Big Swami
12-12-2007, 02:49 PM
'Sheed could be so much more
Randy Hill / Special to FOXSports.com
Posted: 1 hour ago
The NBA's heroic attempt to remain fantastic leans heavily upon the eccentric natures of its employees.
Our roll call of memorable characters includes an unreasonably large, veteran center dabbling in law enforcement and grabbing rebounds at a rate that's criminally low. His former running buddy has upgraded his considerable entertainment value by visiting talk radio with disturbing frequency and flip-flopping on trade demands.
An MVP-caliber point guard may be even more at home while kicking a soccer ball or standing on a skateboard, and couldn't guard a quick opponent unless they met in a wax museum. The owner of the Dallas Mavericks had more success advancing in a dance competition than his team did in last season's playoffs.
And we even have compelling behavior from the league commissioner, who lowered himself from scolding us about media-driven "palaver" to serving up a feeble promise that Tim Donaghy's issues were isolated.
But the most confounding NBA character of all has to be Detroit Pistons power forward Rasheed Wallace.
Sure, the 33-year-old Wallace's status as an oddball is obvious, but we sometimes take his peculiarities for granted. This premise was inspired while I watched Rasheed and the Pistons lose at home to the Chicago Bulls.
During a first quarter that defines his witness-perplexing essence, Wallace pumped in 13 points, with five 3-point-attempts included in his nine shots from the field. He scored just five points in the final three quarters, managing to squeeze off just eight field-goal attempts in that span. And, in typical Rasheed fashion, he made one stinking trip to the free-throw line during the entire game.
It was the sort of uneven performance from Wallace that we've grown accustomed to. The same inconsistency of production that caused me to flinch about seven years ago when an NBA assistant coach told me Rasheed was more important to the Portland Trail Blazers (his employer at the time) than Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were to the Los Angeles Lakers.
While I still roll my eyes at that notion, respect for Wallace's level of skill and knowledge of the game continues to exist.
"He's one of the most talented bigs we've had," said an NBA assistant coach, who, like Wallace, has spent considerable time working in both conferences. " 'Sheed can shoot it deep, he's really good on the block, he's a far better defender than most people realize and he's extremely unselfish."
That certainly seems like glowing testimony.
Unfortunately, a review of Wallace is never that simple.
In addition to being an unselfish player who generally is regarded as a fine teammate, Wallace can be something less than a hayride for his coach. Before this season began, it was assumed that the success of the Pistons' next playoff run would be greatly influenced by how much respect Rasheed would show Flip Saunders.
Since Flip took over for Larry Brown — like Wallace, a former North Carolina Tar Heel with a 2004 NBA title ring — Rasheed has been a model of seeming disinterest during the usual Saunders time-out huddle. While both parties have ranked such demonstrations as overblown, league insiders believe the potential for insubordination could wreck a team that's attempting to develop a few younger players.
In addition to being a potential coaching challenge, Wallace is less than a ton of fun for referees. But even that quality may require a temporary caveat. With a three-year streak of leading the league in technical fouls on the line, Rasheed, who had an eye-popping 41 seven years ago, has achieved only two Ts through the first 18 games. This conduct upgrade was extremely unexpected when we recall that Wallace managed three Ts in the Pistons' first three exhibition games.
It should be noted that Wallace's unsteady behavior is not limited to his interactions with referees and a coach or two.
"Let's just say that 'Sheed could be a dominant player if he didn't act so berserk on offense," the assistant coach said.
Well, isn't this an indictment of a Wallace who doesn't require an inordinate number of touches or shots to remain happy? The same Wallace who has fired up nine or fewer shots in six games this season?
Yeah, that's the otherwise team-oriented Wallace, the same guy who discovered the 3-point shot a few years into his career and embraced it about six years ago. Not coincidentally, his field-goal percentage began to plummet each season, dropping from near 50 during his formative years in Portland to a career-low 42 last year.
At 6-foot-11 and a still-bouncy 230 pounds, Wallace's swell ability to knock in threes over bigger, slower foes also can be considered a curse to the team that employs him.
Since adopting the three as his new best friend, Rasheed has shot more triples than free throws. This season, he has fired up 69 threes and taken 42 free throws.
