Rondo Still 'All In' As Stevens, Celtics Build Around Him

http://www.nba.com/2014/news/features/david_aldridge/10/20/morning-tip-rondo-brad-stevens-and-the-celtics-westbrook-without-durant-qa-with-lance-stephenson/index.html



Rondo still all in as Stevens, Celtics build around him
Also this week: OKC's top option ... Q&A with Lance Stephenson ...Top o' The World, Ma! ... Feelin' ... Not Feelin' ... more

POSTED: OCT 20, 2014 11:20 AM ET

BY DAVID ALDRIDGE
TNT ANALYST
@daldridgetnt | Archive



Celtics Team Preview: Rajon Rondo
Grant Hill and Mike Fratello go into the mind of Danny Ainge to predict where Rondo will land, and look at the transition of Brad Stevens to the pro game.



Rajon "Shecky" Rondo held court in Philadelphia last Thursday, joking that he'd met with a psychic to see how long he'd be out after breaking his hand Sept. 25. He obligingly held out his right hand to detail how it had healed in the last couple of weeks.

Of course, Rondo broke his left hand falling in the shower, not his right. He detailed how "disappointed" he was that his relationship with coach Brad Stevens hadn't grown very much in the last year.

"I wish he'd talk to me a little bit more," Rondo said, tongue firmly in cheek. "I knock on his door every day."

He'll be here all week. Try the veal.

Whatever issues Rondo has with the Celtics' organization and its plan to rebuild after jettisoning Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce last year, he's not going to share with a bunch of reporters. Whether he wants to stay to help shepherd the franchise back to health, as he continually insists he does, or would like to be traded to a contender, as he continually insists he does not, he seems content working with Stevens, the second-year coach.
"He's very positive," Rondo said after getting serious Thursday. "He's the most positive coach I've ever been around in my career. It's hard not to want to play as hard as you can for a guy that shows it every day, not just in the locker room, but off the court, with his family. He's a great man and he's a great role model. That's a prime example of a great leader. He's very consistent in what he does. He's all about the team. He wants us to play very hard and he wants us to win."

The Celtics are still a long way from winning the way they're used to in Beantown, even though they had an excellent Draft, taking Marcus Smart and James Young in the first round. They have some good pieces in Jeff Green and Avery Bradley, third-year forward Jared Sullinger and second-year center Kelly Olynyk.

But they do not have enough -- yet -- for general manager Danny Ainge to make the kind of trade he pulled off to get Garnett. So they enter this season still in full rebuild mode.

"The biggest thing for me is you're in an organization that has this tradition and history, unlike any other," Stevens said. "And you're also, last year especially, in a situation that was very fluid and was almost like starting from the ground floor in many ways. It's pretty exciting to be a part of that, to think about how we can best set the table to make sure that our players are developing as well as they can, and that we're playing as well as we can every night."

VIDEO AT THE LINK, CANNOT COPY
Celtics Team Preview: Young Backcourt
Vince Cellini, Mike Fratello, and Grant Hill look at the rookie backcourt of Marcus Smart and James Young, and determine how they will fare this season.


Year Two of the Stevens Chronicles finds the same detail-oriented coach that came to Boston off a sensational run in college at Butler, but one that has adjusted after a 25-57 inaugural season with the Celtics. With his six-year, $22 million contract, and the full support of management, Stevens has begun to put his imprint on the team.

"He's on us this year," Sullinger said. "Obviously, he wants to win. But last year, he was just feeling out the NBA, I thought. He gave a more passive approach. Toward the end of the season, though, he gave us a little bit better, a little more aggressive approach. This year, he just carried over. He kind of demands excellence."

Stevens remains a devotee of advanced metrics. He brought Drew Cannon with him from Butler. Stevens had hired Cannon at 23 to pore over the advanced numbers he'd been writing about as an intern for college recruiting analyst Dave Telep. (Telep is now working for the Spurs as their Draft Scouting Coordinator.) And Boston already was a hub for the analytics revolution, with Danny and Austin Ainge (director of player personnel) and assistant GM Mike Zarren all committed to the new math. (Daryl Morey, of course, started with the Celtics before going to Houston.)


I think our team, at this point, is way better than it was last year. I think we know what it takes now.– Jeff Green


But Stevens' first season in Boston was filled with trial and (mostly) error. The Celtics didn't shoot well, no matter where they were on the floor; they were 28th overall in 3-point percentage, 26th in 2-point percentage. They were 27th in points per 100 possessions, and 28th in both effective and true shooting percentage.

