Continued.....................
---------------------------------------------
Action Jackson
Are the days of the Rockets' offensive woes starting to heal? After starting the season with 27th-ranked offense in the NBA (and the second-ranked defense), the Rockets have begun to increase their scoring output of late. The team is averaging 91.7 ppg over its last nine up from the 85.3 ppg it put up in the first 27 games.
Jim Jackson
Guard-Forward
Houston Rockets
Profile
2003-2004 SEASON STATISTICS
GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%
35 11.3 6.0 2.7 .413 .806
Thank forward Jim Jackson for the bulk of that increase. He's averaging 20 ppg and 7.8 rpg over his last four while shooting a sizzling 61 percent from the field and an even hotter 63 percent (17-27) from 3 point land. An additional 15 ppg and 7.8 rpg from Maurice Taylor in January have also helped lighten the scoring load that Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Yao Ming have been forced to carry alone up until this point.
The Rockets have won four of their last six, but after a tough loss at home to the Celtics on Sunday, you wouldn't know it from listening to coach Jeff Van Gundy.
"Again we played with zero team energy to win," Van Gundy told the Houston Chronicle. "I think pretty much until the fourth (we had no energy). But anybody can get desperate in the fourth. That performance out there is why we are who we are, and why we are where we have been. That's who we are.
"I need to find the answer, because here we are, revisiting the same issues. It's just disappointing. Like I said, it's not new. It is what it is. We are who we are. But I know this, we can't stay who we are and do anything significant."
Van Gundy's wrath seems partly directed at Yao Ming, whose play and energy has fallen off dramatically in Janaury. Yao is averaging just 10.2 ppg in January, causing some in the league to wonder whether all that basketball he played for the Chinese national team is starting to catch up with him.
"He just looks dead out there most nights," one Houston scout remarked. "That's not going to earn him any love from Jeff."
Odom an all-star?
Lamar Odom an all-star? It could and should happen this season. Only two other power forwards in the East, Jermaine O'Neal and Ben Wallace (though the all-star ballot still inexplicably lists Wallace as a center even though he hasn't played the position in two years), have had better seasons than Odom. But after that?
Lamar Odom
Forward
Miami Heat
Profile
2003-2004 SEASON STATISTICS
GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%
36 16.9 9.3 3.9 .412 .731
No one else has really come close. The Nets' Kenyon Martin, the Hawks' Shareef Abdur-Rahim and the Raptors' Donyell Marshall are all having decent years, but Odom's been better. Since a Dec. 3rd game in Detroit, Odom has been a rebounding machine, averaging 10.5 rpg in December and a whopping 11.8 rpg through the Heat's first five games in January. He's also been averaging 18.2 ppg during that month-and-a-half stretch and an impressive 4 apg.
Those numbers are amazing coming from a guy who averaged just 6.6 rpg for the Clippers last season and has never averaged over 7.8 rpg in his career. Odom's ability to adjust from a 3-point shooting, passing wing man into a legit power forward in the East speaks volumes about his talent and a new found toughness.
Since Odom began to board, the Heat have been 10-10, not numbers that blow you away, but in the East and given the Heat's history, impressive nonetheless. We know he won't be voted in. But if the coaches don't put him in as a reserve it's only because a checkered past has tainted them from seeing the obvious -- Odom is a changed player and a changed man.
Lampe the steal of the deal?
Now that Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni has had a chance to look at new center Maciej Lampe, he's wondering aloud why the Knicks ever agreed to give him up.
"I really like him. He has a lot of talent," D'Antoni told the Arizona Republic. "This kid is going to be really good. He just needs more age. As a coach, I know I can give him more years. We'll just have to wait awhile. But he has all the skills.
"He needs to get stronger (upper body) and get experience. He has some things that you can't teach, like a feel for the game and shooting ability. It's a lot easier to wait and let him mature than it is to reconstruct the game. He already has the game."
How does he compare with another former Suns "project," center Jake Tsakalidis?
"We're talking Mars and Venus," D'Antoni said. "We're talking about two different planets. This guy has unbelievable skills. I liked Jake, but Jake was more robotic. This guy is a basketball player. You can't teach the talent he has."
Given the Knicks' need, long term for a center, the inclusion of Lampe in the deal was curious. According to sources, Thomas essentially gave away Lampe after Suns GM Bryan Colangelo inquired.
