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http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/13282736p-14125007c.html
Mark Kreidler: Baggage claim a routine stop for Petrie
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, July 23, 2005
If Bonzi Wells doesn't understand what a gift he has just been given, he ought to be wrapped up in insulation and shipped off to the Palms and placed on permanent display in the MTV "Unclear on the Concept" wing of the Maloofs' hotel.
Wells didn't just get traded Friday, he got an official pardon. It's like a get-out-of-the-doghouse-free card. He left the Memphis Grizzlies and a coach who despised him, and he gained the Kings and a coach who almost has no choice but to love him, immediately and without reservation.
And not only does Rick Adelman need Wells, but Wells needs the Kings. It's an almost perfect storm of desperation. And it'll work.
Welcome, Bonzi, to the Last Chance Saloon. You're the guest of the day.
The Kings and career-rehabilitation projects go together like assist and bucket. The modern resuscitation of this franchise just about rests on that very concept.
Oh, sure, the other guys didn't carry Wells' social baggage. This guy, despite his talent, wore out the coaches and many fans in two cities, Portland and Memphis, that are not unlike Sacramento in terms of size and attention paid to the local NBA product.
But know this: Bonzi Wells isn't the first player to be obtained by Geoff Petrie and coached by Rick Adelman whose basketball career was, if nothing else, on the verge of professional irrelevance. He's coming to a place that is completely familiar with the dynamic.
People tend to forget what a pain in the keister Chris Webber was perceived to be before he arrived in time for the franchise-turning, lockout-abbreviated 1999 season. Webber already had been labeled a first-class prima donna and coach-crusher (the Don Nelson affair), and as a guy on the verge of squandering his immense talent.
Credit Adelman or don't - it'll depend almost entirely on your preconceived notion of whether the man is the reason the Kings have won or their impediment to winning more - but Webber absolutely repositioned himself as a top-shelf NBA player while in Sacramento. He went from a talented problem to simply talented.
Coincidence?
Vernon Maxwell, a man with a past that included going into the stands after a particularly awful heckler, spent one utterly productive season in Sacramento.
Jon Barry was considered more trouble than he was worth. Jimmy Jackson, Jason Williams - we've gone over the list before.
But it's more than some grand social rehab; the Kings have become the way station for players trying to get their careers right, not just their public standing. Doug Christie was a perfectly serviceable player having an average NBA career before he was traded here from Toronto. By the time he left, it was a shock any season that Christie wasn't a first-team all-defensive choice.
Even Bobby Jackson, one of the outgoing in the Wells trade, was just sort of a guy in the league before he played for Adelman. Jackson was a comer, but no one had really discovered what he could do. Adelman turned him loose, and Jackson played so well that he began snatching away key minutes from Williams, a development that left Williams unhappy and caused something of a paradigm shift in the Kings' front office.
In one of those classic modern NBA developments, Jackson rejoined Williams in Memphis with Friday's deal. And as much as people here love Jackson as a player and respect him as a person, it's the right move. Jackson's locker-room leadership is no good if he can't play, and after three injury-shortened seasons in a row, the time to roll the dice was now.
Wells doesn't represent any team-wrecking risk. He comes to the Kings with one year (at $8 million) remaining on his contract, and Petrie dealt away equal salary by sending off Jackson to the Grizzlies and Greg Ostertag to Utah - he still has a mid-level salary exception worth around $5 million to spend on a backup point guard and/or more frontline depth.
If Bonzi's a bust, he's history after the season - or even during it, with Petrie moving him before the trade deadline. But that's not the angle Petrie and Adelman are playing here. They're betting, straight up, that Wells' talent will outstrip his personality.
Frankly, that's on Wells. If he can't grasp the beauty of coming to a coach who will simply insert him as the two-guard and give him a starter's minutes, then there's no hope for happiness in the man.
Adelman obviously believes the claim, which I heard repeated several times Friday from those who cover the Grizzlies in Memphis, that Wells' only real issue with Mike Fratello (and Hubie Brown before him) was playing time. It doesn't excuse some of the amazingly foolish things Wells did earlier in his career, including spitting on Danny Ferry while with Portland, but ask around: The Kings are all about the here and now. In the here and now, Bonzi Wells constitutes a fully acceptable risk. You know what that makes him? The lucky one, is what. Here's hoping he is both bright and ambitious enough to embrace that truth.
