HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

With a record of 17-52, it’s been a long season for the Sacramento Kings. With Sacramento mayor and former NBA player Kevin Johnson stating he believes the team is in their "final season in Sacramento after 26 years," it is a sad end to the team’s time in Sacramento. The players on the team continue to focus on what they should, which are on the court.

"In every negative situation, there are some positives," Samuel Dalembert told HOOPSWORLD. "If you don’t try to turn it into something positive, you’re going to be miserable. We’re learning to play with each other, learning each other’s strengths and weaknesses, learning what we’re good at and what we’re not good at."

There may be a depressing vibe around the team due to the impending move and the team’s record, but the Kings know there have been plenty of positives for them to build around. Maybe there is a bit of searching for a silver-lining instead of crying, but the locker room doesn’t seem that way. They legitimately have hope for the future of the franchise, wherever that future may be.

"We added Marcus (Thornton), who is playing really well for us," Francisco Garcia told HOOPSWORLD. "Tyreke (Evans) is coming back soon. With Marcus, Tyreke and Cousins down there, we’re getting better. You can see it’s a bright future for us and we’re just trying to get better every game."

After a fine rookie season in New Orleans, Marcus Thornton has only played 14-games with the Kings, but is making a big impact. In those games, he is averaging 21.4 points, picking up some of the slack for injured team star Tyreke Evans. The team has great expectations for that combo in the future and Thornton credits his fine play to one thing.

"Opportunity," Marcus Thornton told HOOPSWORLD. "The coach is confident and we have unselfish players here. That makes it easy to go out there and play every day. We play hard, no matter what the score or our record. We always go out there, play hard and give 100%. You can always build on that for the next game and for next season too."

While there is a glimmer of hope for the future in the young players on the roster, the veterans on the team try to mentor them while having good seasons themselves. Dalembert is somewhat re-writing the book on what people thought of his game this season, but also understands he is a temporary fix while the youth develops. In his case, the main player to mentor is DeMarcus Cousins and he sees similarity in other young players.

"Getting the chemistry together is number one and sometimes we tend to let our anger take over in the wrong way instead of utilizing that in a positive way," said Dalembert. "What I mean by that is compared to last year, this team was getting blown out a lot. This year, we’ve been holding teams down so much and we’ve been up, but then lose a game by two or three points. There’s probably 20-something games that we lose by three or less or games where we were in control throughout the whole game against good teams, but at the end we make some key mistakes at the wrong time of the game and ends up costing us the game."

To some, having 17 wins at this point in such an emotional season is remarkable and a testament to the team. With their main pieces being as young as they are, not having much court time together and all the off-court issues regarding the move, continuing to have confidence in themselves is a major step in their growth.

"Yeah, we’re young, but you have to come into the NBA at a young age," said Thornton. "You have to grow as a team. I think there can be spots that need to be filled, but these guys here work hard. It would be more like adding on because we can add on some parts and clean some stuff up. We’ll be alright in the next few years."

With 13-games left in their season—and five left in Sacramento, apparently—the Kings plan to continue to work, focusing on getting better. They know they have a lot of work to do, but they’re fine with that.

{AUTHOR_BOX}"We’re getting to know each other more and learning how to play together," said Garcia. "Hopefully, we’ll be together next year and all of us. We have a young team and we’re growing up together, so right now we’re just learning how to play together, waiting for Tyreke (Evans) to get back and see how we’re going to click."

"We need to buckle down, particularly in the fourth quarters, get stops and execute our offense," adds Thornton. "Quarters one through three, we’re fine, but in the fourth quarters we have mental lapses. If we want to be a great team, we can’t have that."

Everyone knows their foundation on the court is Tyreke Evans. In a day and age where star players feel free to rip their own team in the media at times and, in some cases, complain their way into a trade, Evans is happy with most of what he sees even during this turbulent season.

"We just want to win the games and not worry about who is scoring the points," Evans told HOOPSWORLD. "Just play as a team and try to get the W because that’s the most important thing. We’re just staying focused and finishing the season strong. We need to finish the game out and play hard for 48-minutes. We’re young and we’ve been having problems winning games, but it’s going to get better for us. We just have to keep working hard and we’re going to be a good team. Once we get the hang of each other, next year when we start training camp we’re going to be a pretty good team."

The young players are leading the way for the rest of the team on the court. Off the court, the veterans lead the way. Although few players today have gone through a relocation, the veterans on the Kings are teaching professionalism.

"We just have to be professional and we have to let that just fly over our heads," said Dalembert. "You have no say in that decision and we’re just here to play. No matter where we go, it’s going to be as a team and we have to go. We can’t say, ‘I don’t want to go there’ because it’s not about that. It’s about us getting ready for games and winning because at the end of the day, it’s all about winning. We have to learn how to win."

They have to learn how to win, no matter where they call home.