Coming off his 2013 ACL tear, Rondo's minutes were limited when he returned last January. Boston rode the unlikely Jordan Crawford to some early wins, but the lack of talent ultimately caught up, and the Celtics went 6-23 down the stretch.

"No question, last year was tough," Green said. "We had a lot of trials and tribulations making the steps to get better. I think our team, at this point, is way better than it was last year. I think we know what it takes now. We have that year under us, like some of our young guys had last year. With a year under their belt, I think they're more mature. And we expect a lot more out of them now after having one year. We were up and down with injuries, Rondo being out half the season, coming back, not playing back to backs, Avery [Bradley] being hurt. It wasn't a functioning team."

Boston did not make the offseason splash that principal owner Wyc Grousbeck said it would. Other than a perfunctory run at Kevin Love that never got off the ground, Boston wasn't able to bring in a difference-making player via trade or free agency. The C's did get Bradley re-signed before he hit the restricted free-agent market (four years, $32 million) and they signed former No. 2 overall Draft pick Evan Turner late in the summer.

Stevens recruited Turner out of high school, and his friendship with Ohio State coach Thad Matta brought him into Turner's sphere at Columbus while in college. It was an easy marriage of convenience.

"Coach Matta, Brandon Miller [who succeeded Stevens as head coach at Butler] and all those guys, they're all from the same tree," Turner said. "I was familiar with them all through my college career. Brad and I had a few conversations about him and Thad, so I knew how close they were. And this was long before he was ever the big-time coach at Butler."

Turner was surprised Stevens left the security of Butler, where he'd led the Bulldogs to consecutive appearances in the NCAA national championship game in 2010 and 2011.

"I actually was [surprised], but at the same time, it's a great opportunity," Turner said. "When you get to know him, the guy, I think he has a plan and he follows it. If you can do what he did at Butler, that was so impressive. He recruited the right kind of guys and he got people there and he had the basketball jumping."

The going is slower in Boston.

Last season, the Celtics went under in screen and roll coverage most of the time. Stevens had blitzed his bigs in pick and rolls at Butler, but was convinced he had to play differently in the pros.

But Boston struggled, no matter what it tried.

"I think last year we were kind of all over the place defensively, what we wanted to do," Rondo said. "Certain games, we might have different matchups, and you obviously have to adjust accordingly during each game. But, you have to be consistent, whatever you do. You can't, some games, do some things, in other games, do other things. How can you be great at one thing if you're always willing to switch and do things differently? He's been pretty stern about doing the same thing over and over again. He's a stat guy -- time and place. The stats show that the way that we're scheming, eventually, out of 82, 48 minutes a game, we should win a lot of games."

VIDEO AT LINK, CANNOT COPY
2014-15 Celtics Team Preview
Sekou Smith examines the season ahead for the Boston Celtics.


Rondo only accepts the advanced numbers to a point.

"It depends on time and situation," he said. "The only thing I don't like about them is, they can't measure your heart. You can tell me, they told me that Big Baby [Glen Davis] shot 33 percent from the elbow. But I want Big Baby on my team in the playoffs, at crunch time, when I'm in the fight, when I'm in the hit, you can't tell me Big Baby [shouldn't play]. It's not about the shots he's making; he might take the charge. [It's] the intangibles, versus you telling me what a guy can shoot on the court."

This season, Stevens plans to vary the Celtics' screen and roll coverages -- partly because they'll have the guards to be more aggressive with Rondo back, Bradley healthy and Smart on the roster. Smart has already shown that while his shot may need refining, he's already able to hold his own on the defensive end.

"Game by game, it's going to be a different flavor," Sullinger said. "You've got to understand that every flavor of Kool Aid isn't the same flavor. Whether it's a red pack or an orange pack, it's going to be a different flavor. That's how we've got to look at it in these games."
It's just part of everyone demanding more this season. The training wheels are off.

"I think everybody is holding each other more accountable, instead of just letting it slide," Green said. "I think last year we kind of was like, we knew how the season was going to be -- up and down. We kind of let stuff get past us. But now, I think we're more dependent on each other, and we're holding each other more accountable."

Having young veterans like Bradley and Green around this season also makes Boston's rebuild less steep than teams like the 76ers.

