Pacific Notes: Payne, Kings, Turkoglu, Watson

Point guard Cameron Payne‘s draft stock is on the rise and he’ll have a solo workout next week with the Kings, who pick sixth, as Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star hears (Twitter link). Payne, who reportedly has a promise from a team, recently spoke with Zach Links of Hoops Rumors about his experience at mid-major Murray State and his plans for the NBA. Centers Satnam Singh from IMG Academy and Stefan Nastic from Stanford and Cal power forward David Kravish will also work out for the Kings, the team announced. Their auditions will be Thursday. There’s more from Sacramento amid the latest on the Pacific Division:

  • Kings vice president of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac believes that free agency will be more useful for the team than trades, the draft or the development of existing players will be, as Divac said Tuesday, according to Bill Herenda of CSN California (Twitter link).
  • Hedo Turkoglu wouldn’t rule out signing a new NBA contract, retirement or playing for Turkey’s Fenerbahce as he spoke about his plans for next season with the Turkish media outlet TRT Spor, as Ajans Basketbol transcribes and as Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia translates. Turkoglu’s deal with the Clippers expires this summer.
  • The Suns will hire Earl Watson as an assistant coach, according to Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group (Twitter link). Watson spent this past season as a D-League assistant for the Spurs.
  • The Clippers have worked out Gonzaga point guard Byron Wesley, tweets Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times.
  • Cal State Fullerton guard Alex Harris was to have worked out for the Lakers but didn’t because of an illness, Pincus also relays via Twitter.
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