The temperature is cooling down, the Sacramento State sweatshirts are out in full force, and the leaves are changing colors, which means that basketball season is upon us.

And nowhere does basketball seem bigger than in Sacramento, where the Kings are all we have.

Unfortunately for Kings fans, the team is coming off of its worst season in almost a decade. The Kings missed the playoffs after eight-straight postseason appearances. Head coach Eric Musselman was shown the door after only one year and gave us nothing to admire except for his name, which sounds like it could belong to a really bad Bond villain.

This season, the Kings have new coach Reggie Theus, who has no previous NBA head-coaching experience, and the team’s first lottery pick this millennium in Spencer Hawes. Obviously there are a lot of question marks with this team, and at Kings media day today, I tried to see if I could erase some of them.

Aside from being a snappy dresser, Theus exuded confidence and professionalism in his time with the media this afternoon. He had some strong words for his new team and made it clear that his players won’t get by with mediocre effort.

“I’m looking for guys who are going to play hard,” Theus said. “And the guys that are going to play hard, the guys that are going to be concentrating on defense and being teammates are the guys who are going to play for me.”

Theus went on to say that he has not decided who will play or who will start.

Even though not all of the players have spent much time getting to know Theus yet, he has already made an impression on some people in the organization.

Kings owner Gavin Maloof said Theus has made a difference with “the impact of players being here, working out and practicing a month or so before training camp.”

“We’ve never had that,” Maloof said.

“He brings a lot of energy,” said center Justin Williams. “He knows a lot about the game.”

Ron Artest, the man who is as famous for what he does off the court as he is for his accomplishments on it, had nothing but good things to say.

Artest said he and Theus spoke a few times in the offseason and had some sushi together.

“I think he’s definitely going to hold people accountable and make sure you work hard,” Artest said.

Artest will be suspended for seven games for the start of the regular season, stemming from his offseason domestic violence incident which he pleaded no contest to. He said he has worked hard and “can’t wait to get started.”

Another story that kept coming up was Brad Miller and his own offseason workout program. Miller said he lost about 25 pounds since the end of last season.

“It wasn’t easy,” Miller said. “I don’t like eating chicken every day.”

“Brad looks great,” Williams said. “That just means good things for the rest of the team.”

“Brad is unbelievable,” Artest said. “You can’t say enough about how he worked this summer.”

One of last offseason’s story lines, who will start at power forward, might be a hot topic in training camp once again.

The two most likely starters, former all-star Shareef Abdur-Rahim and last year’s starter Kenny Thomas, both said they hadn’t spoken to Theus about who will start and didn’t have much to say on the subject.

As for the never-ending new arena saga, Maloof said he is encouraged with the progress of the newest proposal, which is to build a sports and entertainment venue at Cal Expo.

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” Maloof said. “Everybody is realizing that an arena has to be built.”

The team will enter this next season with some promise, but it remains to be seen if it will be enough to get the Kings back to the playoffs. A lot of adjustments are going to need to be made under Theus with a team that didn’t have a discernible identity last season.

“It’s going to be a little rocky at first,” Maloof said about the upcoming season. “We’re not counting on the playoffs, but if we do make the playoffs it’s a bonus.”

Well Gavin, at least you’ll still have the Palms. As for the rest of us, we’ll just have to hope for the best.

Contact Fernando Gallo at [email protected]