"Here, you have some pretty good players for sure," Turner said. "Most of the guys in Philly are young, young, young, young dudes, unfortunately. Sometimes, we're a step ahead from that aspect in terms of the leadership here. Their leaders over there are MCW [Michael Carter-Williams] and Jason Richardson, who's not really around the team, 'cause he's hurt right now. It's way different."

And there is Rondo, a free agent at season's end. The Celtics have positioned themselves to be major players next summer, both in free agency and trades. And Danny Ainge has amassed a trove of picks the next two years: three firsts in both 2015 and 2016. Rondo is still just 28; the rebuild could happen much faster if Ainge can turn those picks and room into one or two difference-making players. Or, Ainge could use Rondo as the bait -- though he continues to say, over and over, that he wants Rondo around long term.

For now, Rondo is working out with teammates in small groups while his hand heals.

"He gives us input, and he's enthusiastic about it," Turner said. "He's always a step ahead, clearly. Sometimes [in practice] he's making plays you don't see. It's unreal."

Whether Rondo is here to see the Celtics get back on top or not, he thinks Stevens will be there when it happens.

"Even though it's a different level, he's had success at the college level," Rondo said. "I think the thing for any successful team is to buy in. He has us all believing in what his plan is. If we continue to do that, I think we're going to surprise a lot of people."

He wasn't kidding.


Top O' The World, Ma!
(Last week's rankings in parentheses)
1) San Antonio (2): Kawhi Leonard (eye infection) looks out for the rest of the preseason, according to Gregg Popovich -- maybe a little longer than that. Not good.

Chippy Play
Blake Griffin takes exception to a hard foul from Trevor Booker.
2) L.A. Clippers (3): Blake Griffin getting tired of the chippiness against him from opponents, the latest Utah's Trevor Booker. Griffin will, ultimately, punch someone in the face, and get fined and suspended by the league. But the runs at him will stop.
3) Cleveland (5): Cavs easing Kyrie Irving (ankle) back into the flow.
4) Chicago (6): Thibs putting the hammer of great expectations down from the beginning, calling out Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah to be more consistent.
5) Oklahoma City (4): With understandable focus on Kevin Durant's injury/surgery, it should be noted that Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison also have been unable to practice or play in preseason so far with lingering injuries.
6) Dallas (9): Great to see the Mavs sign guard Yuki Togashi, the 5-foot-7 guard who flashed on Dallas' summer league team in Vegas. Togashi can play -- he starred in high school at the powerhouse Montrose Christian, just outside of D.C. But his size obviously makes a pro career unlikely. He'll play in the D League for the Legends.
7) Portland (7): I did not realize that four of the Blazers' five starters last season -- Lillard, Matthews, Batum, Lopez -- played all 82 games. No wonder the Blazers are touting their improved bench so much. They'll need it.
Houston (: Second-rounder Nick Johnson flashing more than enough to not only make the roster, but maybe get some playing time -- at least until Jason Terry is completely healthy.
9) Memphis (10): Grizzlies got off to an awful start last season. They have the Wolves, Bucks, Lakers, Pistons and Kings during the first two weeks of the regular season this season, and have to make hay.
10) Toronto (12): Looking forward to more Jonas Valanciunas-Steven Adams matchups in the post in the years to come.
11) Washington (11): Wiz may need to see if their TV analyst Phil Chenier can give them 10 minutes if they lose any more guards to injury: they're currently without their top three players (Beal, Webster, Rice, Jr.) at that spot.
12) Golden State (13): Per GM Bob Myers, he and Klay Thompson's agent, Bill Duffy met for an extended breakfast last week as negotiations continued on an extension for Thompson before the Oct. 31 deadline for Class of 2011 draftees. If no deal gets done before then, Thompson would become a restricted free agent next summer.
13) Phoenix (14): Goran Dragic already 10th all-time on the franchise's list of made 3-pointers, with 332. He'll start the season 17 threes behind ninth-place Joe Johnson.
14) Charlotte (15): P.J. Hairston looks like he's going to be a real contributor this season.
15) Brooklyn (NR): Of all the sentences the Nets wanted to hear before the regular season begins, "Brook Lopez will be out 10-14 days" was near the bottom of the list, right above "Mutant 50-Story Lizard Terrorizes City."

Nobody Asked Me, But ...

