DALLAS – Geoff Petrie wanted to see for himself the newest phase of the rebuilding of which he is the architect.

So the Kings basketball president hit the road, traveling with his team to Portland, Las Vegas, Houston and, Saturday night, Dallas. Before the Kings lost 124-109 to the Mavericks to fall to 1-5 in exhibition play, Petrie shared his view through four games. There have been bright spots and a few dark ones, he said, and there is much work to be done.

"I think our veterans, when they played as a unit, have been fairly productive and been able to get some things done," said Petrie, who rarely attends away games during the regular season. "We've played our young guys a fair number of minutes, and played a lot of them together where we had three rookies and a second-year player out there at the same time, so the game just isn't going to look the same."

Thus, the Kings have had a handful of strong first halves with the regulars and, with the exception of Friday night against Houston, plenty of sloppy second halves when the bench was emptied for much of the time.

"The blend going forward probably will be different as we get toward the end of the exhibition and obviously into the regular season," Petrie said. "We'll see what happens from there. … It's definitely a work in progress."

Petrie surely was pleased to see John Salmons' strong start against Dallas. He scored 11 of his 15 points in the first quarter, hitting four of his first five shots. The sixth-year swingman, who never has begun a season as a starter, had struggled mightily in three of his first four exhibitions, shooting 9 of 39 against Portland, the Lakers and Houston and just 29.8 percent overall.

Should Salmons produce close to the level he did last season in 41 games as a starter, he could gain recognition that is in short supply for the Kings. After five games, it has become apparent that, beyond shooting guard Kevin Martin, Sacramento is the land of the unknown for much of the league and national media.

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle showed before tipoff that Martin is a mystery no more, heaping high praise upon him as "one of the most underrated players in the league."

"He's a special player," Carlisle said. "He has some instincts and some things about his (game). He just has a knack for drawing contact. At the (shooting guard) spot, who's a better driver on the ball than him? He gets to the free-throw line a lot."

Martin, who scored 26 points on 9-of-18 shooting, made quite an impression on Carlisle long before the night's affair. When the Mavericks' coach arrived at the arena Saturday morning, he found Martin shooting.

"(The Kings) played Houston last night, and he was here at 9 o'clock this morning," Carlisle said. "He's serious about it. He gets forgotten a little bit because Sacramento is a small market, (because of) the time zone, and they don't get seen much by the Eastern teams. But he's a nightmare matchup."

While there are no battles over starting spots at the moment for the Kings, rookie forward Jason Thompson could see substantial minutes if he continues his progression. Kings coach Reggie Theus has said he is comfortable playing the rookie out of little-known Rider at small forward, power forward and center.

His ability to run the floor well is an obvious benefit with the team's new up-tempo pace, and his rebounding ability is sorely needed. His outing against Dallas was his least impressive, though, as he hit just 1 of 5 shots and had one rebound in 17 minutes.

"He's been productive for the most part," Petrie said. "When he's been on the floor, he's rebounded the ball real well on a per-minute basis. He's still feeling his way offensively, I think.

"I think everybody, including the coaches, are at this point real satisfied with his overall play and what they think he'll eventually be able to do."

The Kings couldn't get out of Dallas unscathed, as swingman Francisco García strained his right calf early in the fourth quarter and did not return. He is day-to-day.

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