Kings players already feel a closer bond with new coach Luke Walton than they did with previous coach Dave Joerger, Jason Jones of The Athletic reports. Having a coach that would help bring in free agents and make current roster members want to stay in Sacramento is part of the reason why Walton was hired.
“He just comes in, and it’s an instant connection,” Kings guard Buddy Hield told Jones. “He’s played before so he knows that player relationship and now he’s a coach so he knows how to relate to us, so that’s big coming from him.”
We have more from the Western Conference:
- Mentoring Clint Capela is a major reason why the Rockets brought in veteran center Tyson Chandler, Kelly Iko of The Athletic writes. Chandler signed a one-year contract in July. The Rockets want Capela to become an elite defensive presence and anchor and Chandler will help facilitate that process.
- Rockets guard Eric Gordon enters the preseason as a starter but Danuel House could make a push for that status, Iko adds in the same piece.
- The Nuggets have promoted John Beckett from director of player development to full-time assistant coach, Chris Dempsey of Altitude Sports tweets. Ognjen Stojakovic has taken over Beckett’s previous spot, while Boniface N’Dong has been added to the player development staff.
- Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle believes Tim Hardaway Jr. has been cleared to participate in training camp, Dwain Price of the team’s website tweets. Hardaway met this week with the surgeon that performed the surgery in April on his left tibia and got a positive review. Hardaway’s availability for camp would coincide with the anticipated timetable following the surgery.
Whenever Tyson Chandler was on the court for the Lakers last season their defense was vastly superior to when he was on the bench. Although the Rockets defense is much better than most people think, when Chandler is playing with the second unit they should be able to maintain any lead built by the starting five. Especially when both Chandler and Sefolosha are on the court together.
I agree with assessment of Tyson and Sefolosha for defense. But Nene isn’t considered to be big part of the team and CP3 is home.
That leaves Capela abs and Tucker as the only others on team with Defensive plus minus in the positive. And they are all front court and not likely to share floor together.
Complicating defense more is the combo of Harden and West. Neither is horrible but neither is good. They can shoot the team into a lot of wins and lose them games on D