2014-15 Thunder Team Preview
Sekou Smith previews the Oklahoma City Thunder, who must overcome an injury to their superstar, Kevin Durant.
What will the Russell Westbrook Show look like in Oklahoma City?
Oh, Westbrook won't be jacking up 40 shots a game -- probably -- now that Durant is out, according to the Thunder, six to eight weeks following surgery to repair a Jones fracture in his right foot. Chances are, the Thunder won't actually look a whole lot different in how they play without Durant. They will still look to exploit opponents, only this time they'll use Westbrook's explosive dribble as a first resort instead of Durant's unstoppable jumpers and runners.
Of course no one will replace Durant. No one who can stand upright and uses his or her brain would suggest anything of the sort. But the Thunder will not get byes while Durant is out. They're going to have to figure out how to play for a long stretch without the guy who was on the floor for 79 percent of OKC's minutes last season, who has missed six games in the Thunder's five previous seasons -- and just 14 games since the franchise moved from Seattle in 2008.
Durant has been the lynchpin for everything Oklahoma City does as a team. His development as a more efficient scorer and player has mirrored the team's rise to elite status. When Westbrook went out last December with a third knee operation in less than two seasons, missing 27 games, Durant played out of his mind, solidifying his MVP award in a virtuoso performance. He scored 30 or more points in 12 straight games. During the Thunder's 10-game winning streak that stretched over late January and early February, Durant averaged 40 points, 5.8 assists and 6 rebounds per game. His PER of 29.8 and Win Shares of 19.2 last season were career bests, each leading the league for the first time.
The sample size of what the Thunder has done without Durant playing is so small, it's like they have to create a whole new system on the fly.
Fortunately, they happen to have a 25-year-old three-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA Second Team superstar on whom they can fall back.
The caricature of Westbrook is always that of the angry, gifted little brother -- think Michael Evans in "Good Times," trying to solve the world's problems while big brother J.J. gets all the attention. (Not that Durant would wear a silly hat and yell "Dy-No-Mite!" all the time for canned yuks.) With Durant gone, the Thunder will surely put the ball in Westbrook's hands and play through him.
The Thunder showed an initial look Friday, starting second-year guard Andre Roberson, who started 16 games last season, at shooting guard alongside Westbrook, and newly signed free agent Anthony Morrow at small forward with Serge Ibaka and Steven Adams up front. That lineup would keep Reggie Jackson and Jeremy Lamb on the bench, with Perry Jones III, Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison.
The only good news for OKC is that its roster is deep enough that Scott Brooks has palatable options. In discussing what the Thunder may do and how it may play without Durant, pro scouts offered several suggestions:

