New Kings GM Pete D'Alessandro provided the media with plenty of information today about the issues facing the team as it turns its focus away from ownership and management changes and toward typical NBA offseason business. Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee passed along several highlights, as we round up here:
- Dan Fegan, the agent for Kings center DeMarcus Cousins, appears to be going after a maximum-salary extension for his client this summer, and D'Alessandro says he has a good relationship with Fegan and plans to meet with Cousins in person. Fegan has advised Cousins to stay quiet about the Kings, but his silence doesn't mean he wants to be traded, Jones writes.
- D'Alessandro has already met with soon-to-be restricted free agent Tyreke Evans.
- Former Nuggets executive Mike Bratz will be D'Alessandro's assistant GM with the Kings, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim, a holdover from the previous regime in Sacramento, is in talks to join them in the front office, as Cowbell Kingdom's Jonathan Santiago tweets. If D'Alessandro had wound up with the Nuggets GM job, he said he would have tried to keep Bratz in Denver and recruit Abdur-Rahim.
- An ankle injury kept Shabazz Muhammad from working out as scheduled with the Kings today, but he met D'Alessandro for lunch.
- D'Alessandro also spoke about new scout George McCloud, who worked for D'Alessandro when they were both with the Warriors.