January 2, 2012 – NBA Development League (D-League)
NEW YORK, Jan. 2, 2012 – The Sacramento Kings assigned forward Tyler
Honeycutt and center Hassan Whiteside to the Reno Bighorns, the Kings’ NBA
D-League affiliate, it was announced today. The assignments mark the eighth
and ninth time in the 2011-12 season an NBA player has been assigned to an
NBA D-League affiliate. It marks the first assignment for Honeycutt and
second for Whiteside in his career.

Honeycutt (6-8, 188) is a rookie this season after being selected out of
UCLA by the Kings in the 2011 NBA Draft with the 35th pick overall. He has
appeared in one regular season game this season and competed in both of the
Kings preseason games. Selected to the 2010-11 First Team All-Pac 10 as a
sophomore, he currently ranks sixth on the UCLA charts with 99 blocked
shots.

Whiteside (7-0, 235) is in his second NBA season after a rookie season in
which he played one game and missed a majority of the season due to an
injury. He played 14 games for the Reno Bighorns during an assignment last
season and averaged 4.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.14 blocks per game.

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The Sacramento Kings surprisingly announced that DeMarcus Cousins was sent home and would not play in the their January 1 game against the New Orleans Hornets. Coach Paul Westphal and the team released a statement explaining a trade demand as the reason Cousins was sent home and would not be playing in the game.

This news has to be a shock to everyone. Sacramento started the season off with a win against the Los Angeles Lakers before losing their next three games. Losing is always disappointing but this team was never expected to be anywhere near a championship contender this season. Losing is going to happen to a young team and the players can’t respond with trade demands. If Cousins acts like this as soon as his team begins losing, no team in the NBA is going to want him.

Through four games, Cousins is averaging 13.0 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. A positive sign has been a big improvement in his offensive rebounding so far. Cousins’ improved rebounding statistics have been helped by his improvement from an average of 2.7 last season to 5.8 offensive rebounds per game so far this season.

The biggest disappointment in his game has been his poor shooting. Cousins is shooting just 32.1% from the field and has not helped the team and their offensive struggles.

Sacramento knew what they were getting themselves in to when they drafted DeMarcus Cousins and are now paying for it. As talented as he is, Cousins is just 21 years old and is extremely immature. Fans will not tolerate the kind of behavior he is displaying. The team should not either.

Sacramento and their fans are counting on a breakthrough season this year. I thought that adding Chuck Hayes to the team would be a good veteran influence on the development of DeMarcus Cousins. Clearly that is not the case.

I hope that Sacramento does not give in to his demands and trade Cousins. Sending him home and telling him to stay away from the team is the right move here. DeMarcus needs to know that if he acts like this, he will not be a part of this team. I hope that he starts acting like this is his job and dedicates himself to helping the team win basketball games.

Kyle Rapoza is a Featured Contributor for the Yahoo! Contributor Network and a lifelong fan of the Sacramento Kings. He started going to Kings games at age six and has attended hundreds of games since. Follow him on twitter @kyler11.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Kings say DeMarcus Cousins has demanded a trade and has been told to stay away from the team.

Kings coach Paul Westphal released a statement before Sunday’s game against New Orleans, saying when Cousins “continually, aggressively, lets it be known that he is unwilling/unable to embrace traveling in the same direction as his team, it cannot be ignored indefinitely.”

Cousins’ agent, John Greig, says he “has no idea what the Kings are doing” and didn’t know the team excused him from Sunday’s game until Westphal’s announcement. Greig withheld any further comment.

The Kings drafted Cousins with the fifth overall pick in 2010 after he spent one season at Kentucky. The 21-year-old Cousins is averaging 13 points and 11 rebounds per game this season.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

December 28, 2011

Big day today for The Grant Napear Show, With the Sacramento Kings splitting the first two games of the season to sit (1-1) thus far. Callers and Grant had a lot to talk about because the Kings looked like two completely different teams. In game one vs. the Lakers the Kings played very well on both side on the floor to start off the season with a big win. Last night vs. The Portland Trail Blazers they seem to look flat in the 2nd half. Grant throughout the show made it clear for fans to not panic at this point of the season saying, “Give it 2 week, then we will see what kind of team we really have.” The kings no doubt have a lot of work to do as far working together but let us keep in mind that this is a young time that needs time to put it all together.