Russell Westbrook: Pure Aggression
The Thunder's Russell Westbrook is a lightning bolt of athleticism and talent, and we review some of his best plays from the 2014-15 NBA Season.
1) Play the best five.
In this scenario, the Thunder would start Jackson and Westbrook together in the backcourt, with Lamb or Morrow at the three, Ibaka at the four and second-year man Adams at the five. Don't worry about the impact of starting Jackson on the bench's firepower, and don't worry about size; everyone is downsizing, anyway.
The Nets had to play Kevin Garnett at center last season after Brook Lopez was injured, and played Shaun Livingston, Deron Williams and Alan Anderson in what amounted to a three-guard lineup, with Paul Pierce playing power forward. And, it worked. The Suns certainly were successful playing small ball last season. And the Spurs, of course, dominated the Heat in the Finals with lineups that often featured Boris Diaw at center.
Jackson has made it clear he wants and expects to be a starter in the NBA soon. Given that his agent and the team are currently trying to reach agreement on a contract extension before the Oct. 31 deadline, Durant's injury could -- could -- help, at least temporarily ease the Thunder's dilemma concerning Jackson.
2) Keep Morrow, the free agent OKC signed away from New Orleans in July, coming off the bench as its sixth man.
That would keep the Thunder's bench from short-circuiting most nights, as it did against San Antonio at key stretches of the Western Conference finals last June. OKC had to start Jackson when Thabo Sefolosha's jumper left him, but the reserves didn't deliver. In Game 5 against the Spurs, the Thunder's bench quartet of Sefolosha, Lamb, Derek Fisher and Caron Butler shot 4 of 17; in the Game 6 Spurs clincher, Lamb and Fisher were 2 of 7, Sefolosha didn't attempt a shot, and Butler was a DNP-CD.
"I like Morrow off the bench against B defenders," a veteran Western Conference scout said. "I would start Lamb. He has a deeper offensive tool box to work with."
An Eastern Conference scout, though, thinks Morrow should start with Westbrook, to put better perimeter shooting around him.
"He must initiate the offense for himself and others," the scout said. "Jackson, Lamb and Jones will be key off the bench. They are lacking in depth. I think Westbrook is looking for the challenge. It will be physically tough on Westbrook. (I) worry about injury and wearing down."
3) Play with more pace.
The Thunder were ninth in the league last season in pace, averaging 95.4 possessions per 48 minutes. But OKC may have to play even faster to get the most out of Westbrook's incomparable ability to push the ball in transition.
Another scout suggested the Thunder use "drag" and early actions to take pressure off of the Thunder's half-court execution -- "which I would think would be lacking," the scout said. (Here is a very simple set of diagrams showing how former NBA player Fred Hoiberg, now the head coach at Iowa State, uses "drag" action to get early shots in transition, either for the point guard -- in this case, Westbrook -- in a quick screen and roll, or for the small forward or power forward off of quick passes set up by spacing the floor properly.
But the idea would be to get Westbrook the ball, on the move, as quickly as possible. He's almost impossible to stop when he gets a head of steam, capable of stopping and elevating to a ridiculous vertical in a second, or blowing past anyone foolish enough to crowd him.
Regardless of the system, though, Westbrook should be just as effective in the screen and roll with Ibaka as Durant was last season. The question is what will happen when defenses decide they're going to make somebody other than Westbrook beat them, and get the ball out of his hands. Can Morrow, or Lamb, or Jackson, make them pay?
... And Nobody Asked You, Either
From Luke Duffy: Just a quick one for you. You spoke last week about expansion teams becoming a possibility given the money coming down the line from the likes of the new TV deal and people wanting to buy into the lucrative market that is owning an NBA team.
I'd love to see Seattle have a team again, they absolutely deserve one. But do you not think the current format of the NBA is perfect? Thirty teams, sixteen making the playoffs? There would be room for two more franchises and it wouldn't make a difference, but after that, the way the league works would have to be changed, not to mention more games played between teams.
Yes the league has gone through changes before and become a better product, and obviously this is so far off it's not worth worrying about, but don't you think the league is perfect the way it is now? I know I do!
Aldridge responds: If you're only talking about number of teams when you use the word "perfect," Luke, I don't mind having the discussion. (There are many things that are not "perfect" about the NBA, but that's for another letter.) I do not think the league needs to expand. There are already enough mediocre/bad teams in it; it doesn't need two more. But I must admit I don't see any other way to get Seattle a team in the near future, unless the Bucks can't get public funding to help build a new arena in Milwaukee -- and I'm not down for another city having to lose its team to make Seattle whole, either. (During Friday's gubernatorial debate in Wisconsin, neither the incumbent, Gov. Scott Walker, or his challenger, Mary Burke, would commit to supporting the use of tax dollars to help build the new building, which the NBA has said has to be built to ensure the team stays in town. If there is not a deal in place for a new arena by November, 2017, the league can buy the team back from its current owners.) As for the scheduling issues that would arise from having two more teams, no solution would be perfect, to use your word.
Send your questions, comments, criticisms and other situations such as these that would require discretion to daldridgetnt@gmail.com. If your e-mail is sufficiently funny, thought-provoking, well-written or snarky, we just might publish it!
By the Numbers
6 -- Three-pointers made by the Lakers in their first four exhibition games, leading reporters to ask Byron Scott about his "philosophy" on taking threes. His answer, that threes can help get you to the playoffs but don't win championships, led to excoriation in the Twitterverse. They like to excoriate there. But do Scott's critics really think that Scott, who made more career threes than Larry Bird, doesn't like the shot?
18 -- Preseason games that NBA teams have played in China, dating back to 1979, after the Kings and Nets played two exhibitions in Shanghai and Beijing last week. The Beijing game drew 17,130 to the Mastercard Center, which was the site of the basketball competition for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, won by the United States.
40 -- Ranking of Kobe Bryant among NBA players by ESPN.com, leading to the expected and predictable Mamba response. Why anyone takes these things seriously is beyond my admittedly limited comprehension.
I'm Feelin'
1) Who knows what it means, but a 4-1 preseason for the Jazz before Sunday night's game against the Lakers can only be a positive for a young team and a new coach that both need confidence going into the regular season grind.
