Rico Hines kept the Kings busy this week.
The offseason has seemingly ended for the Sacramento Kings, as several members of the team have been at workouts hosted by Rico Hines in Los Angeles this week.
Hines, who was hired by the Kings in 2019 to be a player development coach, has held summer workouts for several years, but this is the first year that it’s been treated as a Kings minicamp. In addition to Kings players Terence Davis II, Tyrese Haliburton, Louis King, Chimezie Metu, Davion Mitchell, Tristan Thompson and Robert Woodard II, a few Kings coaches were in attendance, including Doug Christie, Lindsey Harding and Luke Walton.
Emil Vajgrt, who does photography for Haliburton, chronicled the last few days of workouts on his Instagram.
One might notice that De’Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley III — two key pieces of the Kings’ core — were absent from the workout, but that shouldn’t be a cause for concern. Kings fans already know what they have in Fox and that’s a fringe All-Star player. Meanwhile, Bagley has been sharing his own workout pictures, the latest of which showed him scrimmaging with Phoenix Suns guard Elfrid Payton.
Given the fact that the Kings brought back most of last season’s roster, their ability to improve will be dependent on the development of their young players, starting with Bagley. Bagley has shown flashes during his three seasons with Sacramento, but due to injuries, he hasn’t been able to put it all together.
Generally speaking, there’s always too much stock put into these summer workout videos and pictures, but with the situation the Kings are in, it’s crucial that everyone lives up to the hype of the summer.