Kings notes: Bogdan Bogdanovic hot off World Cup; Buddy Hield worried about WiFi
Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic came into training camp healthy for the first time in his NBA career and full of confidence following a stellar showing in the FIBA World Cup.
Bogdanovic said he is “in shape” and feeling “great” following Saturday’s morning workout at the team’s Golden 1 Center practice facility. He missed training camp and the first 10 games of the 2018-19 season after suffering a knee injury with the Serbian national team last summer.
“This is the first summer in NBA I’m getting in healthy, 100 percent, and I’m blessed and really happy that I’m healthy,” Bogdanovic said. “… There is a lot of difference when you get into camp injured and your guys are practicing and you just jump in the games. I need to adjust to them and they need to adjust to me as well, so this year is a little bit different.”
Bogdanovic declared this his “best summer of all summers,” saying he has improved in handoff, catch-and-shoot and pull-up situations. He averaged 22.9 points, 4.4 assists and 4.1 rebounds in eight World Cup games for Serbia, prompting some analysts to call him the best player in the tournament. He made 35 of 66 3-point attempts, shooting an eye-popping 53 percent from beyond the arc.
Forbes magazine called Bogdanovic “the rising NBA star of the 2019 FIBA World Cup.”
“I was loving watching that,” Kings coach Luke Walton said. “We’re very excited about what he can bring to our team and he’s coming in feeling good from the way he played over there (in the World Cup), so we’re thrilled to have him.”
Bogdanovic had an interesting response when asked to compare Walton’s offense to the fast-paced style the Kings implemented last season under former coach Dave Joerger.
“More patience, more details in the game,” he said. “I think we’re thinking more rather than just playing fast, just pushing the tempo. Now we have more options.”
Bogdanovic said his teammates have improved, too, pointing to De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Harrison Barnes, Marvin Bagley III and others.
“Fox, Marvin, Buddy, HB,” Bogdanovic said. “I don’t want to miss somebody, but really everybody’s looking good.”
Kings working quickly
The Kings only have three days of training camp before flying to India to play two preseason games against the Indiana Pacers on Friday and Saturday, so Walton is working quickly to install the framework of the team’s offense and defense.
“There’s a lot of teaching going on and the guys are great,” Walton said. “They were into it, asking questions, giving the effort that’s required to really learn.”
Forward Trevor Ariza, one of the team’s free-agent acquisitions, said the first two days of training camp have been “real intense.”
“There’s a lot of information being thrown, but we’re doing a good job of retaining it and getting better,” Ariza said. “We’re learning a lot of things. We’re starting to understand what we’re doing. This is the learning process. When you’re learning new things and there’s a lot of information being thrown, you’re kind of trying to figure it out, so I wouldn’t say we have a rhythm yet, but we’re getting there.”
Latest on ‘Air Drake’
Hield spent a few minutes after practice trying to get to the bottom of a rumor that the Kings will not have a WiFi connection on their 19-hour flight to India. The Kings will fly aboard Grammy Award-winning musician Drake’s $185 million Boeing 767, but apparently they will not have an Internet connection.
“I heard there was going to be no WiFi, so I don’t know — everybody download a bunch of movies and maybe watch Game of Thrones again or something like that,” Hield said. “Just find something to binge watch. That’s a good time to connect with your teammates, too. We’re all not going to be asleep the whole time, so good team bonding. Play a couple card games, maybe some dominoes. I don’t know. Rookie pranks or whatever. We have fun. It should be great.”
Personnel department
The India trip will give Walton less time than he would normally have to assess players before making decisions about the lineup and his rotation.
“The preseason games will be used for that, too,” Walton said. “You like to come into camp and let guys compete, really go after each other and kind of earn those first opportunities in games, but with 2 1/2 days, we’re going to have to use the actual preseason games to determine some of that as well.”
Sacramento Kings preseason schedule
Oct. 4 vs. Indiana Pacers, 6:30 a.m. (India)
Oct. 5 vs. Indiana Pacers, 6:30 a.m. (India)
Oct. 10 vs. Phoenix Suns, 7 p.m.
Oct. 14 at Utah Jazz, 6 p.m.
Oct. 16 vs. Melbourne United, 7 p.m.
This story was originally published September 29, 2019 at 4:30 PM.