For both head coach Dave Joerger and his young roster, change has come abruptly. Roughly two months into his tenure, Joerger is heading to Las Vegas with a group of relatively inexperienced players, several of whom will be engaging in their first NBA competitions.
The Memphis Grizzlies team from which he departed, boasted two All-Stars, and a host of veterans with playoff experience, revered by fans, media and peers for their “grit and grind” philosophy in a league seemingly trending more toward finesse with each passing season.
“These guys have not been in practice, they’ve been doing individual workouts, so this (two practices per day), can really get into their legs and into their brains,” Joerger said Wednesday, just before the summer roster left Sacramento for Las Vegas.
This abrasive introduction may be a necessary one. Sacramento finished last season with a defensive rating of 106.3, which was 23rd in the league and more than a half point behind even the lowest ranking playoff team, (Houston, 105.7).
Coaches believe this shortcoming to be Sacramento’s biggest impediment to success, and are making a concerted effort to improve it during summer activities.
“We want to set that tone with this group,” said Joerger. “Especially the guys that will be on the (regular season) roster. They’re gonna’ have three steps of an advantage when training camp comes.
It’s a training camp environment and it gives them a good idea of what to expect come the end of September.
Assistant coach Elston Turner, who begins his second tenure in Sacramento after working with Rick Adelman, believes scoring will come more neatly to Sacramento, and sees summer league as an opportunity to shift the organization’s focus to that of an aggressor.
“The number one thing is we’re gonna’ pick up the physicality, put our hands on you,” Turner proclaimed. “Teams are gonna’ know we’re on the floor first … If you play that way and you start some type of tradition, the officials usually lean in your direction. They allow you to do a little more than a non-aggressive team.
The main thing is working at it … a lot of our practices are heavily weighted defensively. We’ll do fifty, sixty percent defensive drills. We put it in their minds. Constantly working at it and showing them film.”
Sophomore Willie Cauley-Stein will be expected to take on a leadership role with this summer league team and is likely to be evaluated according to his improvements on the defensive end, as he was drafted with the expectation of becoming the team’s primary rim protector.
“What I’ve seen so far (of Cauley-Stein), I like. He has tremendous length. He has foot speed … use your length, cover ground, block shots – that’s my vision for him,” Turner said.
Kings rookie Isaiah Cousins has caught on quickly to Turner’s aggressive mandate. The 6-foot-5 point guard has been asked to follow opposing guards over every screen in mini-camp and so far he has been up to the challenge.
“We go in guerrilla mode, you feel me,” Cousins said. “Anybody can get it out there. It’s you and the other opponent and you’ve got to compete until that last horn rings.”
With much room for improvement, Joerger’s expectations of his players will not subside as they compete with other teams, who have better players with NBA experience.
Despite youth and lack of playoff experience, he believes his roster is capable of producing results, both in Vegas and the regular season.
// “Talent wins out,” Joerger said before leaving the facility after the group’s final practice in Sacramento. “It doesn’t matter what year (a player is in). The more talent you can get, the better you are.”
Sacramento will begin its summer league schedule Friday against Toronto. Summer league games will broadcast on ESPN.
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