LMM
Starter
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/11966605p-12847454c.html
Mark Kreidler: Jackson's worth the risk
He will remain with Kings despite injury woes
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Saturday, January 8, 2005
In the end, Bobby Jackson is worth the risk. But let's make it clear: He's now officially a risk.
Oh, sure, it's of the low-wattage variety. Jackson's Kings contract calls for him to be paid about $3.1 million this season, which will prove to be mostly dead money for the Maloofs but is nowhere near the scale of paying Chris Webber six times that amount to rehabilitate a devastated knee or Vlade Divac $12 million to slowly deteriorate as an on-court threat.
And next season? Well, that's a question front-office guru Geoff Petrie already has answered. He told me this week that Jackson's most recent injury, his third in three seasons, will not affect Petrie's intention to pick up the option on the guard for 2005-06, when Jackson will be 32.
That option is worth $3.3 million, chicken feed in the land of the great stuffed bird that is the NBA. Jackson's salary this season doesn't even put him among the 150 highest-paid players in the league. Barely a calendar year ago, the long-term deal Petrie struck with Jackson back in 2000 still loomed as one of his most visionary signings ever.
For that matter, it wasn't so long ago that Jackson was hoping the Kings might let him out of his contract rather than hold him to that option. A great sixth man who longed to be a high-value starter instead, Jackson was said to be interested in pursuing his next pot of gold.
Now Jackson is injured and unavailable for the third time in three seasons.
It's an unattractive record he is unhappy to be building.
And for the first time in forever, he constitutes a risk.
It's an acceptable risk to Petrie, a man for whom the phrase "long view" must have been invented. Petrie, after all, sees in Jackson a former NBA Sixth Man of the Year who, when he's right, is almost incalcuably important to what the Kings and coach Rick Adelman are trying to do on the court.
Jackson understands the offense, knows how to run it, runs it differently than starting point guard Mike Bibby (not at all a bad thing) and is capable of instant offense. He also can be careless with the ball and with his shots, but Jackson has always won out over any offensive shortcomings by playing hard-nosed defense - and, critically, actually looking to rebound - almost every minute he's on the floor.
He's also a bargain at his option-year price - if he's healthy.
But let's review. There was the ran-into-Shaq-and-broke-a-hand ailment of 2002-03, followed by the Great Abdominal Strain of 2003-04, and now the torn wrist ligament, which ensures Jackson will appear in fewer than 60 games for the third straight season.
And the injury factor is ongoing, because it's almost directly tied to the all-out way he plays the game. Jackson clearly can't play any other way (and he might not be any good if he did alter his style), and stuff is going to happen. Petrie acknowledged that much.
But look at some of the results. Ran into Shaq on a drive. Injured the wrist in a midair collision with Kenyon Martin. No one knows what happened to Jackson's abdomen, but the one thing that felt certain was his recovery - which also wiped out last season's playoffs for him - had to account for the fact that when Jackson did return, it would be at full tilt.
And here's the hardest part: When he does return, Jackson, who cares for the team as much as anybody in the Kings' locker room, might ultimately - and quite unwittingly - retard the development of its future core.
Adelman is a veterans' coach, period. He likes the guys who he knows can produce. When things were off-kilter earlier this season, Adelman screwed down his rotation to the nubs, working his seasoned players extra minutes until the won-lost column looked right again. He is a short-rotation coach by nature and by design.
As long as Jackson can suit up, he's going to be a significant part of that rotation. And that leaves open the question of how players such as Kevin Martin and Maurice Evans can make a fit with that reality next season. It's not about position nearly as much as it is about available minutes.
These will be months of revelation for Martin and Evans, who have golden opportunities to give Adelman reasons to keep them on the court. But make no mistake: You see them on the floor now because Adelman, short along the bench to begin with, doesn't have a choice. He will have a choice again next season, when Jackson comes back for another attempt at regaining the form that made him such a crucial part of Sacramento's modern success. It's an acceptable risk, given everything, that Jackson - smallish of paycheck, strong of will and ever unafraid of work - might revive the past without compromising the future. But a risk it now officially is.
