Training camp has begun and the Kings are preparing for their first preseason game against the San Antonio Spurs. One key thing that coach Dave Joerger has spoken about early on is speeding up the pace, which should bode well with his personnel.
“Well, we’re going to play fast,” Joerger said. “I would like to play fast, and so we are going to get it up and down the floor. We got some guys that can push it, we got guys that can run both from the wing and from the big guys.”
Most forget that when Joerger first stepped in as the head coach with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2013, the topic of pace was something that he was looking to change before ultimately having to resort back to the pace set by their previous coach Lionel Hollins.
According to CBSSports.com, the Grizzlies would cross that half court line with 20 or more seconds on the shot clock.
Another idea that was floating around the team was to give more shooters the green light to shoot from the perimeter and perhaps even make some of the sharpshooting wings a primary screener to get a mismatch on a pick-and-pop.
“Joerger also mentioned spreading the court more with perimeter shooters such as Prince, Miller, QPon and Bayless being given a green light more. However, it is not to go away from the interior game but to open things up inside for Randolph, Gasol and Conley to have more room to operate. One particular idea espoused was to use Miller as a screener on the perimeter to allow Conley to roll off the screen and leaving Miller alone or guarded by a smaller defender on the arc.” – Matt Moore CBSSports
Looking down the Kings’ roster it seems as if Joerger now has the talent to push the tempo with his speedy guards, agile big men and wing shooters.
However, the tricky part of wanting to run this type of offense on the Kings, is that the players that he will be teaching are rookies. Most of the players on this young Sacramento roster have yet to even set foot in a real NBA game.
“It’s about setting what we want to be about,” Joerger said. “What do we want to be about now? What do we want to be about four months from now? What do we want to be three years from now? That needs to be the same to have consistency, so what we demand is what we get.”
This is the reason the addition of veterans George Hill, Vince Carter and Zach Randolph will be very important this season. All three of these guys have been through a grueling ride that is an 82 game season.
“Having those guys (Randolph, Carter and Hill) are going to help save my voice,” Joerger said.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this young roster begins to adapt to this style that coach is looking to set this season.
Another interesting note coming through training camp is that they may look to only have a 10-man rotation.
“As we met with our team we are explaining that we are hoping to play 10 guys,” Joerger said. “I’m hoping that it’s not 24 minutes of two guys, it’s more of a 28-20, 26-22 split. What that says is that if you play you’re going to be counted on night-to-night.”
The Kings’ depth is something that you have to keep an eye on. Nearly every position seems like there is a battle taking place and it’s up for grabs as far as who will get minutes. Although Joerger may want to run 10 guys night-to-night, he knows that there is plenty of talent on the roster.
With so many young talented players, there’s good chance we could see inconsistent lineups all season long.
“I’m going to give you a role, but your role could change so play your minutes as hard as you can,” Joerger said. “There’s going to be times where I might just grab a guy who’s been playing a lot and I tell him ‘I’m going to keep you out tonight and I’m going to look at some other guys’ or I might do that for two weeks at a time. And we all know that injuries happen or if a guy beats a guy out, then that changes your schemes and some of your other things. We will just roll with the punches”
With the Kings’ preseason starting on Oct. 2, 2017 against the San Antonio Spurs, it will be interesting to watch how coach Joerger is going to delegate the minutes.
After hearing most of his comments, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him change his rotation in each preseason game just to get a look at all of his players.
Now we want to hear from you. Who would be in your rotation to start the season? Leave the name of your 10 players down in the comments below. Be sure to bookmark CowbellKingdom.com for more frontline coverage of the Sacramento Kings.
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