Kings rookie Maxime Raynaud on adjusting to the NBA game, preparing for Las Vegas Summer League

Kings rookie Maxime Raynaud on adjusting to the NBA game, preparing for Las Vegas Summer League

Day two out here. Um, you know, obviously still getting acclimated with guys, but um, you know, just from your assessment, how you feeling? How are things going? Feeling great. Uh, amazing opportunity to be here to be honest. Uh, being probably the youngest on the floor today and yesterday. Feels like I have a lot to learn. Uh, I’m trying to listen to the coaches and my teammates. And, um, I love the intensity we bring in every day. So, it’s good. You know, how has it been working with Dick? Is there anything in particular that he’s looking for you uh to develop throughout this uh summer? Well, I mean I I think for me personally, I need to develop my entire game, right? I mean, you come into the league, like you want to be able to first of all guard. I think that will be the identity of our team, being able to be like up at a level on the ball screen, being able to be physical, rebound. I think this is what he want me to start doing. And then later on, like, you know, share the ball. Uh play as a team, don’t have too many one-on-one situation. Just Yeah. share the ball, get some good shots. How do you feel like your game has to change or or just sort of adjust when playing at the NBA level? Well, I feel like it goes way faster. I mean, obviously 24 second shot clock compared to 30. So, you got to run a little faster. Um, everybody can shoot, everybody can put the ball on the floor. So, you know, you have to respect every single play on the court. Uh, play with more intensity. And then at the end of the day, they’re all professional, right? So, learning to take care of your body, learning to get your extra shots up, um, all that. Does it feel like kind of a whirlwind when you you get drafted, you fly here, you do all the media stuff, and now you’re back to playing basketball. Like what what are kind of some of the challenges of of kind of focusing in now on what lies ahead? Well, honestly, I mean, you don’t really stop playing basketball. I feel like during the whole process, you’re working out in the morning, in the afternoon. Uh yeah, you just get a little bit more media, but at the same time, you’ll have school. So, you know, uh it compensate. And I mean, that’s that’s what we kind of paid to do. So, I think it’s a dream. Uh and honestly, I love it. It’s good because it feels like your whole mindset is going to be 27 247 basketball. Uh whether it’s for the media or for the for the court. Um and obviously I I try to embrace it as much as I can and improve every day. With uh your Stanford head coach having coached Isaac out here before, did you did you know anything about him coming in or anything about the Kings? Well, I mean I knew a little bit about the Kings cuz I I’ve been to a couple games and also like you you’re pretty close to uh to to Stanford. On top of that, Andre Sarakovich is my teammate obviously. So PJ was, you know, a big name for for Sacramento. Um, and once again, it’s like an NBA team. I feel like if you’re a professional basketball player, you got to know a little bit of every NBA team. So yeah. And you scored really well at the college level. Um, obviously a little bit of a different game. You don’t have the size mismatch necessarily as often. How do you imagine your scoring translating to this level? Um, you know, let the game come to you to be honest. Uh, I feel like you should win more threes in NBA. That’s something I was doing last year, so that’s going to translate pretty well. And then even though you don’t have as many match up because everybody is like bigger and stronger like I’ll get bigger and stronger too. But for now just trying to focus on the defensive end. I think that’s the biggest room of improvement I have and then offense will take care of itself. I’m not worried about it. What are you focusing on defensive end is pick and roll. Um conditioning, being aggressive on the ball, ball screen defense, uh and mostly anchoring with stock. I think that’s the biggest thing when you’re the big kind of like the quarterback of the defense. Uh and then obviously you want to finish the possession with the right guy. You just mentioned your emphasis on defense. If there’s anything in particular that you want to showcase throughout this opportunity playing that summer league to where you look back and say that was a success. What particularly is that? Um probably yeah just extreme level of talk uh being able to you know anchor and coordinate the whole defense. That’s the biggest thing. And then do what you say. So you know being at the level of the screen. If you’re the low man trying to come block a shot box out. Um if you end up switching a ball screen, switch a ball screen. So all these things. You know, last year was interesting looking at like how you started the year from a shot blocking perspective like final nine 10 games. It felt like maybe something was adjusted or figured out. What changed for you down the stretch front of the season that that impacted? So, we just started working on it. Uh for for three and a half years I’ve been told to, you know, stay on the ground, don’t foul. Um and then the last 10 games started working with someone named James Reed, uh who was doing video analysis with us. So, I love to learn with watching film and he would just show me where I was positioned, uh, timing, what the best in the NBA do, and I just started to pick it up. I talked to my coach. He was like, “Look, as long as you rebound the ball afterwards, I’m fine with you blocking a shot and yeah, I went from, I think, one block shot a game to three uh, at the end of the season. So, yeah, just like anything, just start working on it and naturally you improve.” Yeah. What’s this uh, process been like for you off the court? just kind of getting adjusted to everything, moving around as much as you are. Yeah. Uh well, first of all, finding an apartment. Uh I’m currently filling up my application to have an apartment. So that’s big. Uh visiting a little bit. Uh I walked around, you know, the the capital. Uh walk around me town as well a little bit. Uh trying out different type of food with uh Nick and his family when they were there. So that’s what it is. But then at the end of the day, I think you can ask coach like I was just energy most of the day. They they kind of kicked me out at some point. But uh yeah, I mean that’s that’s the life I want to live to be honest. So the more in the gym the better. We already got fans fans recognizing you out there. You’re not exactly in, you know, sometimes happens.

Sacramento Kings 2025 Summer League big man rookie Maxime Raynaud spoke with reporters Tuesday afternoon following their team practice.

He discussed adjusting to NBA size, his potential impact on both ends of the floor, and more.

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