By admin 
Coach Doug Christie didn’t like what he saw during an outlet drill Tuesday as the Sacramento Kings closed out the first day of training camp.
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Groups of players flew up and down the floor in both directions, rebounding, running and passing ahead to teammates for transition 3-pointers and layups. Christie stopped play repeatedly to make his players run the drill again, urging them to make good passes and hit shots.
“One bad pass and the whole drill goes to s—,” Christie shouted, his voice echoing off the walls inside the team’s Golden 1 Center practice facility. “One bad pass. On time. On target. Take care of your teammate.”
Christie is entering the second year of his contract with no guarantee for the third and final year. He will be evaluated largely on his ability to uphold the standard he and general manager Scott Perry are trying to set as they establish a new identity for Kings basketball.
When asked if repeating the outlet drill was an example of holding players to that standard, Christie said: “Absolutely. That’s just coaching and making sure all those little things matter. Clearing the backboard when you inbound the ball. On-time on-target passes. All the little things. We want to be really good. We’re going to be really good, and to get there you can’t skip steps.”
Sacramento is projected to be one of the worst teams in the NBA again this season after going 22-60 last season. The Kings believe they could be much better after adding rookie point guard Darius Acuff Jr. and three-time All-Star Ben Simmons to a roster that includes guards Zach LaVine, Malik Monk and Nique Clifford; forwards Keegan Murray, De’Andre Hunter and Precious Achiuwa; and centers Domantas Sabonis, Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell.
“They don’t expect anything from us,” Simmons said. “So I think for us to go out there and show that we’re capable of winning games and having a good team, I think that’s good. And just based on this roster, I think we can do that.”
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Achiuwa said he expects the Kings “to win a lot of games.”
“For me, that’s the No. 1 thing,” Achiuwa said. “Obviously that comes with playing at a high level, competing every night, going out there, playing hard, playing team basketball, playing winning basketball. Once you’re able to do that, I think that you put yourself in a better position to win basketball games. And I have high confidence that we’ll be able to do that this year.”
Kings legend Chris Webber attended the first day of training camp after accepting an invitation from Perry. Webber is expected to remain with the team for about a week.
Christie was thrilled to see a beloved former teammate from the squad that reached the 2002 Western Conference finals.
“Man, I miss him,” Christie said. “He always brings a good vibe for me, so it was really good. He has so much knowledge. He loves this city and loves the fan base and loves this team, so just to get him back, it was good.
“He spoke to (the players). I won’t necessarily say what he talked about, but it was good for him to tell them. I give them these experiences and knowledge and different things, and to allow him to come in and he speaks to them, and a lot of those same messages are being relayed to them. He has come to the city and did something that hadn’t been done, and that’s what we are going to do. Now, it’s been done, but for someone who did it to speak on those things is really powerful.”
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This story was originally published September 30, 2026 at 7:55 AM.