Facing big off season, Petire sees Kings' potential

Do you feel as if Evans having to play through his injury slowed his progress in his second season because he wasn't able to be himself?

Yes. This year, because of (the injury), his game didn't really have the chance to grow on the court in the way it has the potential to if you're not fighting an injury that doesn't stop you from playing but diminishes your ability to play to some extent. But going forward as a player, his preparation from the end of this season to the beginning of next season, because of what happened this season, will be of paramount importance as to what kind of player he will come back as to start next season.

There was a lot made of how the team would support and "handle" DeMarcus Cousins. How do you feel his season went with all the ups and downs?

He had moments of brilliance, and he had periods where he struggled either because of inexperience or, at times, because of the inability to control his emotions. But overall, as a 20-year-old player and having to compete at this level for the first time … everybody can see there's an exceptional player there. Even though he's only played the one year, again his offseason is going to be extremely important in terms of how he improves, how he works on his game and improves his body coming into the start of next season for him to not only realize his potential and go beyond where he was this year. Because they took the most shots, they played a lot of minutes, we really were and are relying on (Evans and Cousins) to be two of our best players, if not the two best players. They need to grow, and they need to apply themselves in ways that will allow that to happen.

Was there any way you could have expected Thornton to play at the level he did for the Kings?

No. I don't think anybody expected the consistency of the level of play that he gave us. Although if you do go back to his rookie year when New Orleans had the injuries and he and (Darren) Collison had to start a pretty significant stretch of games, he was pretty productive then. … He's a tough cover. He can get his own shot; he's a deep shooter, yet he's got a pull-up game, and he can get to the rim. He was really terrific for us.

What was your and coach Paul Westphal's last meeting with Omri Casspi like? He wasn't happy with his role at the end of the season.

I guess he was happy that the team played better and was winning more games, but he was frustrated that his playing time had really diminished from what it had been two-thirds of the season. We did have a discussion, which usually comes up with some players, about maybe it's better if I play somewhere else. But a lot of that gets borne out of frustration. I think he still has a chance to be a pretty valuable contributor because there are some things he does really well. But, again, there are areas of his game he needs to continue to work on to become more well-rounded in terms of the things he can do out there. He's a competitive guy, he's got a lot of pride, and we just left it at that.

What are the specific areas of need? Are you still looking for another ballhandler?

I think we need another creator, ballhandler. We need some more leadership on the court, either by the form of maturity or addition to the roster. Certainly we need to try to improve our three-point shooting, which fell off from a year ago. … We'll have to look to fill out our roster with another frontcourt player of some kind.