If Donte' Greene and Pete Carril have anything in common, it's that they're restless.
Greene, the 20-year-old rookie small forward out of Syracuse acquired by the Kings in the summer trade with Houston for Ron Artest, hasn't seen the floor in seven of the last eight games and is itching to feel like a basketball player again. Carril, the 78-year-old Princeton coaching legend whose offensive mind was such an asset to the Kings when he was assistant in Sacramento for 10 years, yearns to make an impact on the floor again as well.
It appears both men will be getting their wishes soon, as the Kings announced today that Carril will be pulled out of retirement to serve as a consultant and Greene - according to sources close to the team - will depart for the Kings' NBA Developmental League team in Reno on Saturday.
Greene's departure may only be for a few games or perhaps longer, but his mere presence on the Bighorns' roster is historical because he is the first Kings player sent to its D-League team. The team is coached by Jay Humphries, a former NBA player and Phoenix Suns assistant. Monarchs assistant coach Tom Abatemarco is an assistant coach for the team as well. It is a good thing for him if only because of the return to relevance. Greene, who said early this season that he was open to the prospect of going to the D-League, had grown frustrated as the months wore on and the continued losing had no effect on his nonexistent role.
The addition of Carril is significant in more subtle ways. When he left alongside coach Rick Adelman after the then-coach wasn't rehired in 2006, the offensive style and system that proved so successful during that era went missing too. The heavy emphasis on ball movement and reacting based on reading the defense was replaced by traditional halfcourt sets and a more scripted approach under former coaches Eric Musselman and Reggie Theus. The ball-sharing ways had led to assists numbers that routinely were among the league leaders, only to be followed by Kings teams that were among the worst in both assists and turnovers.
Enter Carril. The man so widely known as "Coachie" has remained close with Geoff Petrie, the Kings basketball president and Carril's former player at Princeton. He will be on hand as a source of wisdom and teacher but he will not be on the bench of interim coach Kenny Natt. - Sam Amick
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