Lampe to play Wednesday?

[Joe Mama]

If I'm the Phoenix Suns organization I'm playing Jahidi White, Little Jake, and Lampe at center. I don't want to see Amare Stoudemire, Cabarkapa, or Harvey play center. Jake Voskuhl and Lampe need to playing time and development. I think the Suns should be showcasing Jahidi White, so as to increase his value. In fact I think if they had played him more often before the trading deadline they probably could have unloaded his contract without having to give away too much to do it. There's really no reason it should take the Phoenix Suns top draft pick to unload White and his contract.


http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/0302sunsnb0302.html

D'Antoni looking for way to get Lampe in rotation

Norm Frauenheim
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 2, 2004 12:00 AM


Maciej Lampe is expected to be back on the Suns' active roster Wednesday night against the New Jersey Nets at America West Arena.

Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said there is a chance he will find some playing time for Lampe, who went on the injured list with shin splints after appearing in only three games since his acquisition from the New York Knicks in the trade for Stephon Marbury.

"I'd like to," D'Antoni said. "But it seems like I've got, oh, only 15 big guys. It's tough to get everybody in, but we definitely want to."

Some observers have said the 19-year-old Lampe, the first pick in the draft's second round last summer, might emerge as the best player to come out of the January deal with the Knicks.

"He looks great," D'Antoni said Monday after watching the 6-foot-11 forward in practice. "In fact, if we want to win, maybe we do play him."


Kidd questionable


Nets guard Jason Kidd will return to America West Arena for only the third time since the Suns traded him in July 2001 to New Jersey for Marbury, but he might not play.

Kidd underwent a magnetic resonance imaging test Monday because of persistent pain in his left knee.

Nothing serious was found, but a bruise limited him to 14 minutes Sunday in a Nets loss at home to the Lakers. Kidd said he wasn't sure when he suffered the bruise.


Briefly


Even if Kidd doesn't play, he holds a unique spot in the statistical history for both teams. He's at the top of the triple-double chart for each - 20 for the Nets and 25 for the Suns.


• Wednesday night's game is the Nets' second stop on a four-game swing through the West. They are at Denver tonight.

"Of all the Western Conference teams, this is the one they probably think they can get," Suns swingman Casey Jacobsen said. "That's why we've got to be really sharp."


• Amare Stoudemire is tearing up the league. He has scored 20 or more points in nine straight games. He calls it a learning experience. If it is, it has been futile for teams trying to stop him.

"I want to learn more than anybody," Stoudemire said of an education process that might frighten anybody who gets in the way of his plan.

 

[SweetD]

I like Amare's thinking this Kid is going to be special!

Mike:
"But it seems like I've got, oh, only 15 big guys. It's tough to get everybody in, but we definitely want to."

Maybe if you actualy played some of the big guys you would have to more minutes to spread out.

 

[Gee!]

Originally posted by Joe Mama

Nets guard Jason Kidd will return to America West Arena for only the third time since the Suns traded him in July 2001 to New Jersey

God I hope we win this game.

 

[F-Dog]

Originally posted by Joe Mama
"He looks great," D'Antoni said Monday after watching the 6-foot-11 forward in practice. "In fact, if we want to win, maybe we do play him."

Verrrry interesting.

D'Antoni makes it sound like Lampe has flat beaten out at least one of the players in front of him, and that there's a good chance that someone who's getting minutes right now is looking at an extended stay on the bench.


I wonder who it is? Zarko? Jahidi?

Antonio McDyess, perhaps?

 

[SweetD]

Most likely it is Harvey. I don't think we will giving big minutes to any player that will not be with the team next year for the last few games.

 

[F-Dog]

Originally posted by SweetD
Most likely it is Harvey. I don't think we will giving big minutes to any player that will not be with the team next year for the last few games.

Harvey is already not getting any minutes. (What you say is true for McDyess too, but he is getting minutes at the moment.)

If Lampe goes in, somebody has got to go out...

 

[George O'Brien]

At this point, we don't even know what postion Lampe will be playing. I think most of us wan to see him play center, but he may not be ready and will be used at forward.

