http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/14021518p-14853990c.html
Mark Kreidler: If Bibby really wants to lead, his time is now
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Memo to Mike Bibby: Here's the title and deed! It's all yours.
You sort of wonder whether, when Bibby declared this summer that "I'm this team's leader," he was thinking about this exact team. You figure Bibby probably meant some other Kings team, one with a deeper bench and maybe a stopper on defense.
Bibby may have envisioned himself as stepping out of the shadows of the Webber/Divac tenure, enlarging his reputation as a late-game lion and putting his general stamp on a winner. He surely never thought he'd become captain of the Endurance.
But it's thick ice all the way now. And that's Mike Bibby standing there with two picks.
I don't know how much "leadership" can really matter to a team that has had its guts removed one injury at a time, but the Kings are about to find out. They're about to learn whether Bibby has figured out how to lead, because the alternative is a rudderless journey to the land of premature playoff irrelevance - and that harkens back to a time in Sacramento that no one wants to revisit, now or ever.
It's Bibby who has to hold things together, or as together as they can be held. It's Bibby who is going to have to make shots early and late and find new running mates all over the floor for assists between.
It is certainly Bibby who is going to have to do most of the chewing out, most of the standard-setting. If he's terrible on defense, the team will be terrible on defense. If he's nutty with his shot selection, every guy on the floor, especially youngsters like Francisco García and Kevin Martin with natural gunners' mentalities, will see it as an invitation to freelance at will.
Bibby wants to be a leader? Now is the time, and this, however haggard, is most definitely the place.
And I know, I know: Let's not get carried away. You add back in Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Peja Stojakovic and Bonzi Wells, and the Kings still weren't a team setting anybody's hair on fire in the Western Conference. They were still a group trying to figure out how to play together, wondering if there was any defense on the premises.
The bench didn't change overnight, so far as anyone can tell. Wake up tomorrow with a healthy roster, and you're still left with the truth, which is that five good starters isn't enough in the NBA (although I'd still go down swinging with that starting group, 40 minutes a night if I had to).
But this is another level of dyspepsia, this thing. Abdur-Rahim's broken jaw, suffered Monday night against Portland in an exchange in which Zach Randolph magically fractured it with his elbow without committing a foul, seals the deal.
Wells is already hurt and out long-term, a month or more. Abdur-Rahim, realistically, is looking at weeks, not days.
Stojakovic's availability (game to game, logically) is less significant right now than his court presence, which is reduced to almost zero as he struggles with a bad back/sore groin/injured hand/insert future malady here.
Put those three starters together, and you're out almost 49 points of scoring per game. Bibby can do nothing about that.
He cannot heal the sick, not even around the holidays.
But Bibby determines the effort quotient on this team. He determines the common-sense quotient. Most importantly, he can make plays.
If he can shepherd this roster through the next few weeks, it will be the strongest validation of his own desire to lead. And that's significant because, like his still-standing courtmate Brad Miller, Bibby is so basically unnatural as a leader. He's not the fiery type. He can be funny behind closed doors, and he has both pride and a temper, but with the Kings, Bibby has mostly come across as a modulated player.
In Los Angeles on Tuesday night, the Mike Bibby on display wasn't a wild man, just a man trying to run a team. He found open teammates and hit his own shots, and he played every minute that Rick Adelman could throw at him.
It was a fine look. It's the look the Kings have to have. The keys to the jalopy have been passed. Clear out the smoke and drive.
About the writer: Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com.
Mark Kreidler: If Bibby really wants to lead, his time is now
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Memo to Mike Bibby: Here's the title and deed! It's all yours.
You sort of wonder whether, when Bibby declared this summer that "I'm this team's leader," he was thinking about this exact team. You figure Bibby probably meant some other Kings team, one with a deeper bench and maybe a stopper on defense.
Bibby may have envisioned himself as stepping out of the shadows of the Webber/Divac tenure, enlarging his reputation as a late-game lion and putting his general stamp on a winner. He surely never thought he'd become captain of the Endurance.
But it's thick ice all the way now. And that's Mike Bibby standing there with two picks.
I don't know how much "leadership" can really matter to a team that has had its guts removed one injury at a time, but the Kings are about to find out. They're about to learn whether Bibby has figured out how to lead, because the alternative is a rudderless journey to the land of premature playoff irrelevance - and that harkens back to a time in Sacramento that no one wants to revisit, now or ever.
It's Bibby who has to hold things together, or as together as they can be held. It's Bibby who is going to have to make shots early and late and find new running mates all over the floor for assists between.
It is certainly Bibby who is going to have to do most of the chewing out, most of the standard-setting. If he's terrible on defense, the team will be terrible on defense. If he's nutty with his shot selection, every guy on the floor, especially youngsters like Francisco García and Kevin Martin with natural gunners' mentalities, will see it as an invitation to freelance at will.
Bibby wants to be a leader? Now is the time, and this, however haggard, is most definitely the place.
And I know, I know: Let's not get carried away. You add back in Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Peja Stojakovic and Bonzi Wells, and the Kings still weren't a team setting anybody's hair on fire in the Western Conference. They were still a group trying to figure out how to play together, wondering if there was any defense on the premises.
The bench didn't change overnight, so far as anyone can tell. Wake up tomorrow with a healthy roster, and you're still left with the truth, which is that five good starters isn't enough in the NBA (although I'd still go down swinging with that starting group, 40 minutes a night if I had to).
But this is another level of dyspepsia, this thing. Abdur-Rahim's broken jaw, suffered Monday night against Portland in an exchange in which Zach Randolph magically fractured it with his elbow without committing a foul, seals the deal.
Wells is already hurt and out long-term, a month or more. Abdur-Rahim, realistically, is looking at weeks, not days.
Stojakovic's availability (game to game, logically) is less significant right now than his court presence, which is reduced to almost zero as he struggles with a bad back/sore groin/injured hand/insert future malady here.
Put those three starters together, and you're out almost 49 points of scoring per game. Bibby can do nothing about that.
He cannot heal the sick, not even around the holidays.
But Bibby determines the effort quotient on this team. He determines the common-sense quotient. Most importantly, he can make plays.
If he can shepherd this roster through the next few weeks, it will be the strongest validation of his own desire to lead. And that's significant because, like his still-standing courtmate Brad Miller, Bibby is so basically unnatural as a leader. He's not the fiery type. He can be funny behind closed doors, and he has both pride and a temper, but with the Kings, Bibby has mostly come across as a modulated player.
In Los Angeles on Tuesday night, the Mike Bibby on display wasn't a wild man, just a man trying to run a team. He found open teammates and hit his own shots, and he played every minute that Rick Adelman could throw at him.
It was a fine look. It's the look the Kings have to have. The keys to the jalopy have been passed. Clear out the smoke and drive.
About the writer: Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com.
