Sacramento Kings rookies pick up pace while preparing for California Classic summer league
Kings head coach Mike Brown was responsible for an indelible moment during last season’s training camp when he implored his players to “turn the (expletive) jets on!”
So it’s no surprise the Kings are emphasizing speed again to incoming rookies Colby Jones and Jalen Slawson as they prepare to make their summer league debuts Monday at the California Classic.
That has been a theme during minicamp after the Kings played with the fastest pace among all 16 teams to make last season’s playoffs, averaging 103.93 possessions per game.
“We can’t play fast enough,” Kings assistant and summer league coach Luke Loucks said after practice Friday. “In the NBA, everyone says they want to play fast, (but) it’s really tough to do it consistently. We have the luxury of having (De’Aaron) Fox and a ton of shooting around him. The faster we can play, the earlier we can touch the paint. You cannot play fast enough with our group. We need to put our foot on the gas even more, and it starts with summer league.”
Adjusting to the NBA is an immense challenge for incoming rookies. Playing with the breakneck pace the Kings employ only adds to the level of difficulty. And they want to play faster after finishing the regular season ranked 12th in pace while setting an NBA record for offensive efficiency, averaging 118.6 points per 100 possessions.
Jones is a 6-foot-6 combo guard with the ability to handle the ball, distribute, cut and spot up from 3-point range. The Xavier alum is believed to have a strong feel for the game, which is among the reasons the Kings targeted him by trading up from No. 38 to No. 34 in the second round of the NBA draft.
The pace-and-space offense means having to make decisions quickly, which has caused some ugly possessions on the practice floor this week, Loucks said, with college players adjusting to the pro game. Nine of the 15 players on the summer league roster are rookies.
“I love the college game, but it’s a totally different brand of basketball where a lot of the structure is ‘go do this,’ and then they do it,” Loucks said. “Whereas, especially with our system, a lot of it is just reading the game, feeling it. ... So that give and take a lot of times for young guys, it takes some time. It takes a feel, there’s an art to it.
“I expect it to be sloppy, even with our real team in training camp. It’s tough.”
Jones was Xavier’s third-leading scorer while the Muskateers finished as the 10th-best scoring team in college basketball last season. Head coach Sean Miller was in his first year on the job and changed the way he coached by adopting a more modern style of offense that emphasized pushing the ball and playing with more pace.
Jones led the team in assists, averaging 4.4 despite not working as the primary point guard. That job belonged to Souley Boum, who has joined Jones on the King’s summer league roster perhaps looking to latch on to a G League team with a good showing.
Slawson, meanwhile, spent five years at Furman and enters the league as an older rookie at 23 years old. Like Jones, Slawson has a feel for the game, which should help his adjustment to the read-and-react style of offense. His scoring improved during each season in college from 4.9 points per game as a true freshman in 2018-19 to 20.3 this past season. He made 39.4% of his 3-point attempts as a fifth-year senior.
“It’s hard right now, but it’s why we’re here,” Slawson said of the adjustment. “It’s how you get here. The best of the best come here because they can do that. If you’re not able to play with pace or you’re not able to make quick decisions, you won’t make it here.
“We want to be the most disciplined team of summer league and we want to be the fastest-playing team at summer league.”
The Kings have chemistry and experience on their side by summer league standards.
Keegan Murray, last year’s No. 4 overall draft pick who earned NBA All-Rookie First Team honors, is expected to play along with fellow Kings wing Kessler Edwards. Last season’s two-way players, Keon Ellis and Neemias Queta, are also on the team after having prominent roles with the G League team in Stockton, which finished the regular season first in the Western Conference standings.
“You can tell their offense is a lot crisper,” Slawson said of the returning players. “Their talk’s a lot louder, their defensive rotations are faster. They pick up on new concepts a little quicker than we do.”
Sacramento’s first summer league game is against the Golden State Warriors at 7 p.m. Monday at Golden 1 Center. The Kings will play the Miami Heat at 7 p.m. Wednesday before departing for the Las Vegas Summer League.