"That's just ridiculous," the assistant coach said. "Don't get me wrong. We have bigs in the league who are good shooters who really should stay outside setting screens and drifting to the 3-point line to pull shot-blockers away from the rim. But Wallace is really, really good on the low post. If he spent as much time down there as he should, he'd shoot a higher percentage, of course, score more often, get opponents in foul trouble and get enough calls that he might not bark at the refs as much."
But this refusal to make a change that seems obvious registers as the perfect stalemate for Wallace, who — at 14 points and a mediocre seven rebounds per game — ranks just 51st on the league's player-efficiency list. It's the same off-the-beaten path march that enabled Rasheed to refuse go-to-guy status in Portland, where he threw a towel in the face of teammate Arvydas Sabonis and allegedly fired a basketball — baseball style — against the head of teammate Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje at a practice.
It's what made reporters — whose adversarial history with Rasheed certainly adds to this negative public persona — shake their heads when Wallace shared a misdemeanor marijuana beef with Damon Stoudamire in 2002 and issued his NBA exploitation rant in 2003.
Referred to as a "chameleon" by a former teammate who believes Wallace's character concerns ebb and flow based on those around him, Rasheed should remain one of the league's signature personalities.
But our appreciation for his efforts may not be completely realized until the Pistons manage to get past Boston or that young superstar in Cleveland who, thanks to Nike's marketing campaign, has added more alter egos than go-to moves.
The appreciation of his attitude is not lost on league personnel sharpies, however. And if things go haywire in Motown, Rasheed Wallace, currently working for his fourth NBA team, could be available again.
It'll be interesting to see if another franchise is willing to touch him with a 39½-foot pole.
So let me get this straight: A player who is notorious for being personally difficult with media and refs, who has cleaned up his act and is currently behaving like a model citizen, needs to have a hit piece written about his personal character by a known hack piece of shit at this very moment because his stats have gone down in the first 1/4 of this season?
Remind me why we expect Rasheed Wallace to play nice, when everyone is going to him like shit no matter what he does? Go to hell, Randy Hill.
Randy Hill / Special to FOXSports.com
Posted: 1 hour ago
The NBA's heroic attempt to remain fantastic leans heavily upon the eccentric natures of its employees.
Our roll call of memorable characters includes an unreasonably large, veteran center dabbling in law enforcement and grabbing rebounds at a rate that's criminally low. His former running buddy has upgraded his considerable entertainment value by visiting talk radio with disturbing frequency and flip-flopping on trade demands.
An MVP-caliber point guard may be even more at home while kicking a soccer ball or standing on a skateboard, and couldn't guard a quick opponent unless they met in a wax museum. The owner of the Dallas Mavericks had more success advancing in a dance competition than his team did in last season's playoffs.
And we even have compelling behavior from the league commissioner, who lowered himself from scolding us about media-driven "palaver" to serving up a feeble promise that Tim Donaghy's issues were isolated.
But the most confounding NBA character of all has to be Detroit Pistons power forward Rasheed Wallace.
Sure, the 33-year-old Wallace's status as an oddball is obvious, but we sometimes take his peculiarities for granted. This premise was inspired while I watched Rasheed and the Pistons lose at home to the Chicago Bulls.
During a first quarter that defines his witness-perplexing essence, Wallace pumped in 13 points, with five 3-point-attempts included in his nine shots from the field. He scored just five points in the final three quarters, managing to squeeze off just eight field-goal attempts in that span. And, in typical Rasheed fashion, he made one stinking trip to the free-throw line during the entire game.
It was the sort of uneven performance from Wallace that we've grown accustomed to. The same inconsistency of production that caused me to flinch about seven years ago when an NBA assistant coach told me Rasheed was more important to the Portland Trail Blazers (his employer at the time) than Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were to the Los Angeles Lakers.
While I still roll my eyes at that notion, respect for Wallace's level of skill and knowledge of the game continues to exist.
"He's one of the most talented bigs we've had," said an NBA assistant coach, who, like Wallace, has spent considerable time working in both conferences. " 'Sheed can shoot it deep, he's really good on the block, he's a far better defender than most people realize and he's extremely unselfish."
