Today is my
birthday. Thirty-three years old. Some people tend to fixate on
birthdays. You look back on the previous year and think about all the
things you wanted to do and didn't get done. You look forward to the
future and see that you have so many things left to do and time is
a-wasting. And yet, I can't help but feel happy, because today is my
day.
David Sweet, David Woo, and Eric Fulton dropped by and we went out to
dinner and then a movie. Tony Roma's for a hurried dinner and then Hellboy as the movie. It was a
fairly good movie for an adaptation, though the other guys weren't
impressed. From the little I've read of Hellboy, the movie seems to
capture the spirit of the comic books.
I watched the first game of the LA Lakers - San Antonio Spurs series.
The Spurs won and they look very good this yearm quite an achievement
considering they changed half the team from last year's championship.
The Lakers did ok for a while but then the Spurs defense shut the
Lakers down long enough for the Spurs to come from seven behind to a
ten-plus point lead.
Hedo Turkoglu is doing well on his new team. Maybe not so well in this
game but he did play hard. It's too bad he couldn't quite make it on
the Kings roster. Last year he just kind of fell of the rotation which
really hurt his confidence. Now with the Spurs he's got new life. And
the Kings did get Brad Miller for Hedo and Scott Pollard.
Looking back over the years. I'm thinking that Rick Adelman, as good a
coach as he is, is not that good developing young players. Peja
Stojakovic, Jason Williams, Hedo Turkoglu, and Gerald Wallace are the
recent draft picks. Only Stojakovic has flowered under Adelman's reign.
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Jason Williams
was just too wild. Adelman tends to leave his players alone and isn't
that much of a disciplinarian. It's great for veterans and
self-starters but Williams really needed more direction. Now in Memphis
with Hubie Brown not taking any nonsense from his players, Jason is
finally becoming the point guard people thought he could be.
Hedo did well the first two or three years. The Kings drafted a young
18-year old player from another country. Hedo struggled with
homesickness and culture shock. But he has a fearless playing style and
a good amount of basketball ability. Unfortunately, after a year when
he almost established himself as Peja's backup, the year after he
struggled and then was replaced by Jim Jackson in the rotation. And
that pretty much killed him. Maybe this one can't be blamed on Adelman
since the coach didn't have the extra year to turn things around.
Gerald Wallace is in the fourth and final year of his rookie contract.
All this time he's just been lots of potential but he just can't seem
to crack the playing rotation. He came out of college after only a year
so he had a lot of training to do. Still, he hasn't really improved as
far as I can tell and I doubt that the Kings will resign him.
But, with three disappointments you have Stojakovic. An All-Star player
and possibly the purest shooter in the league. Certainly one of the top
small forwards in the league. Peja also arrived in Sacramento when he
was young, maybe like 20, after playing at least a year in Europe. I
think the difference here is that Peja had some experience when he
came, he wasn't terribly young, and Vlade Divacs took him under his
wing and taught him a bunch. And that's the NBA, lots of good players
don't make it until they go to another team that's more appropriate for
them.
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