Mark Kreidler: Jackson's worth the risk
He will remain with Kings despite injury woes
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Saturday, January 8, 2005
In the end, Bobby Jackson is worth the risk. But let's make it clear: He's now officially a risk.
Oh, sure, it's of the low-wattage variety. Jackson's Kings contract calls for him to be paid about $3.1 million this season, which will prove to be mostly dead money for the Maloofs but is nowhere near the scale of paying Chris Webber six times that amount to rehabilitate a devastated knee or Vlade Divac $12 million to slowly deteriorate as an on-court threat.
And next season? Well, that's a question front-office guru Geoff Petrie already has answered. He told me this week that Jackson's most recent injury, his third in three seasons, will not affect Petrie's intention to pick up the option on the guard for 2005-06, when Jackson will be 32.
That option is worth $3.3 million, chicken feed in the land of the great stuffed bird that is the NBA. Jackson's salary this season doesn't even put him among the 150 highest-paid players in the league. Barely a calendar year ago, the long-term deal Petrie struck with Jackson back in 2000 still loomed as one of his most visionary signings ever.
For that matter, it wasn't so long ago that Jackson was hoping the Kings might let him out of his contract rather than hold him to that option. A great sixth man who longed to be a high-value starter instead, Jackson was said to be interested in pursuing his next pot of gold.
Now Jackson is injured and unavailable for the third time in three seasons.
It's an unattractive record he is unhappy to be building.
And for the first time in forever, he constitutes a risk.
It's an acceptable risk to Petrie, a man for whom the phrase "long view" must have been invented. Petrie, after all, sees in Jackson a former NBA Sixth Man of the Year who, when he's right, is almost incalcuably important to what the Kings and coach Rick Adelman are trying to do on the court.
Jackson understands the offense, knows how to run it, runs it differently than starting point guard Mike Bibby (not at all a bad thing) and is capable of instant offense. He also can be careless with the ball and with his shots, but Jackson has always won out over any offensive shortcomings by playing hard-nosed defense - and, critically, actually looking to rebound - almost every minute he's on the floor.
He's also a bargain at his option-year price - if he's healthy.
But let's review. There was the ran-into-Shaq-and-broke-a-hand ailment of 2002-03, followed by the Great Abdominal Strain of 2003-04, and now the torn wrist ligament, which ensures Jackson will appear in fewer than 60 games for the third straight season.
And the injury factor is ongoing, because it's almost directly tied to the all-out way he plays the game. Jackson clearly can't play any other way (and he might not be any good if he did alter his style), and stuff is going to happen. Petrie acknowledged that much.
But look at some of the results. Ran into Shaq on a drive. Injured the wrist in a midair collision with Kenyon Martin. No one knows what happened to Jackson's abdomen, but the one thing that felt certain was his recovery - which also wiped out last season's playoffs for him - had to account for the fact that when Jackson did return, it would be at full tilt.
And here's the hardest part: When he does return, Jackson, who cares for the team as much as anybody in the Kings' locker room, might ultimately - and quite unwittingly - retard the development of its future core.
Adelman is a veterans' coach, period. He likes the guys who he knows can produce. When things were off-kilter earlier this season, Adelman screwed down his rotation to the nubs, working his seasoned players extra minutes until the won-lost column looked right again. He is a short-rotation coach by nature and by design.
As long as Jackson can suit up, he's going to be a significant part of that rotation. And that leaves open the question of how players such as Kevin Martin and Maurice Evans can make a fit with that reality next season. It's not about position nearly as much as it is about available minutes.
These will be months of revelation for Martin and Evans, who have golden opportunities to give Adelman reasons to keep them on the court. But make no mistake: You see them on the floor now because Adelman, short along the bench to begin with, doesn't have a choice. He will have a choice again next season, when Jackson comes back for another attempt at regaining the form that made him such a crucial part of Sacramento's modern success. It's an acceptable risk, given everything, that Jackson - smallish of paycheck, strong of will and ever unafraid of work - might revive the past without compromising the future. But a risk it now officially is.
