from draftexpress.com, http://www.draftexpress.com/viewarticle.php?a=1301:
"DraftExpress spent the weekend traveling up the beautiful West Coast of Florida to visit two of the most prestigious NBA draft training facilities in America, IMG academy in Bradenton and Five Star Pro Training in Clearwater...
...DraftExpress has a bit of a sweet history with Five Star. Two years ago, minus two weeks, We got the first chance to watch a certain no-name prospect who was on absolutely no one’s radar at the time, a skinny kid from Western Carolina named Kevin Martin. At that point, Martin was unanimously projected to go undrafted by both the NBA’s advisory committee and most scouting services. Martin looked a lot better than that to me, which prompted us to call him one of the biggest sleepers in the draft after that exclusive private workout. Fast forward two years, and Martin is now in the NBA, coming off a phenomenal playoff series against the Spurs where he had one magnificent 26 point performance and another game winning basket, playing solidly throughout...
...The next drill is one that almost every college and NBA utilizes in their own practices—the “pitch and fill.” The ball is thrown off the glass and one of the two players participating goes up to grab the rebound. The player throws an outlet pass to the other, and then takes off at full speed with a wide angle as if on a fast break to “fill” the lane, catch the ball and finish with a dunk. The emphasis here is on the player’s “first two steps.” In a 94 foot court in today’s NBA, all a player needs is to beat his man on his first two steps to beat him down the floor. The value of this drill was never more evident at the end of game 4 of the Spurs-Kings playoff matchup, as Kevin Martin ran the court like a deer to beat all 9 players down the floor (coming from behind the free throw line) and finish with a layup over Tim Duncan to give the Kings the win...
...One of my personal favorites followed, which is unnamed but I call the pogo stick drill. The players are asked to dunk the ball with two hands right underneath the basket, catch it right as it comes out of the net, and then go up and dunk it again without gathering themselves—30 times over the first time, then 15, 8, 4, twice, and the last one an alleyoop. This is a grueling drill that works on lower-body strength, explosiveness and balance. Two years ago, this is where Kevin Martin’s quickness and outstanding leaping ability really shined, as he sprung up off the floor as if bouncing on a pogo stick. Thorpe pointed out that Martin could not dunk the ball twice in a row the first time he did it. When we saw him in this gym two years ago and later at a public workout at the Chicago pre-draft camp, Martin shocked everyone by bouncing like he had a personal trampoline at his disposal."
Guillermo Diaz, who the Kings are working out privately today, was at the 5 Star Workout this article is about, so you can check out the entire article to read about how that went. You can also see the post in the personnel moves section: http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12726
"DraftExpress spent the weekend traveling up the beautiful West Coast of Florida to visit two of the most prestigious NBA draft training facilities in America, IMG academy in Bradenton and Five Star Pro Training in Clearwater...
...DraftExpress has a bit of a sweet history with Five Star. Two years ago, minus two weeks, We got the first chance to watch a certain no-name prospect who was on absolutely no one’s radar at the time, a skinny kid from Western Carolina named Kevin Martin. At that point, Martin was unanimously projected to go undrafted by both the NBA’s advisory committee and most scouting services. Martin looked a lot better than that to me, which prompted us to call him one of the biggest sleepers in the draft after that exclusive private workout. Fast forward two years, and Martin is now in the NBA, coming off a phenomenal playoff series against the Spurs where he had one magnificent 26 point performance and another game winning basket, playing solidly throughout...
...The next drill is one that almost every college and NBA utilizes in their own practices—the “pitch and fill.” The ball is thrown off the glass and one of the two players participating goes up to grab the rebound. The player throws an outlet pass to the other, and then takes off at full speed with a wide angle as if on a fast break to “fill” the lane, catch the ball and finish with a dunk. The emphasis here is on the player’s “first two steps.” In a 94 foot court in today’s NBA, all a player needs is to beat his man on his first two steps to beat him down the floor. The value of this drill was never more evident at the end of game 4 of the Spurs-Kings playoff matchup, as Kevin Martin ran the court like a deer to beat all 9 players down the floor (coming from behind the free throw line) and finish with a layup over Tim Duncan to give the Kings the win...
...One of my personal favorites followed, which is unnamed but I call the pogo stick drill. The players are asked to dunk the ball with two hands right underneath the basket, catch it right as it comes out of the net, and then go up and dunk it again without gathering themselves—30 times over the first time, then 15, 8, 4, twice, and the last one an alleyoop. This is a grueling drill that works on lower-body strength, explosiveness and balance. Two years ago, this is where Kevin Martin’s quickness and outstanding leaping ability really shined, as he sprung up off the floor as if bouncing on a pogo stick. Thorpe pointed out that Martin could not dunk the ball twice in a row the first time he did it. When we saw him in this gym two years ago and later at a public workout at the Chicago pre-draft camp, Martin shocked everyone by bouncing like he had a personal trampoline at his disposal."
Guillermo Diaz, who the Kings are working out privately today, was at the 5 Star Workout this article is about, so you can check out the entire article to read about how that went. You can also see the post in the personnel moves section: http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12726
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