"Isiah didn't like him. Period," one source told Insider. "He didn't really value him. He gave him away. The Suns would've made the deal without Lampe. I think he made a huge mistake. Down the road, Lampe could've been the answer for them in the middle."
On paper at least, the move is very curious. The Knicks have three centers on their roster -- Dikembe Mutombo, Michael Doleac and Cezary Trybanski. None of them figure into the long-term future of the franchise. Mutombo will likely retire when his contract ends after next season. Doleac hits the free-agent market in July if he isn't traded first and Trybanski, from all accounts, won't ever be a dominant center in the league. With the Knicks locked into so many long-term cap deals, Thomas won't have the room or the draft position to get a great center to patrol the middle anytime soon.
It's probably just a matter of time before Thomas marks the loss of Lampe as the first mistake of his tenure in New York.
-----------------------------------
Peep Show
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Monday, January 12
Updated: January 12
10:00 AM ET
Los Angeles Lakers: If it never rains in California, then how come it's pouring now? Shaq is out injured with no definite signs he's getting better. Karl Malone is out injured with signs that he'll be out even longer. "We just have to live with it. I'm not going to express disappointment," coach Phil Jackson said in the L.A. Daily News. "When he's back, it's the right time. I don't even want to talk about it until it's a reality." And now comes news that Gary Payton has a sinus infection that has kept him out of practice and that Horace Grant has flown home to take care of his ailing father. "We have not heard anything from him since (Sunday morning)," team spokesman John Black said.
NailonOrlando Magic: Lee Nailon may not be starting for the Magic these days, but considering that he started the season on the Atlanta Hawk roster before being waived, he's not complaining. "Whatever minutes I was going to get, I was going to try to make the best of them," he said in the Dayton Beach News before helping the Magic stop a six-game losing streak with a win over the Wizards Friday night despite the fact that he hasn't been able to practice since joining the team. "It's difficult because of all the sets and stuff like that," he said. "I'm still learning them. I know a few of them. But my main thing is if you go out and play hard, that'll limit some of the mistakes."
New York Knicks: Not everyone was sad to see Antonio McDyess leave the Garden. In fact, Kurt Thomas, who had lost his job to McDyess and was looking to get out of New York, has now changed his tune. "Definitely," he said to the New York Post about re-signing with the Knicks. "I've been here six years. I love New York. It's great." Of course, he also mentioned that he'd love to play for the Mavericks while the Knicks are still rumored to be shopping him to Portland to the likes of Rasheed Wallace.
MacCullochPhiladelphia 76ers: It's been almost a year since Todd MacCulloch has put on a Sixer uniform and actually played a game, but he has enough problems right now dealing with the tingling in is feet that make it impossible to even run. "I won't give up probably until I felt that everything has been exhausted that comes to me -- ideas, suggestions and treatments from people," he said in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I guess when that runs out, I would have to say, 'OK, I've tried everything that I'm aware of and I don't seem to be getting any better . . . But retirement? No, I'm not ready." MacCulloch has been diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a condition that affects balance and is both progressive and, to this point, incurable. "It is playing with my mind," he said. "I go through mood swings where I feel like everything is going to go all right. Then I go through other times where I find it very hard to be watching. I find myself to be wondering how and why this happened. So it does mess with your mind quite a lot to be so close to what I was doing and just wonder why it hasn't gotten better over time, and why it's still persistent."
Boston Celtics: Officially, Vin Baker is off suspension. Unofficially, head coach Jim O'Brien has no idea when he will use him on the floor. "I guess the first chance I'll get to see him on the court will be at shootaround in Milwaukee," said O'Brien in the Boston Globe. "I really don't have any plan to utilize him in Milwaukee. We've been practicing and playing and we'll just have to let him get back into the scheme of things. I don't have any choice [but to play it by ear]. It's pretty much wait and see, see how Vin is performing in practice and the time that he gets in games. If he earns a lot of playing time, he's going to get it."
Phoenix Suns: The smoke is clearing and the East Valley Tribune is reporting that the Suns are finally settling on a starting rotation of recently rehabbed Amare Stoudemire, rookie Leandro Barbosa at the point, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion and Jake Voskuhl. "We have to have a commitment to it, and stay the course," head coach Mike D'Antoni said.
