From Israel to NBA, Casspi makes mark for Kings

If someone hadn't handed Omri Casspi the latest edition of Sports Illustrated, it might have been days before he hunted one down.

But before the Sacramento Kings played at Milwaukee on Saturday night, the rookie small forward was shown the four-page spread with the headline, 'Welcome, the King of Israel.' The NBA's first Israeli player smiled, his eyes widening at the prominence of the pictures of him inside America's most storied sports magazine.

"Nice," he said. "Very nice."

Casspi wasn't expected to show up on the Kings' active list on most nights during his first season, let alone see himself dubbed 'The King of Israel' in bold, 70-point font just days before Christmas.

The July summer-league performance in which he shot 29.5 percent and was a turnover machine made him look like D-League material with Kings coach Paul Westphal saying then he was a challenging project player. Five months later, Casspi is the newest Kings starter and easily the most productive rookie not taken as a lottery pick.

Not that he's about to revel in his newfound reputation. Casspi looked at the article for no more than 30 seconds.

"I'm not really trying to think about it, you know," Casspi said. "Maybe when I go back home (to Israel), when I have a couple of days with myself to think about the season and what I need to improve and how I did and how everything went for me in my first season.

"But there's no time now. I've got to keep rolling. Every game, every game. I've got to stay focused. I can't think about nothing else. Don't relax. Get ready for the next game. Sleep well. Eat well. That's about it."

It's that focus that led Westphal to begin to believe in Casspi nearly as much as he believes in himself. Casspi routinely reminds anyone who asks that he's "not here to fail," and he hasn't.

Heading into Monday night's game in Chicago, he's tied for fourth in scoring among rookies with Golden State's Stephen Curry at 11.8 points per game despite averaging seven-plus fewer minutes (32.3 for Curry to Casspi's 24.9) than the seventh pick of the 2009 NBA draft.

Casspi's field-goal percentage of 51.2 is second among rookies with San Antonio forward DeJuan Blair leading (59.6). Its Casspi's three-point shooting, though, that has surprised everyone but him. Casspi ranks seventh in the league in three-point shooting (45.5 percent) and first among rookies.

"I shot 50 percent in Europe (playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv) from three last season," Casspi said. "I didn't take as many attempts as now (2.8 per game), but it was something I was working on in the summer. I knew the NBA three-point line is farther out from the basket (than the European line), and I needed to work at it."

Much of his post-summer league work was done in Bradenton, Fla., where Casspi spent three weeks with David Thorpe, the trainer Kevin Martin has employed throughout his career.

"We worked on little things -- the way I handle the ball, because sometimes I drive the ball a little too low," Casspi said. "(Thorpe) never talked with me about my form, and he always reminded me that Kevin doesn't have the typically right form, but he's a great shooter.

"Sometimes, guys have a very good-looking shot and it doesn't go in, and other guys don't have the beautiful stroke and it works."

Minnesota small forward Corey Brewer worked with Casspi, Martin, New Jersey's Courtney Lee and others during those sessions and said Casspi had no problem rediscovering his range.

"He was shooting the cover off it," Brewer said. "When you watch somebody shoot, you can tell if they can shoot the ball or not, and he could shoot. ... I thought he could be a good NBA player. He's got that three-four (small forward, power forward position), a nice body, he can shoot it, he can take fours out, get his shot off over threes."

Yet just as Casspi didn't necessarily foresee himself being written about in Sports Illustrated two months into his NBA career, he never thought he'd be known as a shooter. That style has been an adjustment to the way in which more-heralded rookie teammate Tyreke Evans plays. Together, the Kings' duo has started quite a story in Sacramento.

"If teams are going to leave me wide open, then I'll shoot," Casspi said. "Tyreke draws a lot of attention when he penetrates, so as long as he is going to learn to kick it out more and do those little things, we're going to be a lot better team. We have to punish them. That's what I want to do."