From Full Court Press: Kings Rookies Shine In Front Of Cameras

Your boy and mine, Alex Kramers of When Kingdom Come (also, follow him on Twitter – @doktakra), was at the NBA rookie photo shoot when the 2010 rookie class donned their new work uniforms and took pictures doing basketball things. He covered it for Full Court Press on Kings.com and wrote up a nice story about what DeMarcus Cousins and Hassan Whiteside are thinking about this team and their respective first year’s of the rest of their lives. Peep the link.

Here’s a snippet about Cousins:

After previously declaring he was the best player in the 2010 rookie class, the fifth-overall pick in the NBA Draft continued to stand by his bold proclamation.

“My goal is to win Rookie of the Year, and I think I established myself and earned some respect in summer league,” he said. “But Tyreke (Evans) and I spoke about some of the things we want to accomplish (as a team) this year, starting with making the Playoffs.”

Cousins has worked diligently to refine his game since he was drafted by the Kings to prevent himself from making “rookie mistakes,” and training to stand the rigors of an 82-game schedule.

Many people are questioning DMC’s conditioning this summer but it’s good to see his attitude seems very focused on the task at hand.

As far as Stretch goes, Alex wrote this about Hassan:

Whiteside, in the meantime, has been working on “getting bigger” by lifting weights and toning his lower body. He attended Tim Grgurich’s annual skills camp at UNLV with his new Kings teammate, Jason Thompson, and has also sought advice from Evans.

“We’re a young team and everyone is no more than three-or-four years older than me, so we can relate on a lot of things,” Whiteside said. “My goal is to stay hungry and humble.”

Whiteside acclimated himself to Sacramento by recently purchasing a home that he instantly furnished with a brand-new television to study and keep tabs on his upcoming NBA opponents.

This is probably evident of most rookies but it’s good to see two young guys talking about their hard work for this off-season to help this team get better during this crucial stage of the Kings’ rebuilding process.

And in case you couldn’t get enough of Cousins and his exploits at the photo shoot, here is another video:

DeMarcus Cousins at NBA Rookie Photo Shoot from Michelle Stark on Vimeo.