---------------------------------------------
Action Jackson
Are the days of the Rockets' offensive woes starting to heal? After starting the season with 27th-ranked offense in the NBA (and the second-ranked defense), the Rockets have begun to increase their scoring output of late. The team is averaging 91.7 ppg over its last nine up from the 85.3 ppg it put up in the first 27 games.
Jim Jackson
Guard-Forward
Houston Rockets
Profile
2003-2004 SEASON STATISTICS
GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%
35 11.3 6.0 2.7 .413 .806
Thank forward Jim Jackson for the bulk of that increase. He's averaging 20 ppg and 7.8 rpg over his last four while shooting a sizzling 61 percent from the field and an even hotter 63 percent (17-27) from 3 point land. An additional 15 ppg and 7.8 rpg from Maurice Taylor in January have also helped lighten the scoring load that Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Yao Ming have been forced to carry alone up until this point.
The Rockets have won four of their last six, but after a tough loss at home to the Celtics on Sunday, you wouldn't know it from listening to coach Jeff Van Gundy.
"Again we played with zero team energy to win," Van Gundy told the Houston Chronicle. "I think pretty much until the fourth (we had no energy). But anybody can get desperate in the fourth. That performance out there is why we are who we are, and why we are where we have been. That's who we are.
"I need to find the answer, because here we are, revisiting the same issues. It's just disappointing. Like I said, it's not new. It is what it is. We are who we are. But I know this, we can't stay who we are and do anything significant."
Van Gundy's wrath seems partly directed at Yao Ming, whose play and energy has fallen off dramatically in Janaury. Yao is averaging just 10.2 ppg in January, causing some in the league to wonder whether all that basketball he played for the Chinese national team is starting to catch up with him.
"He just looks dead out there most nights," one Houston scout remarked. "That's not going to earn him any love from Jeff."
Odom an all-star?
Lamar Odom an all-star? It could and should happen this season. Only two other power forwards in the East, Jermaine O'Neal and Ben Wallace (though the all-star ballot still inexplicably lists Wallace as a center even though he hasn't played the position in two years), have had better seasons than Odom. But after that?
Lamar Odom
Forward
Miami Heat
Profile
2003-2004 SEASON STATISTICS
GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%
36 16.9 9.3 3.9 .412 .731
No one else has really come close. The Nets' Kenyon Martin, the Hawks' Shareef Abdur-Rahim and the Raptors' Donyell Marshall are all having decent years, but Odom's been better. Since a Dec. 3rd game in Detroit, Odom has been a rebounding machine, averaging 10.5 rpg in December and a whopping 11.8 rpg through the Heat's first five games in January. He's also been averaging 18.2 ppg during that month-and-a-half stretch and an impressive 4 apg.
Those numbers are amazing coming from a guy who averaged just 6.6 rpg for the Clippers last season and has never averaged over 7.8 rpg in his career. Odom's ability to adjust from a 3-point shooting, passing wing man into a legit power forward in the East speaks volumes about his talent and a new found toughness.
Since Odom began to board, the Heat have been 10-10, not numbers that blow you away, but in the East and given the Heat's history, impressive nonetheless. We know he won't be voted in. But if the coaches don't put him in as a reserve it's only because a checkered past has tainted them from seeing the obvious -- Odom is a changed player and a changed man.
Lampe the steal of the deal?
Now that Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni has had a chance to look at new center Maciej Lampe, he's wondering aloud why the Knicks ever agreed to give him up.
"I really like him. He has a lot of talent," D'Antoni told the Arizona Republic. "This kid is going to be really good. He just needs more age. As a coach, I know I can give him more years. We'll just have to wait awhile. But he has all the skills.
"He needs to get stronger (upper body) and get experience. He has some things that you can't teach, like a feel for the game and shooting ability. It's a lot easier to wait and let him mature than it is to reconstruct the game. He already has the game."
How does he compare with another former Suns "project," center Jake Tsakalidis?
"We're talking Mars and Venus," D'Antoni said. "We're talking about two different planets. This guy has unbelievable skills. I liked Jake, but Jake was more robotic. This guy is a basketball player. You can't teach the talent he has."
Given the Knicks' need, long term for a center, the inclusion of Lampe in the deal was curious. According to sources, Thomas essentially gave away Lampe after Suns GM Bryan Colangelo inquired.
