We’ll have a more exhaustive look at today’s first day of training camp in a post to come. But to satisfy your appetite for Kings hoops, here are a few takeaways from day one of camp in Natomas.
- Head Coach Paul Westphal is pretty happy with the team’s conditioning. “Better than I feared, but still with a long way to go.” He complimented the conditioning of Jimmer Fredette, Tyler Honeycutt, Isaiah Thomas, J.J. Hickson, Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins in particular.
- Westphal also complimented John Salmons, saying he had the “best practice of anybody today.”
- Before proclaiming himself this lockout’s Shawn Kemp, Cousins said he believes this incarnation of the Kings is “very talented this year.” He added: “A lot of people aren’t really feeling us this year. I kind of like that, so we going to surprise a lot of people this year.”
- Evans was asked what excites him most about this year’s team. “We got a lot of weapons we can use. It’s going to help me out a lot with spacing. Salmons can shoot. We got Thornton back, so it’s going to help a lot. We got a lot of threats coming off the bench, so we shouldn’t have a lot of problems scoring the ball.”
- The rookie duties have begun for Fredette. During cool-down, the Kings guard played waterboy and served teammates drinks before the end of practice. “The rookies have to pay $100 for every bottle that’s on the floor, so I was going around and picking them up because I didn’t want to have to pay $100.
- Salmons said returning to Sacramento is a “little weird”, but added his family always liked the city. He also was asked how he would compare this Kings team to the previous Kings squad he played on. “When I got traded, we had a lot of talent. Talent wasn’t really the issue, just couldn’t put it together. Coming back, there’s still a lot of talent here. So, hopefully we can put it all together. If we do that, we can play against anybody with the talent we have.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