That certainly seems like glowing testimony.
Unfortunately, a review of Wallace is never that simple.
In addition to being an unselfish player who generally is regarded as a fine teammate, Wallace can be something less than a hayride for his coach. Before this season began, it was assumed that the success of the Pistons' next playoff run would be greatly influenced by how much respect Rasheed would show Flip Saunders.
Since Flip took over for Larry Brown — like Wallace, a former North Carolina Tar Heel with a 2004 NBA title ring — Rasheed has been a model of seeming disinterest during the usual Saunders time-out huddle. While both parties have ranked such demonstrations as overblown, league insiders believe the potential for insubordination could wreck a team that's attempting to develop a few younger players.
In addition to being a potential coaching challenge, Wallace is less than a ton of fun for referees. But even that quality may require a temporary caveat. With a three-year streak of leading the league in technical fouls on the line, Rasheed, who had an eye-popping 41 seven years ago, has achieved only two Ts through the first 18 games. This conduct upgrade was extremely unexpected when we recall that Wallace managed three Ts in the Pistons' first three exhibition games.
It should be noted that Wallace's unsteady behavior is not limited to his interactions with referees and a coach or two.
"Let's just say that 'Sheed could be a dominant player if he didn't act so berserk on offense," the assistant coach said.
Well, isn't this an indictment of a Wallace who doesn't require an inordinate number of touches or shots to remain happy? The same Wallace who has fired up nine or fewer shots in six games this season?
Yeah, that's the otherwise team-oriented Wallace, the same guy who discovered the 3-point shot a few years into his career and embraced it about six years ago. Not coincidentally, his field-goal percentage began to plummet each season, dropping from near 50 during his formative years in Portland to a career-low 42 last year.
At 6-foot-11 and a still-bouncy 230 pounds, Wallace's swell ability to knock in threes over bigger, slower foes also can be considered a curse to the team that employs him.
Since adopting the three as his new best friend, Rasheed has shot more triples than free throws. This season, he has fired up 69 threes and taken 42 free throws.
"That's just ridiculous," the assistant coach said. "Don't get me wrong. We have bigs in the league who are good shooters who really should stay outside setting screens and drifting to the 3-point line to pull shot-blockers away from the rim. But Wallace is really, really good on the low post. If he spent as much time down there as he should, he'd shoot a higher percentage, of course, score more often, get opponents in foul trouble and get enough calls that he might not bark at the refs as much."
But this refusal to make a change that seems obvious registers as the perfect stalemate for Wallace, who — at 14 points and a mediocre seven rebounds per game — ranks just 51st on the league's player-efficiency list. It's the same off-the-beaten path march that enabled Rasheed to refuse go-to-guy status in Portland, where he threw a towel in the face of teammate Arvydas Sabonis and allegedly fired a basketball — baseball style — against the head of teammate Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje at a practice.
It's what made reporters — whose adversarial history with Rasheed certainly adds to this negative public persona — shake their heads when Wallace shared a misdemeanor marijuana beef with Damon Stoudamire in 2002 and issued his NBA exploitation rant in 2003.
Referred to as a "chameleon" by a former teammate who believes Wallace's character concerns ebb and flow based on those around him, Rasheed should remain one of the league's signature personalities.
But our appreciation for his efforts may not be completely realized until the Pistons manage to get past Boston or that young superstar in Cleveland who, thanks to Nike's marketing campaign, has added more alter egos than go-to moves.
The appreciation of his attitude is not lost on league personnel sharpies, however. And if things go haywire in Motown, Rasheed Wallace, currently working for his fourth NBA team, could be available again.
It'll be interesting to see if another franchise is willing to touch him with a 39½-foot pole.
So let me get this straight: A player who is notorious for being personally difficult with media and refs, who has cleaned up his act and is currently behaving like a model citizen, needs to have a hit piece written about his personal character by a known hack piece of shit at this very moment because his stats have gone down in the first 1/4 of this season?
Remind me why we expect Rasheed Wallace to play nice, when everyone is going to him like shit no matter what he does? Go to hell, Randy Hill.