Kings Notes: Hill, Carter, Joeger

For the first time in his career, George Hill of the Kings isn’t playing for an established winner. Forgive him, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee writes, if he hasn’t look entirely comfortable so far.

Through 14 games in 2017/18, the Kings sit second-last in the Western Conference with a 3-11 record. Hill, in 12 of those contests, has put up a pedestrian 8.5 points and 2.9 assists in just over 25 minutes per game.

“This year has been tough so far, trying to learn the guys, be a mentor and teach at the same time,” Hill said of his brief tenure with the Kings so far. “Plus the fact that sometimes you lose yourself in situations like that. I take full responsibility for the way I’ve been playing. I’ve got to come out with a better George from here on out.”

The guard intends to be more aggressive and look to score more as he works himself back into routine.

There’s more from the Kings today:

• Veteran free agent addition Vince Carter is hard at work mentoring the young Kings, Kyle Ramos of the team’s official site writes. Carter has been focused on helping the young team learn to play the right way and not develop bad habits when they’re losing.
• The Kings haven’t looked particularly dominant so far this season, but worse than losing is not competing enough. As Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee writes, head coach Dave Joerger isn’t afraid to come down on his young team if he doesn’t believe the effort is there. “We told our guys you’ve got to be ready to play because they’ll come at you, they compete and they play hard,” Joerger said ahead of Sacramento’s Wednesday night loss to the Hawks. “Losing is one thing, but we have to do a much better job of competing.“
• Kidney stones have sidelined 20-year-veteran Vince Carter over the course of the past four games, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee reports.