As for the summer league play, Jason Thompson, who was called a "reach" by the basketball pundits when Petrie drafted him out of Rider University at #12 last month, is showing he belongs in the NBA. Whether he will be an "elite" power forward is unclear. But he is big, fast, strong, and athletic. That gives the Kings something to work with there. He also is coachable, and has the desire. He came to the NBA as a senior out of college, which for some reason has become something of a negative knock on rookies, like they must not be very good if they stayed in college for four years to get a stupid degree. All three of the Kings' picks this year are therefore stupid and questionable NBA talents.
Sean Singletary, the King's first of two second round picks, is a point guard who averaged 19 points and 5 assists as a senior at Virginia. He looks pretty good at the summer league play also and will back up Beno Udrih at the point this season.
I watched the Blazer v Kings summer league game. I knew absolutely nothing of Jason Thompson, and I have to admit that he actually looked pretty good, at least from the perspective of summer league. He is a PF, scored well, rebounded fine, and played fine the defensive end.
I knew a little more of Sean Singletary, and I liked what I saw as well. He was slighter of build than I remember, and he obviously has a ways to go, but I think he can play in the league.
Singletary did not show during the summer league his penchant for scoring that he did in college, but otherwise did fine. Thompson seems like a very determined kid, who once is told what he needs to do, goes out and works on doing it. The Kings need rebounding, so he addresses that and his summer league numbers came very close to what he did in college.
The other two 'veteran' Kings players who made a decent showing this summer were our last two first round picks, Quicy Douby and Spencer Hawes. Douby's scoring was noteworthy, while Hawes showed some rebounding and defense, but oddly less offense, then he did his rookie year. He also shed body fat while gaining strength in the time from the end of the season till the summer league. His promise is very high and he will get a decent chance to prove it while Brad tokes...er....takes in the first five games of the season from the sidelines while going through his suspension.
Sheldon Williams is the other guy who needs to prove his worth. Being picked #5 in the draft, his option is up this year ($4.3 million if the Kings so chose to pick it up) so he maybe should not have blown off one of the summer league games to attend the ESPY awards with his fiance, superstar WNBA player Candace Parker, and instead played all the games like he did the last one, where he put up 20 points with nine rebounds.
