Connor Atchley To Attend Sacramento Kings Training Camp

The Sacramento Kings already have 12 players with guaranteed contracts going into next week's training camp, but that hasn't stopped them from seemingly trying to find out just how many players they're able to wrangle up to compete for - at most - the last three available spots on the roster.

Having already secured the services of Darnell Jackson, Donald Sloan, Joe Crawford, Marcus Landry, Luther Head and J.R. Giddens, I've learned that Kings' Summer Leaguer Connor Atchley will also be in attendance for the Kings training camp when it begins next Tuesday.

Atchley, a 6-foot-10 stretch four, had a rather underwhelming performance for the Kings in Vegas by averaging just 3.8 points and 2.6 rebounds while shooting 38 percent from the field in just over 10 minutes per game.  Before heading to Vegas, however, he played for the New Jersey Nets in the Orlando Pro Summer League where he averaged a bit more impressive 7.6 points and 4.2 rebounds in 22.2 minutes of playing time.

The 25-year-old Atchley looked to be well on his way to being drafted after his junior season at Texas after averaging 9.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and leading the Big 12 in blocks while shooting better than 41 percent from three-point territory, but had a down senior year and thus is still struggling to get his first taste of NBA action.

After going undrafted in the 2009 NBA Draft, Atchley latched on with the Golden State Warriors for Summer League play before heading overseas to play in Turkey last season.  An early injury brought him back to the states, however, and he chose to play out the rest of the season in the D-League with the Dakota Wizards and Iowa Energy.  Appearing in 41 D-League games, Atchley averaged 6.5 points and 3.8 rebounds, but upped his numbers in the playoffs by averaging 10.8 points and 8.5 rebounds in the Energy's six postseason games.

Oh, and just in case you haven't seen enough of Atchley yet, here's what I wrote about him prior to Summer League:

Connor Atchley, F/C, Texas - Atchley's tall, but that's about where his inclusion in the "bigs" category ends up.

The 6-foot-10 stringbean played for the Dakota Wizards in the NBA Development League last season averaging seven points and four rebounds in 33 games (11 starts).  And then he was cut - which seems to have been a bad idea considering both the Nets and Kings this Summer).  He was picked up to end the season with the Iowa Energy, though, and they better utilized the stretch four (specifically in this playoff game).

The 25-year-old Atchley is a spot-up shooter (and pretty good at it, actually), but with his size it'll take some semblance of an inside game before he's able to contribute to an NBA roster.

As far as his defense is concerned, it's best described as effectively-scrappy.  He's not going to shut his man down, but with his length and agility he's able to hold his own on the defensive end.

Happy camping!