The 'Tolliver Effect' was in full swing Thursday night when the shorthanded Sacramento Kings ran over the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 at the Thomas and Mack Center. DeMarcus Cousins, Ty Lawson, Omri Casspi, Garrett Temple and Matt Barnes took the night off, allowing coach Dave Joerger to focus on a tight nine-man rotation.
What exactly is the Tolliver effect? It is something that assistant general manager Ken Catanella watched firsthand last season with a young Pistons team. While Tolliver averaged just 5.3 points and 3.2 rebounds per game in Detroit, his value goes well beyond the floor.
“It is just the energy and enthusiasm that develops when you have people like that in your locker room, in your practices, in your video sessions, on the team plane - it’s that consistency of approach and professionalism that permeates throughout your entire organization,” Catanella told CSN California earlier this week.
Coming into the offseason, the Kings looked for players with a long history of being quality influences behind the scenes. Tolliver and Temple both won teammate of the year awards with their respective teams last season. Barnes is a gritty player that is well liked by his teammates, as are Lawson and Arron Afflalo.
“He just has an immense heart,” Catanella said of Tolliver specifically. “When we look at players, we really want to make sure that all of our players check off that box - they have a big heart. And he is the personification of that - having a big heart.”
Tolliver, 31, brings intangibles, but he also believes he still has plenty to offer. He chose the Kings over the Pistons in free agency because he felt it gave him a better opportunity to make an impact both off and on the court.
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“They definitely felt like I had a role on that team, but they just had so many young guys and so many guys that they wanted to play,” Tolliver said of Detroit. “They wanted to bring me back as a locker room guy, which, that’s great, but I’m not in that position yet. Maybe in a few years when I have a few more miles on body, maybe I’ll be in that position where I’ll be a little bit more of a locker room guy, but right now, I feel like I can still compete and help teams win games.”
Tolliver went an incredible 7-of-7 from behind the arc Thursday against the Lakers. He finished the night with 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and a block in 33 minutes of action. He also posted a plus/minus number of plus 17, which is right in line with the plus 23 he posted against Maccabi Haifa, the plus 10 he posted in a losing effort to the Warriors.
Once the season begins, Tolliver will be in a fight for minutes with Casspi and Barnes at the reserve forward spot. He is the most natural stretch-four the Kings have on their roster and it’s hard to see him falling out of the rotation with his strong preseason play. But each of these players brings something different to the court.
“We’ve got some duplication between he and Matt and Omri,” Joerger said following practice on Wednesday. “We’ve just got to work it out because all three are good players and all three should play. How’s it going to work in the rotation together...”
Faced with tough decisions, Joerger said that there is always the chance that he falls back on what veteran coach Hubie Brown did in Memphis. During the 2003-04 season, 10 players averaged 19 minutes or more, with only Pau Gasol playing more than 30 minutes per game. He prefers a nine or 10 man rotation, but there is chemistry that develops with a club when everyone is contributing.
It will take time to sort out, but in the meantime, Tolliver will continue to do what he does. As someone who had to work his way into the league and fight to keep a roster spot every year, he has a unique perspective that he can share with the Kings three first round picks.
“He comes everyday prepared the same way, he plays the same way, he brings a passion to every practice,” Catanella said. “He’s the first one in the gym, just like one of the rookies.”
The Kings made a substantial investment in Tolliver this summer, handing him a 2-year, $16 million deal with a $2 million team option for the 2017-18 season. They don’t expect seven 3-pointers every night. They might not even expect 18 minutes per game out of the nine-year veteran. But they know he can have a major impact on this team as they try to build a winning culture.
