Kings swingman John Salmons finished Tuesday's game with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting, three three-pointers, five rebounds and two assists.

The catch? He scored all 21 of his points by halftime, shooting 0-of-8 in the second half. Salmons is having a career-year, averaging 19.3 points on 49% shooting, and even the eventual return of Kevin Martin shouldn't slow him down too much.

(rotoworld.com)

John Salmons (strained thigh) returned to the Kings starting lineup on Saturday, finishing with 22 points on 7-of-17 shooting, five rebounds and two assists.
Salmons returned immediately to the starting five, moving Francisco Garcia (11 points in 20 minutes) back to the bench. For that alone, his owners have to be willing to overlook the somewhat off shooting and low assists.

(rotoworld.com)

The Kings are hopeful John Salmons can return Saturday after missing time with a strained thigh.
"All indications are that John will be all right by Saturday," Kings coach Reggie Theus said. "Of course, I don't know that. It just depends on what happens between now and that time." If Salmons plays, it would put the Kings at full strength for the first time this season

(rotoworld.com)

John Salmons scored 24 points on 11-of-19 shooting (2-of-4 from downtown) with four rebounds and two assists on Sunday.
Salmons has been singled out for being the Kings' only solid defender as of late, which should help secure his playing time even when Kevin Martin and Francisco Garcia return. The scoring tear he's on right now won't hurt matters, either.

Salmons is day-to-day with a strained left thigh. His status for Tuesday's game is up in the air.

"Depends on how I feel," Salmons said. "I had the same injury right before training camp. So, I'm not sure, but we will see." That's not very helpful when you're setting your lineups, though weekly owners should keep in mind that the Kings play only twice this week.

(rotoworld.com)

John Salmons was his own man even as a boy.

As a scrawny ninth-grader at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School, the quiet-as-a-mouse kid from Philadelphia had been handed the first challenge of his basketball career. When he wanted to make the early leap to the junior varsity, he spoke up for once, making the polite request to then-varsity assistant Jim D'Onofrio. He was told his left-handed layup was nothing short of awful, and that only players who had two hands were suited for that level. Thus, the directive.

So the pounding began on the street outside the Moore family's suburban home in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., where Salmons was far removed from Philly's grittiest neighborhoods and the family that had taken him in was inside while he worked.

"We had a basketball court outside in the driveway, and John would start from the opposite side of the street, dribble all the way with his left hand until he made a left-handed layup and do that for at least two hours every night," said Chuck Moore, his closest friend and former high school teammate. "I was inside watching TV and doing whatever I was doing, and he was out there pounding the ball. … With that drive and determination, I was like, 'This kid's going to make it, and he's going to be special.' "

Salmons always has moved to the beat of his own dribble.

When the Kings small forward was just 8 and still living with his mother, Sandra, in a small brick home in North Philadelphia, he would skip track practice to escape to Finley Recreation Center and be alone with the blacktop. The court was a quick right turn out his front door and just a few bounce passes down East Sharpnack Street. Salmons would slither through a hole in the chain-link fence just to work on the game that drew him in.

When his mother's decision to send her only child out of the city and into the suburbs for high school paid off with a state championship and scholarship offers, he shunned powerhouse colleges, including Kansas, for a Miami program that simply didn't compare. Four years of historic success later (the Hurricanes were 86-39 with him), Salmons entered the NBA with his hometown 76ers after they traded for the 26th pick on draft night in 2002.

When Salmons, then a restricted free agent, could choose his path out of frustration after four seasons (and five coaches) in Philadelphia in 2006, he kept two organizations dangling (Toronto and Phoenix) before backing out of a sign-and-trade deal with the Raptors to join the Kings. The move left even the most loyal members of his inner circle – not to mention basketball fans nationwide – shaking their heads in disbelief.

"It's not like he had just had a four-year run like Kobe (Bryant)," an exasperated D'Onofrio said recently from his classroom at Plymouth-Whitemarsh. "People locally and in his inner circle are thinking, 'Is he crazy?' But he is going to do what's right for John Salmons, come hell or high water. And that's what he did. He is going to do what makes sense for him."

Faith has guided him

The first man in Salmons' life had shared nothing more than a name with his son. John Salmons Sr. owned taverns in the Philadelphia area, meaning he wasn't home much even before he disappeared.

But Salmons, a devout Christian and teetotaler, found ways to fill the void when his father left for good just before he entered junior high school. He was, and remains, extremely close with his mother, Sandra. A nurse's aid while Salmons was growing up, she was the one who called the Moores one day to ask if her son could live with them as a way of attending Plymouth-Whitemarsh instead of the local Martin Luther King High School. While they lived in a somewhat serene lower-middle class neighborhood, changing schools put him at distance from some of the city's worst neighborhoods that were just blocks away. Salmons also grew close to his stepfather, Douglas Lillie, and Chuck Moore Sr., and eventually would call them father figures.

Yet Salmons said it wasn't until he watched his son grow day by day that he began to realize the impact of his father being gone. With his son, Josiah, approaching his first birthday and Salmons a happy family man with his wife, Taneisha, his perspective has changed.