Mark Kreidler: Baggage claim a routine stop for Petrie
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, July 23, 2005
If Bonzi Wells doesn't understand what a gift he has just been given, he ought to be wrapped up in insulation and shipped off to the Palms and placed on permanent display in the MTV "Unclear on the Concept" wing of the Maloofs' hotel.
Wells didn't just get traded Friday, he got an official pardon. It's like a get-out-of-the-doghouse-free card. He left the Memphis Grizzlies and a coach who despised him, and he gained the Kings and a coach who almost has no choice but to love him, immediately and without reservation.
And not only does Rick Adelman need Wells, but Wells needs the Kings. It's an almost perfect storm of desperation. And it'll work.
Welcome, Bonzi, to the Last Chance Saloon. You're the guest of the day.
The Kings and career-rehabilitation projects go together like assist and bucket. The modern resuscitation of this franchise just about rests on that very concept.
Oh, sure, the other guys didn't carry Wells' social baggage. This guy, despite his talent, wore out the coaches and many fans in two cities, Portland and Memphis, that are not unlike Sacramento in terms of size and attention paid to the local NBA product.
But know this: Bonzi Wells isn't the first player to be obtained by Geoff Petrie and coached by Rick Adelman whose basketball career was, if nothing else, on the verge of professional irrelevance. He's coming to a place that is completely familiar with the dynamic.
People tend to forget what a pain in the keister Chris Webber was perceived to be before he arrived in time for the franchise-turning, lockout-abbreviated 1999 season. Webber already had been labeled a first-class prima donna and coach-crusher (the Don Nelson affair), and as a guy on the verge of squandering his immense talent.
Credit Adelman or don't - it'll depend almost entirely on your preconceived notion of whether the man is the reason the Kings have won or their impediment to winning more - but Webber absolutely repositioned himself as a top-shelf NBA player while in Sacramento. He went from a talented problem to simply talented.
Coincidence?
Vernon Maxwell, a man with a past that included going into the stands after a particularly awful heckler, spent one utterly productive season in Sacramento.
Jon Barry was considered more trouble than he was worth. Jimmy Jackson, Jason Williams - we've gone over the list before.
But it's more than some grand social rehab; the Kings have become the way station for players trying to get their careers right, not just their public standing. Doug Christie was a perfectly serviceable player having an average NBA career before he was traded here from Toronto. By the time he left, it was a shock any season that Christie wasn't a first-team all-defensive choice.
Even Bobby Jackson, one of the outgoing in the Wells trade, was just sort of a guy in the league before he played for Adelman. Jackson was a comer, but no one had really discovered what he could do. Adelman turned him loose, and Jackson played so well that he began snatching away key minutes from Williams, a development that left Williams unhappy and caused something of a paradigm shift in the Kings' front office.
In one of those classic modern NBA developments, Jackson rejoined Williams in Memphis with Friday's deal. And as much as people here love Jackson as a player and respect him as a person, it's the right move. Jackson's locker-room leadership is no good if he can't play, and after three injury-shortened seasons in a row, the time to roll the dice was now.
Wells doesn't represent any team-wrecking risk. He comes to the Kings with one year (at $8 million) remaining on his contract, and Petrie dealt away equal salary by sending off Jackson to the Grizzlies and Greg Ostertag to Utah - he still has a mid-level salary exception worth around $5 million to spend on a backup point guard and/or more frontline depth.
If Bonzi's a bust, he's history after the season - or even during it, with Petrie moving him before the trade deadline. But that's not the angle Petrie and Adelman are playing here. They're betting, straight up, that Wells' talent will outstrip his personality.
Frankly, that's on Wells. If he can't grasp the beauty of coming to a coach who will simply insert him as the two-guard and give him a starter's minutes, then there's no hope for happiness in the man.
Adelman obviously believes the claim, which I heard repeated several times Friday from those who cover the Grizzlies in Memphis, that Wells' only real issue with Mike Fratello (and Hubie Brown before him) was playing time. It doesn't excuse some of the amazingly foolish things Wells did earlier in his career, including spitting on Danny Ferry while with Portland, but ask around: The Kings are all about the here and now. In the here and now, Bonzi Wells constitutes a fully acceptable risk. You know what that makes him? The lucky one, is what. Here's hoping he is both bright and ambitious enough to embrace that truth.
