SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Everything is different now, and very much the same.

Keon Clark is in Sacramento, adding frontcourt depth after signing as a free agent. That's new, although more of a minor adjustment since he will come off the bench. But the Kings are still the best passing team in the league and a versatile offensive weapon. That's the same. Two All-Stars, Chris Webber and Peja Stojakovic, are at forward. Same. The Los Angeles Lakers still have to look backward to wave at them, from the rear window of the still-speeding car. Definitely the same.

The difference for 2002-03 -- the Kings hope -- is at point guard. Where there is no change.

	Mike Bibby, left, has bigger expectations to go with his new mega contract.

Mike Bibby is the starter, just as he was last season. But Bibby is also a star now in a new role in his NBA life -- and a very rich one at that -- although it's not that entirely unfamiliar given his college success at Arizona.

People will hold him in a different light, namely a much brighter one. A new contract at seven years and $80 million tends to do that. His superstar-level play against the Mavericks and Lakers, in the second and third rounds of the playoffs last season, got him that kind of raise, but it also raised the level of expectations.

So training camp arrives and look who is stepping up.

The guy who stood on the shoulders of the Mavericks and Lakers and nearly pushed a team that had never been past the second round all the way into the Finals and, presumably once there against the weaker Nets, a title.

"He's a much more confident player right now," Kings coach Rick Adelman said. "When you have the kind of success he had last year in the playoffs, you know what you can do."

The problem for Bibby is that the elevation of his game is not optional. That kind of postseason and that kind of contract makes people come to expect star power on a regular basis. While consistency has always been one of his hallmarks, regularly being one of the better point guards in the league, as he was anyway before all the attention hit in the postseason, is not the kind of steadiness that will work now.

That's not the feeling within the Kings themselves. There is enough offensive talent that a Bibby slump could pass without problem in the standings. There are even enough ball handlers for that -- Vlade Divac is one of the great centers ever in that regard, Webber is good, Hedo Turkoglu was once thought to have potential to become a point guard, and backup Bobby Jackson and shooting guard Doug Christie all have experience in initiating an offense. No Bibby for a stretch? No biggie.

But that is the perception in general, that the guy who has never been an All-Star but this season will make about $3 million more than Steve Nash, $700,000 more than John Stockton and only about $800,000 less than Jason Kidd (the best of all the point guards) can't be the same regular-season player as before. And that is an acknowledgement that comes from every dateline.

"You have to be a great player," Kings co-owner Gavin Maloof said at the time of the signing.

"No question," said David Falk, Bibby's agent.

"I think it's something he will relish," Falk added. "He's quiet on the exterior, but if you know him, he's got a burning desire inside that feeds on competition. I don't think it's any coincidence that on a team with All-Stars, he was the one taking big shots, including Game 7 of the conference finals."

Typical of his low-key persona, Bibby doesn't concede that $80 million buys one big spotlight. But the Maloofs know it will be coming and Falk knows it will be coming, to such an extent that he had planned at some point to talk to his client about how perceptions of a player can dramatically change with a massive deal.

	“	I'm not worried about that. I'm going to do the same things as when I came into the season. I'm not going to get 20-something points a game just because I got a new contract. ”
		— Mike Bibby

"I'm not worried about that," Bibby said. "I'm going to do the same things as when I came into the season. I'm not going to get 20-something points a game just because I got a new contract."

The great thing about being a King is that the team's future isn't riding on whether he does. The only glitch in the early days of training camp is that Stojakovic has a sore foot that, at least for now, is considered a minor injury that could cost him a week of workouts. However, the greatest worry beyond that is whose turn it is for the latest response to the latest Laker barb that came in response to the latest Sacramento dig that came in response to the latest Los Angeles comment. Latrell Sprewell doesn't have this much punch.

It is a Kings team that approaches the regular season with an earned confidence and a calm, without much news from inside the camp. The only thing that comes close -- besides who will draw the short straw and be the one to tell Webber's brother, undrafted guard David from Central Michigan, that he is getting cut -- is the only new face. Clark arrived three days late, the first two with team permission to attend to personal business, but made an immediate impression after that in all the right ways.

He and Scot Pollard, already one of the league's best reserve big men, will play behind Webber at power forward and Divac at center, depending on whether the matchup calls for strength (Pollard) or athleticism (Clark). The heavyweight division in most of the 2,849 boxing federations don't go four deep with big men, let alone most NBA teams. Like the rest of the team, Clark is a willing and able passer, so he will fit in, beyond bringing the added dimension of being a shot blocker.

"He's going to help out a lot," Jackson said of Clark. "I feel the same about the team. I always felt confident about us, but I feel even better about the offense and defense, both ends, because of Keon."

It's all the Kings could have hoped for in a promising start -- good health (if Stojakovic's injury fades on schedule), a starting lineup that returns after a league-best 61 wins, a better bench and Bibby with soaring confidence because of the playoffs. Now back to work on that finish.

Scott Howard-Cooper, who covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.