Hot Damn Kwame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DominiqueWilkins]

I can see Billy Knight going after Kwame Brown this offseason, but not too strongly. I like his size, but he has some serious problems, but I think he can turn his career around. I wouldn't mind the Hawks going after him, but don't make him the first choice.

A couple of names I have way before Kwame Brown:

Tyson Chandler and Udonis Haslem

[RAHMOR]

So let me get this right. You want our front court next year to be Marty A. w/ Kwame Brown. You've got to be kidding. We would get our *ss whipped night in and night out. With all the other option we available u think that's the best. My top five front court for next season go:

1. Bogut w/Chandler (Solves rebounding, shot-blocking inside scoring, and gives us passing.)

2. Bogut w/Dalembert

3. Curry w/Chandler

4. Curry w/Dalembert

5. Chandler w/ Harrington

Marty A. w/ Kwame Brown may not even be top 10.

[Diesel]

Quote:

---

Jermaine O'Neal voted NBA's most improved

Pistons' Wallace is second in voting

By Dan Gelston / Associated Press

Image

Associated Press

Jermaine O'Neal, who had career highs in points and rebounds this season for the Indiana Pacers, was selected the NBA's Most Improved Player Thursday.

Comment on this story

Send this story to a friend

Get Home Delivery

INDIANAPOLIS -- When Indiana forward Jermaine O'Neal gazed at his NBA Most Improved Player award, he was already thinking of another piece of hardware he'd like to add to his newly constructed trophy case -- that of MVP.

"I want to get to the point where I can destroy the entire league," he said. "I plan on next year being here with a different speech. Hopefully, I'm 10 to 20 times better."

O'Neal, who had career highs in points and rebounds this season for the Pacers, was selected Thursday as the NBA's most improved player. He is the first Indiana player to win the award since Jalen Rose, now with Chicago, in 1999-00.

O'Neal received 52 of 126 votes from a media panel. Detroit's Ben Wallace, the defensive player of the year, was second with 16 and Dallas' Steve Nash was third with nine.

The 6-foot-11 forward averaged 19 points and 10.3 rebounds and led the Pacers in scoring, rebounds blocked shots and minutes played. O'Neal was a first-time All Star selection and was picked, along with teammate Reggie Miller, to play on Team USA in this summer's World Basketball Championship in Indianapolis.

When they couldn't afford to lose, the Pacers put together a season-ending winning streak to make it into the NBA playoffs as the eighth seed. O'Neal averaged 25.4 points and 10 rebounds during the five-game streak.

O'Neal came into the NBA out of Eau Claire (S.C.) High School and was selected by Portland with the 17th overall pick in the 1996 draft.

He could never crack Portland's rotation playing behind forwards Rasheed Wallace and Brian Grant, averaging 3.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in 211 games.

He demanded a trade following his fourth year with Portland and was dealt to Indiana for Dale Davis in August 2000.

At the time, the trade was viewed as heavily lopsided in the Trail Blazers' favor. Davis helped the Pacers to the NBA Finals the previous June, led the team in rebounding for the seventh straight season and made his first All-Star team.

Much of O'Neal's improvement can be traced to last offseason. At the conclusion of the season, he asked the Pacers' coaching staff where he could improve. They told him to work on his shooting.

"I went home this summer and worked on my jump shot," he said. "That was the difference in me being an OK player to a really good player."

Indiana Coach Isiah Thomas said it took more than O'Neal just getting an opportunity to start that led to this award. It was O'Neal's willingness to put in hours of work.

"You have to give him credit for working hard and improving his skills," he said. "If it was just about having a chance to play and getting out on the floor, then a lot of guys would do this."

---

No. I don't think there was an expectation of O'Neal being what he became..

[Diesel]

Quote:

---

Portland trades unhappy O'Neal to Indiana

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A day after acquiring Shawn Kemp, the Portland Trail Blazers beefed up their front line some more Thursday, getting Dale Davis from the Indiana Pacers in exchange for unhappy Jermaine O'Neal.

Indiana also gets Joe Kleine, the Blazers' 38-year-old backup center. Kleine was signed to a three-year contract, with the first year guaranteed. On Wednesday, Portland acquired Kemp from Cleveland in a three-team deal that sent Brian Grant to Miami.

With Davis, the Blazers clearly got the best of the swap of 6-foot-11 players.

Davis, who helped lead the Pacers to the NBA Finals against the Lakers, averaged 10 points and 9.9 rebounds, leading Indiana in rebounding for the seventh straight year and making his first All-Star team.

O'Neal, who came into the NBA out of Eau Claire (S.C.) High School, has contributed virtually nothing in his four pro seasons. He averaged just 12.3 minutes, 3.9 points and 3.3 rebounds last season and couldn't crack the rotation playing behind forwards Rasheed Wallace and Brian Grant.