(sacbee.com)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — John Salmons scored 29 points and Bobby Jackson had all eight of his points in the final 5:10 to help the injury-depleted Sacramento Kings surprise the New Orleans Hornets 105-96 on Wednesday night.

Jackson hit a 3-pointer to give the Kings the lead for good at 90-88. He followed with a baseline jumper and a steal that led to Salmons' layup, then finished off the Hornets with another 3-pointer that made it 99-91 with 3:08 left.

Sacramento played without leading scorer Kevin Martin, who missed his sixth consecutive game because of a sprained ankle, and starting forward Mikki Moore. The Kings had been 1-5 away from home, losing four of those games by 15 points or more, and were playing their second game on the road in two nights.

Chris Paul led New Orleans with 20 points and 15 assists. The Hornets, coming off three days of rest, fell to .500 (5-5) for the first time since the end of the 2006-07 season.

(ap.com)

It'll be tough to find someone who is happier to have the Kings and pro basketball back than I.

It's an addiction I admit, and I'm not going to rehab.

Word on the street is John Salmons, despite a slight groin issue, terrorized his teammates during the first week of camp. Players and coaches seemed to agree that the small forward is ready to be a starter for the first time in his career.

Salmons played exceptionally well as a starter last season and stunk up the joint coming off the bench. There were no apparent reasons for the difference other than the mind is powerful.

It will be interesting to see if anyone can stop Salmons from going right. This is not a secret from North Korea. The man consistently goes that direction, and surely every scouting report indicates such.

Yet many players have made a nice career out of going one way. The one who stands out is Johnny Moore, a quick and fast point guard, who played at Texas and then nearly all of his pro career with the San Antonio Spurs.

Moore was going right even when he momentarily went to the left. He often dribbled up the court's left side just to give himself more room to go right. In fact, only contracting desert fever in 1985 ultimately kept Moore from going right. However, the man four times averaged 9.6 assists or more.

It'll be interesting to see if defenses go at Salmons any differently as a starter.

(sacbee.com)

John Salmons participated in the Kings training camp despite suffering a strained groin muscle in early September.
Salmons stayed off his feet for two weeks prior to training camp and has been excused from the team-mandated conditioning test. The injury does not sound serious ("It's not torn, just more sore," according to Salmons) and owners just have to hope that it doesn't linger. Reggie Theus has named Salmons a starter, leaving Francisco Garcia in a reserve role...at least for now.

(rotoworld.com)

For the most part, this wasn't a meet and greet for Kings players. The rookies have been working out at the Kings' practice facility throughout the summer, running into the regular gym rats such as Kevin Martin and Francisco García.

So, no introductions were needed at the Kings media day Monday, coach Reggie Theus said, although he admitted he needed to reacquaint himself with John Salmons.

"I told John Salmons that I'm going to get a snapshot of him and put it in my pocket so I can remember what he looks like over the summer," Theus said. "He goes home and I don't see him until he gets back. But he works hard."

Salmons said he spent his summer in Philadelphia, enjoying life as a new father to a four-month-old son.
"It's a new experience, definitely a fun experience," Salmons said.

(sacbee.com)

John Salmons keeps flying under the radar, but not for long. He has steadily improved his play in every one of his six years in the league. Salmons set career highs in many categories this season, including points (12.5), rebounds (4.3), and shooting (47.7%). The Kings have secured his services for just over $5 million each of the next three seasons. If he keeps this up, Salmons will be an incredible bargain. Francisco Garcia also improved a lot last season. His shooting percentages have gone up every year and he was able to put in 12.3 points per game this season. Garcia still has one more year under the rookie pay scale and another performance like this one would definitely make him a keeper.

(nbadraft.net)

John Salmons posted the finest season of his six-year career in '07-'08, but the real story was his excellent production as a starter. Over 41 starts while filling in for various players, The Fish scored 17.5 points on 49.7% shooting, 5.4 rebounds, 3.5 dimes, 1.6 steals. His threes and free throw percentage weren't too shabby, and neither were his 18 games of 20+ points.

(rototimes.com)

According to hoopsworld.com:

MVP: John Salmons was the safe choice even with guard Kevin Martin and Ron Artest both averaging over 20 points per game this season. Salmons was steady on the offensive end of the court for the Kings and had the task of covering the opposition's best perimeter player each game, which he faired quite well all season. Salmons, who is the Kings' best overall player, played in 81 games (21 more than Kevin Martin and 25 more than Ron Artest this season) and averaged a solid 12.5 points while grabbing 4.3 rebounds down in the trenches for the Kings this season. If you are looking for a guy who fills the stat sheet and played hard every night, Salmons provided that for the Kings. Because of Salmons, head coach Reggie Theus now knows he has another solid player to compliment Artest and Martin in helping lead this organization for many years to come.

John Salmons played on Tuesday despite a bothersome right ankle. He said X-rays came back negative and he doesn't plan on missing any games. "We've got a lot of time off coming in a couple of weeks," Salmons said. His value is limited coming off the Kings bench, but on the off chance Ron Artest shuts it down for the season Salmons should immediately be picked up.

(rotoworld.com)