 

[Errntknght]

At this point I don't care what position he's playing... as long he gets some PT. It would be nice to see him guarding a big man down low for a few minutes... see how he fares against someone bigger than himself.

I really don't see what D'Antoni's problem is, you send him to the scorers table and he's in the game. It's not like any of the the big's but Amare has distinguished himself on either end of the floor. All we're doing now is getting ready for the future and any player that looks like he could be part of it should be out there getting some experience and showing his stuff. Sheesh, give Lampe 10-15 minutes every game and maybe by the end of the season he'll have found a rhythm so the coaching staff has something to go on beside priactice in evaluating him. I can't see anything else they'll learn half as important as that.

 

[Goldfield]

Originally posted by Errntknght
At this point I don't care what position he's playing... as long he gets some PT. It would be nice to see him guarding a big man down low for a few minutes... see how he fares against someone bigger than himself.

I really don't see what D'Antoni's problem is, you send him to the scorers table and he's in the game. It's not like any of the the big's but Amare has distinguished himself on either end of the floor. All we're doing now is getting ready for the future and any player that looks like he could be part of it should be out there getting some experience and showing his stuff. Sheesh, give Lampe 10-15 minutes every game and maybe by the end of the season he'll have found a rhythm so the coaching staff has something to go on beside priactice in evaluating him. I can't see anything else they'll learn half as important as that.

I agree, If hw is talented he should be used alot more so we know what we got.

 

[Joe Mama]

I'm sorry, but I tend to put more faith in the assessment of the head coach who sees this guy in practice every day than all of us who had seen him play only a handful of minutes in junk time. When there's been a blowout Lampe has played. Up until this point the coaches have felt he is a liability on the floor. Since they see him in practice every day they probably have a good idea of his capabilities. They've been trying to win games to get some confidence for this team. However over the last several days we've seen more comments from the players about "building for the future", so I think they will be more understanding when a young guy like Lampe plays some decent minutes in the regular part of the game.

Joe Mama

 

[George O'Brien]

Originally posted by Joe Mama
I'm sorry, but I tend to put more faith in the assessment of the head coach who sees this guy in practice every day than all of us who had seen him play only a handful of minutes in junk time. When there's been a blowout Lampe has played. Up until this point the coaches have felt he is a liability on the floor. Since they see him in practice every day they probably have a good idea of his capabilities. They've been trying to win games to get some confidence for this team. However over the last several days we've seen more comments from the players about "building for the future", so I think they will be more understanding when a young guy like Lampe plays some decent minutes in the regular part of the game.

Joe Mama

The fact that Carbakapa became more effective the longer he played may be beneficial to Lampe -- D'Antoni can see that getting more minutes helps the players to relax and become more agressive.

 

[Joe Mama]

I'll actually be very surprised if Lampe doesn't play more than 5-10 minutes tonight.

Joe Mama

 

[SweetD]

He was given the chance but was taking to many quick shots. He has a nice shot but I would like to see him play more around the key instead of the three point line.

 

[JS22]

he was obivously nervous..

 

[Errntknght]

Lampe's D looked pretty good. He was a little late jumping out when his man screened the first time but the second time he was right on cue. He kept Rodney, Jefferson and Martin in front of him when he was defending them, and all three are pretty slippery down low. His defensive rotations were quite good for the amount of experience he's had and he got back on defense well.

I don't worry about a young guy's offense too much, almost all players work hard on that with no pushing so they come around if they've got the ability. Lampe's shooting form looks fine so I fully expect him to start hitting a decent percentage once he settles down.

 

[George O'Brien]

Originally posted by Errntknght
Lampe's D looked pretty good. He was a little late jumping out when his man screened the first time but the second time he was right on cue. He kept Rodney, Jefferson and Martin in front of him when he was defending them, and all three are pretty slippery down low. His defensive rotations were quite good for the amount of experience he's had and he got back on defense well.

I don't worry about a young guy's offense too much, almost all players work hard on that with no pushing so they come around if they've got the ability. Lampe's shooting form looks fine so I fully expect him to start hitting a decent percentage once he settles down.

The Nets do not have much in the way of a #5, so the real tests will come later when Lampe has to deal with a low post offensive threat. But so far so good.