David Lee will always consider himself a rebounder and energy guy, but he knew there would be an opportunity to expand his role this season.
Anybody can be a scorer under Mike D’Antoni, even a guy who had averaged just 8.9 points in his first three years.
The New York Knicks forward had his second 30-point game of the season this week, raising his average to a career-best 15.4 points. Yet the better his game gets, the louder the talk that he may have to take it elsewhere.
D’Antoni’s pick-and-roll offense creates plenty of openings for the screener to dart to the basket for layups, the way All-Star Amare Stoudemire got so many easy buckets in Phoenix.
ccessful in that situation.”
Lee also is comfortable playing at D’Antoni’s preferred quicker pace, the way he did in college under Billy Donovan at Florida. But Lee’s improvement mostly comes from the way he has played in the halfcourt offense.
He has become much more consistent from the perimeter, confident enough to pop out for a jumper instead of always going toward the hoop. He’s been reliable inside or out, shooting 57.2 percent from the field to rank among the league leaders.
Lee followed a 24-point game Monday at New Orleans by going for 30 on Wednesday night against Washington. He had the best night of his career in November, a 37-point, 21-rebound game in a rout of Golden State.
“He’s really improved and he’s pretty confident and he’s got that little 15-foot jumper if you play off him,” D’Antoni said.
D’Antoni said Lee, also in the top 10 in the league in rebounding, would warrant All-Star consideration if the Knicks had a better record. Yet there is consistent speculation that Lee could be in his final days as a Knick by the time the break arrives next month.
the huge salary he could command, and if not, may prefer just to move him before the Feb. 19 deadline to get something back in return.
Lee tries to ignore the frequent trade speculation surrounding him, enjoying for now the chance to expand his offensive role.
“I looked at it as an opportunity,” he said, “and I’m just trying to make the most of it.”
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NATT’S EXPERIENCE: Kenny Natt can relate to veterans like Quincy Douby and Shelden Williams who are spending more time on Sacramento’s bench watching the young players than they are contributing for the Kings.
Natt, who took over as interim head coach when Reggie Theus was fired in mid-December, has been there himself and can offer a bit of perspective. The 50-year-old Natt was a journeyman pro who spent three seasons in the NBA with three teams – Indiana, Utah and the Kansas City Kings – then six teams in the CBA and two more in the World Basketball League. He was the 30th pick overall in the 1980 draft by the Pacers out of Northeast Louisiana University.
So Natt knows the frustration Douby and Williams are feeling. He knows they could certainly be producing more with other franchises, and hopes both players get their shot to do so. Natt reminds them to keep working and they will get that chance.
le veteran on the bench. “I’ve been there. There are so many success stories. Sometimes you’re just with the wrong team at the wrong time. I love those stories because that was Kenny Natt – those underdog stories.”
In fact, the conversations Natt has had with Douby about being patient and waiting for his opportunity the coach also had with Mo Williams during Natt’s days as an assistant under Jerry Sloan with the Jazz. Williams was playing behind John Stockton at the time and is now thriving with Cleveland.
“I’d like to play all five veteran guys because veteran guys win games for you,” Natt said. “But that’s not the direction we’re going.”
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BIG WINNERS: Keep an eye on the Cleveland-Orlando matchup in Florida on Jan. 29. It could help decide the Eastern Conference coach in the All-Star game.
With the Cavaliers and Magic among a fantastic foursome atop the NBA, either Mike Brown or Stan Van Gundy will guide the East team in Phoenix during All-Star weekend.
The teams with the best winning percentage in each conference through games of Feb. 1 will send their coaching staffs to the midseason showcase.
Doc Rivers would also be competing with them, but he’s ineligible after he had the honor last season. Rules prevent the same coach from running an All-Star team in consecutive seasons.
gic and Celtics are in a three-way race at the top of the East. The Los Angeles Lakers are far atop the West, meaning Phil Jackson seems certain to lead that conference next month.
All four teams have 30 wins, the first time in league history that four clubs won 30 games before they lost 10.
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HOLIDAY HOOPS: A showdown between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James highlights what has become one of the best days on the NBA schedule.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday features 12 games, capped by Cleveland’s visit to the Los Angeles Lakers. It could include a very motivated Bryant, if he’s aware of some comments made by TNT analyst Mike Fratello on Thursday comparing the NBA’s two best players.
“You know the car that is always trailing the other car and eventually catches it and goes past it? LeBron James just moved ahead (of Kobe Bryant),” Fratello said. “This is a different version of LeBron James. The Olympic experience has made a different player out of LeBron James.”
The potential NBA finals matchup on TNT is one of four games that will be televised nationally on the holiday. NBA TV will show Denver at Houston, followed by TNT airing Detroit at Memphis, then Phoenix at Boston before its nightcap.
st time Poland, where there will be three live games televised. Turkey, Italy, Britain and France also will get to see live NBA action.
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GOOD AS GOLD: USA Basketball received too many good performances in the Olympics to pick out just one. So it honored the entire gold medal-winning team.
The U.S. senior national team was honored this week with USA Basketball’s male athlete of the year, only the second time the award didn’t go to an individual. The other, naturally, was when the Dream Team won the award after winning the 1992 Olympic gold.
The Americans won gold in Beijing, their first major championship since the 2000 Olympics.
“The coaching staff, the USA Basketball staff, and I believed that to select just one player from the team for this award would be an injustice to everything the players and coaches did to play as one, and to represent the United States in the positive manner they did,” managing director Jerry Colangelo said in a statement.
“There is no mistaking that we built a team in every sense of what that means. Each and every player who made the commitment to the USA Basketball senior national team program had a hand in the success we were able to achieve and so the senior team is deserving of this honor.”
e national team program featured 33 players. Colangelo assembled the squad in 2005 and added to it after the Americans managed only a bronze medal in the 2006 world championships.
Bryant had to miss that competition after knee surgery, but apparently could be a candidate two years from now. Asked if he would consider playing in 2010 in Turkey, Bryant told the Orange County Register: “The chance to represent your country, that’s not even a thought-process for me. If they want me to be on it, I’m all game.”
Colangelo will likely talk to some of his players about future plans when they are in Phoenix next month for the All-Star game.
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AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley in Oakland, Calif. contributed to this report.
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