2) The nadir of the NBA's modern era, it says here, came after Michael Jordan's second Chicago Bulls retirement, in 1998. The stirrings of the league's renaissance, it says here, began a year later in Sacramento, where a Kings franchise long thought the worst possible place an NBA player could go started turning things around, playing an exciting brand of pass-first, 3-point capable basketball. The conductor of that orchestra was a flashy, diminutive point guard from West Virginia named Jason Williams, who was quickly dubbed "White Chocolate" by the team's PR staff because -- there's no delicate way to put this -- he played like the brothers did. Williams, along with Chris Webber and Vlade Divac, put an entertaining product on the floor, and Williams would try any pass at any time, to the delight of fans (he once got a standing ovation for a pass, even though his teammate missed the shot). Sacramento traded Williams in 2001 to Memphis for Mike Bibby, and he never really was the same dynamic player in his remaining NBA stops (though he does have a championship ring from his stint with the Heat in 2006). Williams hasn't played in the NBA since 2011, but at 38, he still, apparently, is diming people up in pickup games.
3) This is what real leadership looks like. (The line for outraged e-mails/texts about how this really isn't a big deal and how it's social engineering run amok forms to the right.)
4) My baseball friends wonder if the wild card(s) format has had the unintentional consequence of giving the wild card winner momentum going into the playoffs that makes division winners -- who've been off for a few days -- more vulnerable to upsets. Maybe. But the Royals and Giants are very worthy World Series opponents, and it should be a good matchup.
5) Hard to read. But a necessary read, if we're going to fully understand how prevalent and destructive domestic violence is in our country.
Not Feelin'
1) I like the look of Derek Jeter's new venture, The Players' Tribune, which allows athletes to pen first-person accounts of their various exploits. And I'm more than cool with Blake Griffin writing about his encounters with Donald Sterling while Sterling owned the Clippers. What I'm not cool with is Griffin insinuating that no one in the media cared about Sterling's actions before last February. Lots of people wrote detailed, serious pieces about Sterling over the years, well before the TMZ tapes came out. Lots of people. Lots. Really.
2) If players like LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki are serious about wanting to shorten the season by as much as 20 percent, they have to know that means a reduction in their yearly salaries by the same amount. And that means less money in the system, which ultimately will hurt the people it always hurts -- the middle class. Personally, I'd love to see a 72-game season, a reduction of 10 from the current schedule. That would eliminate many, though not all, of the back-to-back games that everyone hates, while still allowing for home-and-home games between teams in the opposite conference, four games apiece with a team's division rivals and at least one home and home between interconference teams.
3) There has not been a more competitive person, a more dedicated individual, a better teammate than Steve Nash. How he ends his career is his business; he has earned that right. But it is sad to watch this end this way.
4) He scares me. Make him stop!
5) Shouldn't red wine come in a snifter, not a tub?
Q & A: Lance Stephenson
Lance Stephenson Oct. 2014
They were unlikely partners, Larry Bird and Lance Stephenson. But for four years in Indiana, Bird, the Pacers' president, and Stephenson, known to one and all as Born Ready, stuck with one another. Bird had taken Stephenson in the second round of the 2010 Draft, and Stephenson had made the investment pay off. Gradually, he became a better shooter, a more willing passer and a better teammate, as Indiana rose in the Eastern Conference. Last season, he put together his best statistical season, but the Pacers suffered what can only be viewed as a breakdown the second half of the regular season, frittering away their chance to unseat the Heat, who bounced them out of the playoffs for a third straight season in a pretty uncompetitive conference finals.
Along the way, Stephenson drew attention to himself again -- both for, oddly, trying to get in LeBron James' head by, among other things, blowing in his ear (it didn't work) and for being the likely target of teammate Roy Hibbert's "selfish dudes" comment. Yet, everyone was shocked when Stephenson left Bird and Indiana in July for Charlotte, signing a three-year, $27 million deal with the Hornets instead of the five-year offer Indiana made for slightly less than $9 million per season.
Now 23, Stephenson is charting his own path, one in which he hopes to provide scoring and leadership for a Charlotte team that's coming off of its second postseason appearance. He'll do so playing next to guard Kemba Walker, his longtime friend and foe from their days playing against one another in New York City.
Me: What have you brought from your experiences in Indiana that will help you with establishing a leadership role here with Charlotte?
Lance Stephenson: Just defensive-wise. I mean, I think we play good defense here. The leadership role, I love to lock up my man, and I feel I can bring that here and make us a better team. I have a lot of experience from going deep in the playoffs, so I know what it takes.
Me: You think people may have forgotten your Lincoln High team did win four straight Public School championships in New York City?
LS: Well, high school is minor league compared to here. You have to earn your respect here. You can't live off a legacy of high school in the NBA.
Me: You remember the first time you played against Kemba?
LS: Upstate New York. It was a public school versus Catholic school, to see who was the best in the whole city. So we played them every time in the championship to get the state title. I won the city title every year. But to get the state title, I always had to meet up with Kemba or Mount Vernon.
Me: But you played against him before high school.
LS: Oh, all the time. I played with a team called Team Next, and he played with the Gauchos. And we always used to meet in the quarterfinals or the championship.
Me: Is it crazy that you're teammates now?
LS: It is crazy, because we used to always go against each other. We were like enemies. For us to be on the same team, it's like, man, we hated each other back in the day. But this is the NBA, and I think we're going to be a good backcourt.
Me: How will you complement his game, and how will he complement yours?
LS: We're the same. He's just smaller than I am. He's aggressive to the hole, he's got the jump shot, and he makes plays for other players. I do the same thing similar. And he also rebounds for a little guard. You can say we're similar, but I'm just in a bigger body.
Me: Your assist game has really evolved in the last couple of seasons (going from 1.1 per game in 2011-12 to 4.6 per game last season). How did you get better at seeing the floor while you were in Indy?
LS: I try to make the right play every time. I felt like when you make the right plays, you help your teammates, try to put them in the best position to succeed.
Me: I know you've moved on. But any disappointment about how things ended in Indy?
LS: Nah. I'm here. That's the past, and I'm looking forward right now. I'm happy with where I'm at, and I just want to win here. I think we're going to be good. We have a group of guys that want to be together and want to win and play hard. I think we'll be pretty good this year.
Tweet of the Week