Stopping by first on the show Austin Collie WR for the Colts joins the show to share his thoughts on the disappointing season that nobody could have predicted. First sharing his thought on Kings rookie Jimmer Fredette saying, “I am very impressed, No question you can tell that when he was on the floor the team looked more fluid.” Switching gears and talking Colts football Collie expressed his feeling on the disappointing season saying, “I can’t put into words what this year has been like, it has been a long year.” When asked when he looks back on this season what will he take away from it? Collie replied, “It is not easy to win in this league. I feel that the first 6 we only made a few mistakes that cost us the game.” Talking about the ups and downs of the season Collie said, “I think the whole team feeds off of each others momentum, as we fought and fought early in the season and came up short that is deflating as a team.” Collie went on to say that once Peyton Manning comes back there will be rejuvenation on the team.

Next on the show head coach of the Sacramento Kings Paul Westphal stops by to talk all things Kings basketball. Speaking about how the team is coming together as this season just starts getting under way, saying “It takes time to come together. It all depends on the learning curve of the players.” Coach Westphal went on to say that he is not worried about his team. He feels that he has a strong roster and this team just needs time to come together and play as a unit. The Kings feel good about their next match-up vs. the Bulls on Thursday.

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Sacramento Kings encountered a playoff-caliber team playing at home that decided to play some tough defense.

And when that happened, the Kings reverted to some bad habits.

They didn’t execute on offense. They turned the ball over. Players tried to do it all by themselves.

And in the end, the Kings lost to the Portland Trail Blazers 101-79 Tuesday night before an announced sellout crowd of 20,350 at the Rose Garden.

If the season-opening win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday was an example of how the Kings want to play, Tuesday’s effort reminded them how they don’t want to play.

“We had our moments the first, 16, 18, 20 minutes, and then we fell apart,” Kings coach Paul Westphal said. “You have to call it what it is. We will get better. I like our team, but it was a step in our development that was painful.”

The Kings led 44-32 with four minutes left in the second quarter. The Trail Blazers closed the half on a 14-2 run to tie the score 46-46, took the lead to start the third quarter and never trailed again. Portland led by 25 points in the fourth quarter.

“They turned up the intensity a little bit and got us out of what we wanted to do in the second half,” Kings guard Marcus Thornton said. “I don’t think we played together like we did in the first half.”

The Kings shot 23.7 percent (9 of 38) in the second half and committed 12 of their 20 turnovers (leading to 20 points) after halftime.

“We broke down,” Thronton said. “And that’s going to happen. The second game of the season, we’re young. We’ve just got to go back (today) and get ready for Chicago (on Thursday).”

The Kings are still trying to learn a new offense, and it looked that way Tuesday. They didn’t respond well to the aggressive defense of the Trail Blazers, who have an athletic frontcourt and the ability to defend with bigger players in the backcourt.

Westphal said when Portland made its run, his players started “going off a little bit much one-on-one, and it deteriorated after that.” The Kings’ new offense emphasizes ball movement as a way to prevent one-on-one play.

When things weren’t going well, the Kings reverted to the style of play that cost them a lot of games last season.

But some ups and downs are to be expected to start the season after only two weeks of training camp and two exhibition games.

“Where the X’s and O’s are, they took away where we wanted our O’s to be,” Westphal said. “There are counters for that, but we haven’t come far enough down the road to play to our counters yet, so we got a little frustrated and tried to go one-on-one, and that’s the way it looks.”

DeMarcus Cousins led the Kings with 16 points and 11 rebounds. But the backcourt of Thornton and Tyreke Evans that combined for 47 points against the Lakers managed only 18 points, 14 from Thornton. Evans and Thornton shot a combined 7 of 23. Rookie Jimmer Fredette had 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting off the bench.