"I just don't think he was as talented as the guys who were playing in front of him," Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy said.

When O'Neal did get into games, usually as a backup to aging center Arvydas Sabonis,

he showed promising shot-blocking and rebounding skills at the defensive end, but almost no touch on offense.

Before the lockout-shortened 1999 season, O'Neal brazenly had "Year of the Resurrection" tattooed on his arm, but two seasons later, the 21-year-old is still looking for his niche.

O'Neal, entering the second year of a four-year, $24 million contract he signed last summer, demanded to be traded in mid-June.

Dunleavy said O'Neal could improve his chances at more minutes by playing on Portland's summer league team, but on the day he was supposed to leave for Long Beach, O'Neal went shopping for hats at a department store.

---

[Diesel]

Quote:

---

Pacers guard Reggie Miller feels betrayed by general manager Donnie Walsh because Miller signed his new three-year, $36 million deal thinking that Mark Jackson, Dale Davis and Rik Smits would all be returning this season. Jackson signed as a free agent with Toronto, Davis was traded to Portland, Smits retired and the team that defeated the Bucks in the first round of the playoffs last season has been pretty much dismantled.

Jalen Rose will move from small forward to take over at the point for Jackson; Austin Croshere will get the chance to start at small forward; Jermaine O'Neal, obtained in the trade for Davis, is penciled in at power forward; and a center by committee is planned in the pivot.

"Last year, we used to laugh at teams like we have now," said Miller. "They were athletic, but after four quarters we would have our way with them. We're the team we used to beat up."

---

[Diesel]

Revisionist History is something else huh guys..

Yeah.. O'Neal was a hot comodity when he was traded. Read what Mike Dunleavy said!

[chillzatl]

Two articles doesn't make it unanimous fact. I remember when the trade happened and there were many that felt O'neal was going to be a special player. It certainly wasn't the the consensus opinion. But there are plenty out there that weren't exactly surprised by what he did in Indiana.

Afterall, Portland drafted him based on potential and Mike Dunleavy is as to blame as anyone for not developing it in portland. They drafted a child and obviously didn't take the steps neccessary to instill some confidence in him before giving up on him. Obviously Indiana worked with him and helped build that confidence and he responded by becoming the player he is today.

Kwame also had a similar situation early on. MJ certainly didn't help him by expecting so much out of him so quickly. But he has since had the same opportunity that JO got in Indiana. Only he still hasn't responded to it.

[PhillyDC]

i dont think it was the fact that JO wasnt ready in portland its just that he had wallace, sabonis, grant, pippen, detlef among others ahead of him. this allowed him to learn a lot, but also caused him to sit on the bench.

kwame on the other hand was ruined by jordan (his entire tenure with the wiz was horrible, but thats another argument for another day) and he has not had any good players to learn from.

i dont think kwame will ever turn into JO. at the best, he may put up 15 and 10. i hope he proves me wrong.

[Lascar78]

Many different people have different opinions. Just because one journalist says it was the concensus doesn't make it so. What makes me the revisionist moreso than him?

I remember plenty of people (myself included) knowing that O'Neal was a stud waiting for a chance to break out. That's not to say everybody out there knew, but plenty of people did. And as far as dunleavy, he was evaluating his skill at that date, not his potential. And he's right that he wasn't as good as sabonis or sheed at that time, and that he hadn't yet shown his offensive touch. So what?

O'Neal immediately started 80 games after the trade and averaged 13 and 10 and 2.8 blocks. Do you really think a player goes from being useless to being that good in one offseason? Of course not. There is almost no chance of Kwame being that good next year. Again, those are better averages than Kwame's supposed great game yesterday.

Jermaine never failed when given the minutes. Kwame has failed time after time. He might develop, but I'm not holding my breath.

Why do you think Indiana made the trade? Do you think they just wanted to get rid of Davis in his prime for a talentless teenager

[Diesel]

I only stopped at 2 articles...

The point was that when J.O. came over from PTL, he still had some work to do on his game..

IF you read the two articles,

Explained BY J.O. and by Dunleavy...

JO was a bad shooter with no touch when he came over. J.O. said that he worked on his shooting in the summer at the bequest of Isiah and that was the reason why he improved so much.

Dunleavy felt that J.O. Was not even going to be committed to becoming a better player.

Look at this from Dunleavy:

Quote:

---

Cellini: You also gave up a young talent in Jermaine O'Neal, and Dale Davis comes over [from Indiana]. Tell us about acquiring Davis and the thought process behind that.

Dunleavy: Jermaine had asked to be traded. Jermaine is 21 years old with a big upside, and he had been in a situation here where he had been playing behind Rasheed Wallace and Brian Grant for a number of years. But given the opportunity to get Dale Davis for Jermaine, I think that [president] Bob Whitsitt felt like it was a great move for us.