"Isiah didn't like him. Period," one source told Insider. "He didn't really value him. He gave him away. The Suns would've made the deal without Lampe. I think he made a huge mistake. Down the road, Lampe could've been the answer for them in the middle."
On paper at least, the move is very curious. The Knicks have three centers on their roster -- Dikembe Mutombo, Michael Doleac and Cezary Trybanski. None of them figure into the long-term future of the franchise. Mutombo will likely retire when his contract ends after next season. Doleac hits the free-agent market in July if he isn't traded first and Trybanski, from all accounts, won't ever be a dominant center in the league. With the Knicks locked into so many long-term cap deals, Thomas won't have the room or the draft position to get a great center to patrol the middle anytime soon.
It's probably just a matter of time before Thomas marks the loss of Lampe as the first mistake of his tenure in New York.
-----------------------------------
Peep Show
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Monday, January 12
Updated: January 12
10:00 AM ET
Los Angeles Lakers: If it never rains in California, then how come it's pouring now? Shaq is out injured with no definite signs he's getting better. Karl Malone is out injured with signs that he'll be out even longer. "We just have to live with it. I'm not going to express disappointment," coach Phil Jackson said in the L.A. Daily News. "When he's back, it's the right time. I don't even want to talk about it until it's a reality." And now comes news that Gary Payton has a sinus infection that has kept him out of practice and that Horace Grant has flown home to take care of his ailing father. "We have not heard anything from him since (Sunday morning)," team spokesman John Black said.
NailonOrlando Magic: Lee Nailon may not be starting for the Magic these days, but considering that he started the season on the Atlanta Hawk roster before being waived, he's not complaining. "Whatever minutes I was going to get, I was going to try to make the best of them," he said in the Dayton Beach News before helping the Magic stop a six-game losing streak with a win over the Wizards Friday night despite the fact that he hasn't been able to practice since joining the team. "It's difficult because of all the sets and stuff like that," he said. "I'm still learning them. I know a few of them. But my main thing is if you go out and play hard, that'll limit some of the mistakes."
New York Knicks: Not everyone was sad to see Antonio McDyess leave the Garden. In fact, Kurt Thomas, who had lost his job to McDyess and was looking to get out of New York, has now changed his tune. "Definitely," he said to the New York Post about re-signing with the Knicks. "I've been here six years. I love New York. It's great." Of course, he also mentioned that he'd love to play for the Mavericks while the Knicks are still rumored to be shopping him to Portland to the likes of Rasheed Wallace.
MacCullochPhiladelphia 76ers: It's been almost a year since Todd MacCulloch has put on a Sixer uniform and actually played a game, but he has enough problems right now dealing with the tingling in is feet that make it impossible to even run. "I won't give up probably until I felt that everything has been exhausted that comes to me -- ideas, suggestions and treatments from people," he said in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I guess when that runs out, I would have to say, 'OK, I've tried everything that I'm aware of and I don't seem to be getting any better . . . But retirement? No, I'm not ready." MacCulloch has been diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a condition that affects balance and is both progressive and, to this point, incurable. "It is playing with my mind," he said. "I go through mood swings where I feel like everything is going to go all right. Then I go through other times where I find it very hard to be watching. I find myself to be wondering how and why this happened. So it does mess with your mind quite a lot to be so close to what I was doing and just wonder why it hasn't gotten better over time, and why it's still persistent."
Boston Celtics: Officially, Vin Baker is off suspension. Unofficially, head coach Jim O'Brien has no idea when he will use him on the floor. "I guess the first chance I'll get to see him on the court will be at shootaround in Milwaukee," said O'Brien in the Boston Globe. "I really don't have any plan to utilize him in Milwaukee. We've been practicing and playing and we'll just have to let him get back into the scheme of things. I don't have any choice [but to play it by ear]. It's pretty much wait and see, see how Vin is performing in practice and the time that he gets in games. If he earns a lot of playing time, he's going to get it."
Phoenix Suns: The smoke is clearing and the East Valley Tribune is reporting that the Suns are finally settling on a starting rotation of recently rehabbed Amare Stoudemire, rookie Leandro Barbosa at the point, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion and Jake Voskuhl. "We have to have a commitment to it, and stay the course," head coach Mike D'Antoni said.