It should come as no surprise to anyone that KG and I don't share the same taste in music.
-- Irina Pavlova (@ipavlova), the president of the Brooklyn Nets' holding company, Onexim Sports And Entertainment, Wednesday, 10:27 a.m., during the Nets' trip to China for their exhibition game with the Sacramento Kings. No word as yet on how this was discovered or what was done about it -- or what's on Ms. Pavolva's Recently Played list on her iPod.
They said it
"Hey, everybody, I want to thank you for coming out tonight. This is not the game you paid your hard-earned money to watch. I apologize for it. And I want you to send me your tickets if you came tonight with a return envelope and I've got a gift for you on behalf of the Suns for showing up tonight. Thank you."
-- Suns owner Robert Sarver, addressing fans at Phoenix's home game against the Spurs Thursday. San Antonio kept five players out of the lineup, including healthy scratches Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili -- and Coach Gregg Popovich, who was ill and remained in San Antonio. Sarver told the Arizona Republic that he "just felt that the fans paid good money for the game and they didn't see the players that they anticipated seeing." Popovich fired back Saturday: "I think most wise individuals would check facts before they make statements. Unless you're interested in putting on a show, in that case, the facts can get in your way, as in this case. We had five guys we didn't send: Patty Mills had a shoulder operation, Tiago Splitter has been out the whole preseason with a calf, Kawhi Leonard was out and is still out 10 more days. The other two, Duncan and Ginobili, are two of the oldest guys in the league and just came back from a 13-day European trip. The only thing that surprises me is he didn't come out and say it in a chicken suit." Did I mention I love this?
"As a man, if you got a problem with somebody, you sit down face to face and you talk to them eye to eye. And you hash it out and move on. So, I think a lot of things that go on in life or in sports with people kind of holding grudges is because they're afraid to actually take a step forward. It's a fine line between pride and progress, and I'm on the progress side. I'm not on the pride side."
-- LeBron James, telling reporters last week about the process in which he ultimately came to forgive Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert for Gilbert's incendiary remarks after James's 2010 decision to leave Cleveland for Miami. No word on whether Kyrie Irving's presence or the promise of playing with Kevin Love also factored into James forgiving Gilbert and returning to the Cavs.
"Yeah, you don't want to hear my thoughts. I'm old school. I mean, are you going to have a whole new set of records? And how are you going to dictate who averaged more points LeBron James or Michael Jordan?"
-- Wizards coach Randy Wittman, asked his opinion of the NBA's announcement last week that it would experiment with a 44-minute game during the preseason.




bob




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B-b-but Rondo's a coach killer! It's absolutely impossible he'd ever collaborate with Stevens!



KJ