DeMar DeRozan is excited to join the Kings after the franchise made such a concerted effort to recruit him.
In speaking to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on “The Hoop Collective” podcast, the newest member of the Kings explained what Sacramento did to recruit him during free agency.
“Man, all those guys had reached out,” DeRozan said. “The crazy thing is, I remember one morning I had a text from Malik [Monk] and De’Aaron [Fox]. Obviously, I've known Trey Lyles for years, I played with him in San Antonio.
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“[Kings assistant coach] Leandro Barbosa reached out, he was on my team when I was in my second in the league, so he was blowing my phone up nonstop so everybody, it was kind of like a collective effort that made me feel overly wanted.”
The pairing of DeRozan, a six-time All-Star with the likes of Domantas Sabonis and Fox, will give Sacramento plenty of offensive firepower to match any team in the competitive Western Conference.
While it can prove difficult for a star of DeRozan’s caliber to mesh with a new team, the 36-year-old feels confident things will work out.
“What was great was a couple of weeks ago, Sabonis wanted to come out to LA to work out with me we spent a whole week together just working out,” DeRozan told Windhorst. “Guys embrace me, guys ask questions. It's so much that people haven't even gotten a chance to see us trying to build that chemistry and understand that everybody there wants to win.
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“You got a great coach in Mike Brown who wants to win that's going to push it so to me, I see myself fitting in just fine.”
The Kings have assembled an impressive stockpile of talent in recent years and Sacramento hopes the addition of DeRozan is the missing piece to its playoff puzzle. The franchise has not won a playoff series since 2004 and has not advanced to the Western Conference finals since 2002.