If there’s one area of his game DeMarcus Cousins feels he’s improved the most this summer, it’s defense. The Sacramento Kings starting center believes he made significant strides on the defensive side of the court and his coach thinks his USA Basketball experience has something to do with that.
Sacramento Kings head coach Michael Malone is particularly pleased with the way Cousins improved his communication on defense. Malone thought that Cousins was the most vocal big man out of Team USA’s impressive crop of frontcourt players this summer. He hopes to see that development by Cousins carry over into Sacramento.
“What I loved about DeMarcus this year is he talked, I think, better than any of their bigs on their summer team,” Malone said following the Sacramento Kings’ third practice of training camp on Sunday. “Constant communication, letting the guards know what was going on, calling out the pick and rolls. So I want him to continue to have that voice here (and) not be a once-in-a-while (communicator, but rather) a guy that communicates with every possession.”
Malone has high expectations for his starting center. He envisions Cousins being “the anchor” of the Sacramento Kings’ defense this season. It’s early, but the second-year head coach is seeing good returns out of Cousins’ new-found, vocal approach on defense.
“I kind of limited both Rudy (Gay) and DeMarcus this morning out of respect to their summer obligations,” Malone said Sunday afternoon. “But tonight, we’re gonna get after it and do a lot of scrimmaging and playing live and hopefully he’ll do the same thing as he did yesterday morning.”
Derrick Williams aims to be a “knockdown shooter”
Derrick Williams has a couple of goals in mind as he prepares for his fourth season in the NBA. Becoming a better rebounder is one of them and improving his 3-point shot is another.
“I just want to be a knockdown shooter,” Williams said following practice on Sunday. “If I’m open, knock it down. Get to the basket like I normally do and get to the free throw line. That’s the main thing.”
As far as 3-point percentage is concerned, Williams wants to shoot at least in the 30s if he can, but is aiming to be in the 40s this year. In three NBA seasons however, 3-point shooting hasn’t been Williams’ forte. The Sacramento Kings forward is a 29.6-percent shooter from 3-point distance for his career.
The 23-year-old forward hopes the hours of work he put in this summer yield positive results. He spent plenty of time working with Sacramento Kings assistant coach Ryan Bowen, who assisted Williams with his jumper. With Bowen’s help, Williams says he shot 1,000 shots a day for about an entire month straight.
“Ryan Bowen was out there was pretty much there for all of it so he’s seen it as well,” Williams said. “I just wanted to get shots up. Coach told me to shoot as many threes as possible and I listened to him and it’s helping.”
Frontcourt competition a healthy battle so far
The Sacramento Kings are just two-and-a-half days into training camp, but the competition between frontcourt players has been healthy thus far. Michael Malone has not yet named a starter at the other forward spot opposite Rudy Gay and has instead encouraged an open battle for the position.
“Everybody in the frontcourt are pretty much veteran guys,” Sacramento Kings big man Carl Landry said Sunday afternoon. “They understand the game. They understand that you gotta come into training camp and set the tone for the younger guys and give it a 110 percent.”
With the exception of rookies Eric Moreland, Sim Bhullar and David Wear, the Sacramento Kings have six players capable of playing the four spot this season. The starting position battle will likely come down to Landry, Jason Thompson, Reggie Evans, and Derrick Williams. All four players have 28 years of experience combined between them.
“I think the more we compete, the better we’re gonna be,” Williams said. “You need multiple forwards on your team. We’re all different. I’m different than Carl; Carl’s different than JT. We all have different aspects of our games. So we’re just trying to incorporate that into our offense and see what’s best.”
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