HOOPSWORLD Week in Review
By:
Alex Raskin
Last Updated: 11/8/09 7:23 AM ET
| 1144 times read
Big Ben Big Again
By Preetom Bhattacharya
His career was over, he was retired, he had hung up his sneakers and was moving on in life, but the trademark chimes of Big Ben once again ring in the Palace of Auburn Hills.
That deep sound, echoing throughout the arena, was supposed to be silenced when Ben Wallace was bought out of his contract by the Phoenix Suns this past summer and expected to retire. Facing declining abilities and pain, everyone just seemed to believe that it was time for Ben Wallace to walk off into the sunset.
"I wasn't healthy – I was hurting," Wallace admitted to HOOPSWORLD. "It was hard to be out there and play when you know you can do things, but your body isn't letting you go out there and do it. It's frustrating. I stated that if I couldn't get healthy, go out there and play the way I know I was capable of playing, there was no reason for me to be out there."
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Life of a Rookie: Earl Clark
By Preetom Bhattacharya
The sun hasn't quite set on the Phoenix Suns at this point, a squad off to an unexpected hot start to the season. Ringing up four straight wins using head coach Alvin Gentry's up-tempo system, the team is currently on an East Coast road trip that could determine if they're for real or not and is fresh off of a Friday night victory over the Boston Celtics, handing Big Green their first loss.
Thus far, Gentry has heavily relied on a rotation of nine players – Steve Nash, Amar'e Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa, Jason Richardson, Channing Frye, Grant Hill, Jared Dudley, Louis Amundson, and Goran Dragic. A significant omission from the list? Rookie big man Earl Clark.
The 6-10 athletic and long-armed forward has seen inconsistent minutes in the five games he's seen action in. Game one: 20 minutes, game two: 9. Game three: 4 minutes, game four: 0 minutes, game five: 17 minutes, and game six: 7 minutes. That up and down of his playing time is naturally quite frustrating for the young man, but he's taking it in stride.
"You don't practice a lot, but there's a lot of games and if you don't play in games, you miss a lot of action," Clark told HOOPSWORLD. "It has its good and its bad. I've been prepared coming from Louisville - Coach P (Louisville head coach Rick Pitino) teaches patience and he brought me along slow, so it was able to prepare me for the things I'm going through right now."
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New Jersey's Swiss Army Knife
By Alex Raskin
On a night when the Nets were without five valuable veterans and the loudest applause at the Izod Center was reserved for Denver's Kenyon Martin and the announcement of a Hideki Matsui home run, rookie Terrence Williams was getting a crash course in the NBA.
No Devin Harris and Keyon Dooling meant that Williams had to play point guard against Chauncey Billups.
No Jarvis Hayes and Yi Jianlian meant he had to play forward against Carmelo Anthony.
And had the Nets' mascot come down with the flu, Williams would have been firing the T-shirt gun into the crowd.
"Terrence is a rookie and (to think that he's) played all five positions this season… is pretty remarkable," said Nets coach Lawrence Frank. "Now he's been thrown into a backup point guard role and he's obviously a backup wing player and when we play (small he plays power forward). A couple of games ago we actually subbed him in for (center Brook Lopez). He's getting thrown into the fire."
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Fantasy: Stock Up/Stock Down
By Tommy Beer
With a week's worth of box scores to pour over, let's see if we can make some sense out of the NBA season thus far. Certain players have busted out of the gates firing on all cylinders; while others are limping from the starting line and have ended up on fantasy benches…
Stock Up:
Channing Frye – Phoenix Suns: An old cliché informs us that when dealing with real estate, the three most important factors of any property are: location, location, and location. Well, this same theory holds water when discussing fantasy hoops as well… Channing Frye has spent the last two seasons of his NBA career in the great Northwest, buried on the Portland Trail Blazers bench. Frye, a jump-shooting big man who prefers to float on the perimeter as opposed to bang with the bruisers down low, never fit into Blazer Coach Nate McMillan's system. Throughout his NBA career, Frye's previous coaches looked at Channing's 6'11" frame and asked him to spend the majority of his time on the floor in the paint, not out by the arc. Over his first three seasons in the league, Frye made a total of just nine three-pointers. And by his final year in Portland (2008-2009) it became clear that Frye was not part of the Blazers long-term vision. Thus, they decided not to issue him a Qualifying Offer, which allowed Frye to become an unrestricted free agent. After some mild interest from teams around the league, Channing decided to head back to the warm climate of Arizona, signing with the run-and-gun Phoenix Suns. An organization that has led the NBA in scoring four of the past five seasons, and a team that had no problem with shooters shooting – no matter how big or small they were. Phoenix coach Alvin Gentry encouraged Frye to launch three's whenever open. And Frye has obliged. As a result, a fantasy gem has been unearthed.
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Brandon Roy 4.0
By Bill Ingram
Now a little over three years into his NBA career, Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy is showing signs of evolving into the next unstoppable force in the league. He improved markedly in each of his first three seasons, leading the team to the playoffs in his third year, and this season he's expected to lead the Blazers beyond a simple playoff appearance and in the direction of title contention. Four games into the new season he's averaging 27 points, 4.8 assists and 4.8 rebounds, but his biggest improvement has more to do with the things that don't show up in the box score.
"He's definitely talking more, voicing his opinion more, and pointing out things that I think really need to be pointed out," says LaMarcus Aldridge. "I think that's what leaders on teams need to do. He recognizes that, and that's what he's starting to do. Everybody respects him because he does go out there and lead by example and works as hard as anyone, doing the things that's asking us to do. He's not one of those guys who talks about it but doesn't do it. When someone works as hard as he does and then tells you what he wants, he deserved the utmost respect."
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Durant: Accepting the Challenge
By Susan Bible
It is often difficult for a NBA player who was selected second overall in the draft, then named Rookie of the Year, to meet the ensuing expectations of greatness placed upon him. It's even harder when you add to that a sixth-place rank in league scoring in his second year, consistently being mentioned in All-Star discussions and being the most talked-about player at the last summer's Team USA mini-camp. Welcome to the life of Kevin Durant, who just entered his third year in the league, and who, at only 21-years-old, has already become the leader of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
After just one year playing for the University of Texas, 6'9" Durant entered his name into the draft among rumblings that he was too skinny and too weak to be a success at the highest level of basketball. He set his goals and has been working hard since his first day on the job to prove the doubters wrong.
"I just wanted to get better as the season went along," Durant tells HOOPSWORLD. "I didn't have a number of points I wanted to score, any rebounds, I just wanted to get better and stick. I just wanted to stay a part of this league as long as possible. I didn't want to be one of those guys that got lost in this league."
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About the Author: ALEX RASKIN
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Alex Raskin is HOOPSWORLD's senior Newslines Editor and also covers the New Jersey Nets and New York Knicks for HOOPSWORLD. Alex also serves as a New York Giants Correspondent for CBSsports.com
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