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Kings' Casspi, Joerger haven't spoken since preseason

Ron Chenoy / US Presswire

Omri Casspi is in head coach Dave Joerger's dog house, and he doesn't know why.

So far this season, the small forward's seen a drastically reduced role on the Sacramento Kings, having already missed eight of 14 games.

It was recently reported he'll meet with general manager Vlade Divac over his DNP-CDs which, as it turns out, his new head coach won't explain to him.

"We haven't talked since preseason," Casspi told Matt George of Cowbell Kingdom.

The Israeli swingman had been regularly part of the rotation since joining the team in the summer of 2014. He averaged career highs in points (11.8), rebounds (5.9), and minutes (27.2) over 69 contests - including 21 starts - in 2015-16 under George Karl.

Sacramento's latest bench boss (of many over the past decade) held a team meeting last week to announce the rotation for the struggling Kings, and Casspi wasn't part of it.

The eighth-year pro anticipated he'd have to compete for minutes after Sacramento signed Matt Barnes and Anthony Tolliver during the summer, but Casspi said he wasn't given a chance.

He hasn't requested a trade, though, instead taking the high road and saying he just wants to help the team win. But it doesn't look like he'll have the chance to do so on the court with Joerger expressing vehement opposition to playing him.

Following Friday's loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, the coach was asked about the possibility of Casspi playing more given Rudy Gay's struggles.

"You want me to give him some of Rudy's minutes? Yeah, that's not happening," Joerger replied.

Poor Casspi.

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