No breaking news out of Kings practice Thursday. Here's some leftover quotes, observations, etc.
*Thomas Robinson is still learning the NBA game. Like most college stars coming into the league, he expected a lot out of himself. But he's learning he needs to learn how to play the NBA.
"Pace, reading my defender, the situation of the game," Robinson said of what he's learning. "When to take a shot when not to take a shot. I think I really have one problem and that's pretty much it, just trying to catch up with the pace."
Smart mentioned this yesterday during pregame and brought it up again today.
He said he had to show Robinson film of himself not running as hard as he thought during games.
Smart wants and needs Robinson running as fast as possible. He's probably the most athletic player on the team. Unlike many of his teammates, Robinson has the ability to make defensive plays with his athleticism.
Robinson on his chase-down blocked shots (he had two against Indiana last week).
"I think out of the bigs I'm the youngest, probably with the youngest legs. And I'm the smallest besides Chuck and Chuck's not going to do that. I think that's something I have to have in my defensive package because I'm not 6-10 like J.T. and D-Cuz and I don't have the IQ on defense yet that Chuck has so I've got to use my athletic ability."
Smart on why he thought DeMarcus Cousins had a good game against Toronto:
"He ran the floor. He ran the floor last night because he can. I think that helped his game as well. I thought because he started the game off with a plan to go get rebounds that got him a little more involved in the game."
"If he sets his table like that for each game to rebound first, to get his teammates involved second and eventually look for his shot because he's going to play good minutes if he doesn't get in foul trouble."
*Smart had nice things to say about Orlando forward Glen Davis.
With no Dwight Howard or Ryan Anderson, Davis has a much bigger role. He's on pace to post career highs with 15.9 points and 8.4 rebounds.
"Big Baby is playing at a really high level, getting a chance to play as a starter now, full time and the ball is coming to him and he plays hard all the time."
*More on Robinson from Smart, who wants to continue to see good effort on defense (like chasing down plays for blocked shots):
"Always be in the play because you have the ability to affect the game from an energy standpoint that a lot of guys on our team can't. Because you can get back into the play and make a play unlike a lot of other guys."
*Smart and Chuck Hayes said even without Howard, the Magic are still a team that works hard and runs its sets well under first-year coach Jacque Vaughn.
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