Omri Casspi has seen an encouraging change in the Kings organization since George Karl took over as head coach, Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee writes. Casspi, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, says he absolutely wants to re-sign with Sacramento this summer, Voisin adds. “I want to come back here so badly,” Casspi said. “I love the community and I feel like the team is finally moving in the right direction. George Karl’s system is great, and I’m not just saying that because I play for him, but because I really do believe this is the right way to play basketball. Spacing the floor. Moving, making extra passes, sharing the ball. Getting our hands on balls, deflections, then getting out and running. Unfortunately, coach Karl has not had a lot of time to teach us everything, but these last two games, you can see what we can become.”
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Despite the Lakers‘ 18-50 record on the season coach Byron Scott has the approval of GM Mitch Kupchak, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News writes. “He said I’ve been doing a great job in getting all these guys to play hard every night,” Scott said. “With all the injuries that we’ve had and to be in the games that we’ve been in, he thinks I’ve done a terrific job.”
- Scott also said that Kupchak reiterated that the team is still in a rebuilding phase and that the process would continue during the 2015 offseason, Medina adds. “We’re still on the right course and still sticking to what we talked about,” Scott said. “All of the things we talked about before they hired me and all the things we talked about since they hired me hasn’t changed.”
- The Warriors took an unconventional and roundabout path in their rebuilding efforts, Tom Ziller of SB Nation writes in his look at the team’s success this season.