Although Sacramento won only six of its final 15 games, the stint gave Jordan a chance to tinker with the lineup and get a start on laying a new foundation. "You could see Eddie making adjustments as he went," says Kings director of player personnel Jerry Reynolds. "Even though he's a new coach, in a sense he's not."

Preparing for his first full season as a head coach, the 42-year-old Jordan has already made several significant changes. For the first time, the Kings held an off-season "skills" camp, three days of voluntary workouts in Sacramento in August. Most of the rostered players took part. "The guys seemed to enjoy seeing one another," Reynolds says. "They didn't have to show. It's a credit to Eddie."

Another Jordan first: The Kings are holding training camp outside the Sacramento area, at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, five hours south. While there, they'll put in two-a-day workouts, a training regime St. Jean never employed. "I want to make some changes on both ends, especially defensively," Jordan says. "We have to break some old habits."

Except for star guard Mitch Richmond, who was dissatisfied with his contract ($5.5 million, total, over the next two years) and was asking to be traded, it was a team of relatively happy campers who gathered at the new site. One of them is Corliss Williamson, who in his third year in the NBA will take up full-time residence at small forward. He averaged 11.6 points last season but bumped that figure to 17.6 points, along with 5.6 rebounds, in the team's final eight games, three of which he started. "The chance Eddie gave me, it gave me confidence," Williamson says. "I think I proved I can play in this league."

Bobby Hurley also has reason to be optimistic. He'll begin the season as the Kings' starting point guard for the first time since the fall of 1993, his rookie year. After starting the first 19 games that season, Hurley was almost killed in a car accident on his way home from ARCO Arena on Dec. 12. He returned the next season, but his game didn't really come back until Jordan handed him the starting job for the team's final nine games last spring. Over that stretch Hurley averaged 6.4 points, 8.1 assists and 2.1 steals as the Kings went 5-4. "By the end of last year he was playing probably his best basketball since he's been here," Reynolds says. "His teammates seemed to respond to him well."

Barring a trade of Richmond, the Kings' strong suit will be their guard rotation. Hurley will be rejoined by an old friend who has also fallen a bit behind schedule. Waived by the Clippers after four seasons, 6'4" Terry Dehere signed with Sacramento in August. In 1989 the Hurley-Dehere backcourt helped St. Anthony High of Jersey City win the state championship; Jordan, who tried to recruit both when he was an assistant at Rutgers, can only hope the reunion brings similar success. Dehere will back up both guard spots, as will Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Second-round pick Anthony Johnson is a defense-minded point guard who can provide depth—good news when you consider that sometime starter Tyus Edney signed with Boston over the summer.

Bolstering the shooting-guard and small-forward spots will be first-round pick Olivier Saint-Jean, the first French national to play in the NBA. At San Jose State last year, Saint-Jean led the Western Athletic Conference in scoring, with 23.8 points per game. "We've probably never had a player with his explosiveness and athleticism here," Reynolds says.

Another newcomer—6'9" forward Lawrence Funderburke—isn't so new. A 1994 second-round pick of the Kings, Funderburke spent three years playing in Greece and France, and the Ohio State product now appears ready to make an impact in the NBA. "In Europe he matured physically and emotionally," Reynolds says. Funderburke signed a two-year contract this summer.

Olden Polynice will start at center for the fourth season, with Michael Smith at power forward. Jordan thinks the old faces will mix well with the new ones in running a half-court offense he describes as "a combination of old Knicks, old Celtics, new Bulls and new Jazz."

As long as it's not the same old Kings, Sacramento will take it.

—Dana Gelin