Photo The cool draft is just fine for Kings

By Joe Cronin and Ken Gimblin

June 29, 2005
Louisville's Francisco Garcia gets a shot off over the defense of Eastern Kentucky's Michael Haney during action of their game Thursday Dec. 30, 2004 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky. Garcia was selected as the No. 23 pick in the NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings, Tuesday, June 28, 2005 in New York. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
 



SACRAMENTO - He's Francisco Garcia, now known as a first-round draft choice of the Sacramento Kings. We're talking about the guy whose background was from the Dominican Republic, but he moved to New York with a great basketball player in the New York City area, and then finally went to the University of Louisville. Garcia left the school after his sophomore year.

Garcia is a big guard, but he can play some small forward - a great shooter, especially from outside, and a great guy for hitting 3-pointers. Although college players seldom show a defensive proclivity this early, Garcia is a tough guy, mentally tough, to have done what he's done. Remember the story from the NCAA tournament? We believe Garcia's brother got murdered in New York and Garcia went out and scored 18 points in Louisville's next game. That takes a lot of intestinal fortitude and the Kings are going to like that.

Nobody thought Garcia would be around at No. 23. From a practical standpoint, he looks like the kind of guard that would probably be a part-time player and probably play some serious minutes towards the end of the season, depending on how he develops.

There is one isolated story that Garcia has gained about 20 pounds and a lot of muscle over the offseason.

Garcia is going to be a good player in the NBA and he's going to fit right in into the Kings' system.

The Kings' front office is happy with Garcia. He's probably not going to start right away - there might be six or eight players that have the chance to come right in and start - but Garcia will be a major contributor and he's expected to help out a lot.

It doesn't look like Cuttino Mobley is going to be back with Sacramento, and this was the only pick the Kings had in the draft. Their second-round pick was sent to the Boston Celtics in the Darius Songaila trade, and it doesn't look like Darius is going to be around next season, either.

Joe Cronin and Ken Gimblin co-star in the American Idol version of radio Sportstalk on 1430 KVVN San Jose and 1110 KLIB Sacramento. JC & Kenny G cover the Kings during the regular season.

 

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