Dale is obviously an established player. Jermaine has the ability to get to the point where Dale is, but Dale is there right now. He's a great defender in the low post and a great rebounder, one of the top rebounders in our league on a permanent basis. It was a good pickup for us.

---

In essence, he said that he thought that Jermaine could maybe become as good as Dale Davis... Otherwise, I don't think they would have made the trade...

Back to Kwame..

If he was inspired to work on his game and put in the right situation, tell me what's stopping him from having the same type of turnaround...

[Diesel]

In PTL, there was also some critiques about his game as well. Dunleavy felt that he couldn't shoot well. Remember, there was room for him to play because they put Arvydas on the bench A LOT... Vydas had bad knees... They looked at O'neal as being a BU C/PF.

But he was behind: Wallace, Grant, Vydas, and CATO?

Yep.. Cato remember..

PJ was fired for not playing JO enough.

Dunleavy came in and proved to somebody that JO didn't need to be on the floor.

I think that JO worked his way to where he is now. I think Kwame can do the same.

[Weez]

ONeal certainly wasn't on my radar at the time, and I knew little of him. He surprised me...but I've seen Kwame play. for several years...

[Lascar78]

Quote:

---

The point was that when J.O. came over from PTL, he still had some work to do on his game..

---

Of course. But there's still a huge difference between a guy who hasn't gotten a chance, and a guy who's gotten many a chance and failed.

Also, you have to take Dunleavy's comments with a grain of salt. Whenever you make a trade, you make comments for your fans that try to make the trade look as appealing as possible.

[Weez]

that wasn't why PJ was fired...but no, he didn't play alot. The trade caused little stir for me (in favor of the Pacers) because it seemed like a 'moving on' move.

still...I don't recall having an opinion/having seen him play much while in portland.

[AHF]

Here are some quotes from articles about O'Neal:

Quote:

---

"We're not rebuilding--we're renovating," explains Walsh, who calls O'Neal a "diamond in the rough," and opines that not many people know how good he is.

This kid (O'Neal) has a chance to be a special player in the right system," Walsh says.

---

Quote:

---

"He has rebounding, shot-blocking ability. We feel he can play any one of the three (front-line) positions, including center. He's got athletic ability and great skill," Pacers president Donnie Walsh said of O'Neal. "This continues our idea of trying to keep this team in a position to be good both immediately and in the future."

---

Quote:

---

"We developed Jermaine and we liked him, but he was frustrated and didn't want to be here," Portland general manager Bob Whitsitt said. "I still think he'll be a really good player in this league. The book on Jermaine will be finished 10-15 years from now."

---

Quote:

---

"He came out at 17 years old. Obviously he's very young," Walsh said. "But the one thing about young players like this is he's hungry. He wants playing time."

---

[Diesel]

Kwame:

14.3mpg, 4.5ppg, 3.5rpg

22.2mpg, 7.4ppg, 5.3rpg

30.3mpg, 10.9ppg, 7.4rpg

21.6mpg, 6.0ppg, 4.0rpg

Jermaine:

10.2mpg, 4.1ppg, 2.8rpg

13.5mpg, 4.5ppg, 3.3rpg

8.6mpg, 2.6ppg, 0.4rpg.

12.3mpg, 3.9ppg, 3.3rpg

First off, Jermaine's numbers didn't suggest that he was any kind of star in the making. Neither does Kwame's...

Secondly, Jermaine had the luxury of playing for a really good team. A team with players who knew the game.

Kwame has played with a Jordan who was focused on the post season and degraded him for being a HSer coming to the pros. Stackhouse, and a bunch of 1st and 2nd yr players. With 3 coaches in 4 yrs.

[Packfill]

Quote:

---

You are right that he has skills that every other big man in the league does. Except the fact that he is one of the most athletic 7 footers in the league. Not only in hops but in quickness. He is a specimen, he has the talent I should say, he only needs to be able to show it.

---

Just for the record, Michael Olowakandi is a specimen, as are James Jones, Brendan Haywood, Desagana Diop, Adonal Foyle, and Shawn Bradley. All have great size and athletic ability but still suck.

Let us not forget past luminaries who were athletic marvels that were giant duds when it came to actually playing: Benoit Benjamin, Tito Horford, Yinka Dare, Stanley Roberts, Chris Washburn, William Bedford, Stacy King, Luther Wright and Sharone Wright.

[Diesel]

No fair..

Sharone Wright was in a car accident.

None of these other guys were even lottery picks?

[Packfill]

Olowakandi was the first pick in the draft. Yinka was a lottery pick. Benoit Benjamin was a lottery pick. Stacy King was a lottery pick.

Don't forget other infamous big men lottery picks: Olden Polynice, Jon Koncak, Alexander Radojevic, etc.

[Weez]

and everybody's favorite frenchman....YOUR FREDERICK WEISS!!!!