Monday, October 18
By Mike Monroe
Special to ESPN.com
Nobody likes having a key player injured, but Kobe Bryant's broken
wrist, suffered Wednesday night, might be just what the doctor ordered
for the Lakers.
|  | | Shaq could average 35 points a game with Bryant out, writes Monroe. |
With Bryant on the shelf until Thanksgiving, or thereabouts, Shaquille
O'Neal will have to shoulder an even bigger load if the Lakers are to
get off to a decent start and not fall too far behind the Trail Blazers
in the Pacific Division. Establishing, even more clearly, his domination
of the game in the first month of the regular season -- I say he now is
going to average 35 points in November -- is going to remind everyone,
including O'Neal, just how good he can be. By the time Bryant returns to
action, he will be able to fit in nicely as a complementary player on
the perimeter.
O'Neal needs to understand he is still the reason the Lakers remain one
of the West's elite teams, that he remains The Man in Tinseltown. Bryant
is just too much fun to watch for anyone to prefer seeing the ball go
inside to O'Neal, but O'Neal's production in November, with Bryant, his
new best friend, sitting out, is going to demand it.
Speaking of demanding, Phil Jackson is demanding that O'Neal pay a
little more attention to defense this season, and he's not too happy
about that free throwing, either.
"It's obvious that he's been brought up with a concept that he's got to
stay out of foul trouble," Jackson said of O'Neal's approach to defense. "This is a kid we want to be our stopper. So we're going to tell him, you know, step in there and make the referee have to make that call and use your body position and do the things that create the protection for the rest of our
players. He's the ultimate protector for our team."
Said Shaq: "Phil's been stressing to me defense, defense, defense. I
used to be a good defensive player. Man, I'm the leading shot blocker in
LSU history, in two years. I used to be a great defensive player."
Hmm ... I just can't recall all those other great shot blockers out of
LSU.
Anyway, Shaq is actually lifting weights this year, as opposed to
losing weight. Whatever Jackson wanted him to weigh in at on opening day
of training camp, you can bet it wasn't the 340 he showed up at.
O'Neal, though says all the weight is good muscle weight, the result of
pumping all that iron.
"The more I lift weights," he said, "the higher the number's going
to be. I'm not really concerned about numbers. I'll bust any big man's
butt no matter what I weigh."
"I'm not going to disagree with Shaq about those types of things
because he gets fouled harder than anyone in the game," Jackson said.
"He needs that kind of confidence that he can control what's going to
happen to him physically out there in the game. But all the other
parameters going into it, getting up and down the court, the idea that
he's had a knee that was injured two years ago, he's had the stomach
injury, all those things are better served if there's less weight."
Now that is a subtle way of saying O'Neal weighs too much. Must be why
they call Jackson Coach Zen.
As for the Lakers' integration into the triangle offense, Tex Winter,
its architect, believes Rick Fox gets it. Everybody else has a long way
to go. Yet another reason to just throw the ball inside to O'Neal and
get out of the way.
Wandering the West
One more Lakers note ... Why didn't they make
that deal for Scottie Pippen? Try length of contract. Here's what owner
Jerry Buss, the guy who signs the checks, said: "I don't think there's
any doubt about it, Scottie's just a great player, and certainly for a
year or two it would've been the right thing to do. And we probably
would've done it had he not had a four-year contract. When you take him,
you're basically saying, 'This is our personnel for the next four
years.' "
The Rockets, who dumped Pippen, are running more than they have all
decade. Makes sense, too, even with the old fellas up front, Hakeem
Olajuwon and Charles Barkley. With a backcourt of Steve Francis and
Shandon Anderson, and with Cuttino Mobley getting major minutes, it
makes no sense not to run. Anderson, though, has been surprised at Rudy
Tomjanovich's commitment to an all-out fast break attack.
"I thought we'd go up and down a little bit," Anderson said. "But he
wants us to get up the floor every time. Every time. We can always set
up in the halfcourt. But we're going to get up the floor and try to get
the easy basket."
Tomjanovich always intended to get the Rockets in the open court and to
get them used to getting up and down the floor. But he began camp by
emphasizing the need to run to make it a habit. Players will always run
if they can see a dunk waiting on the other end of the court. Tomjanovich wanted them in flight before they had a chance to look.
"There's a lot of talk about the running game," he said. "There's a lot
of talk, but you have to consistently get up and down the court. A split-second hesitation could take away a break. We're trying to get them
conditioned to push it down every time. We can always slow down later in
a tight game. We've made great progress in that area."
Officially, the Nuggets are a little concerned, privately a lot
concerned, about the migraine headaches that have kept Antonio McDyess
out of their free public scrimmage on Sunday and their first two
exhibition games on Tuesday and Wednesday. They are hoping the problem
derived mainly from an infected tooth that made his jaw swell badly, and
that the migraines won't become a chronic problem. Without him on the
floor, they have zero inside presence.
If Derek Harper ends up retiring -- he has told the Pistons he wont play
in Detroit -- the Mavericks will create a front-office position for
him. "I've been looking forward to having him with us for a couple
years now," Mavs president/general manager/coach Don Nelson said. "But I
can't make that decision. That's all his, and I don't even want to
influence it.
"He wants to get into management. He doesn't seem real interested in
coaching at all. I told him I'll teach him everything I know. He could
probably learn that in a day or two."
David Robinson practiced little during the first week of training camp
and sat out he exhibition opener in Philadelphia Sunday because of
tightness in his back. Despite the Spurs' eight-hour flight to Milan, he
says he feels better and hopes to play this weekend in the McDonald's
Championship. Ever since his back problems surfaced four years ago,
Robinson has generally needed the full month of camp to get in shape.
Still, the stiffness is yet another sign the Spurs will have to hold
their breaths when it comes to his health this season.
Speaking of
the Spurs, they hired fired Nuggets coach Mike D'Antoni as a scout and
immediately added him to the traveling party for the McDonald's
Championship in Milan, where he played and coached for 13 years. His
first scouting report: A list of great restaurants in Milan. D'Antoni
took Gregg Popovich to his favorite, and dinner lasted nearly four
hours.
Mike Monroe, who covers the NBA for the Denver Post, writes a Western Conference column for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him at monroe128@go.com
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NBA West: Rockets flunk team chemistry test
