[外電] Magloire seems eager for Western challenge
原文出自 nola.com
http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1098341102263000.xml
Magloire seems eager for Western challenge
Thursday, October 21, 2004
John DeShazier
There hasn't been much to dislike about Jamaal Magloire on the
basketball court, Hornets coach Byron Scott said.
That shouldn't be a surprise, considering the player. Because
every year of his NBA career, Magloire has improved by noticeable
statistical leaps, and he ended up on the Eastern Conference
All-Star team last season.
Duplicating that achievement might be more daunting this season,
New Orleans' first in the Western Conference. But if Magloire
plays at a level anywhere near where he played after being
selected to his first All-Star team, when he averaged 16.4
points and 11.9 rebounds in the last 34 games, the respect
will keep rolling in even if the individual recognition doesn't.
Each season so far has been better than the previous one. Which
means for his fifth season, the expectation is for something a
little more substantive than the 13.6 points and 10.3 rebounds
per game he had overall last season.
"He's done some real good things, he's learned the offense
extremely well," Scott said. "I told him like I told (small
forward) Lee (Nailon), 'I know you can score. I want to see
you do other things.' I want to see him become better at
passing the ball."
Scott wouldn't bring that point up if there wasn't some validity
to it. Lest Magloire begins drawing comparisons to a black hole,
he'll need to raise his total of 86 assists last season and 88
the season before -- about one per game.
But that's small stuff that won't necessarily be sweated too
heavily. The important stuff is this: There are less than five
legitimate NBA centers not named Shaquille O'Neal, and Magloire
is one of them. There are two or three who can work the post-up
game or step out, face up and consistently make 12- to 14-foot
jumpers, and he's one of them.
And with O'Neal moving to the East because of a trade from the
Lakers to Miami, there's a lot less man-mountain for Magloire
to scale en route to establishing himself as even more of a
force for the Hornets. Especially if he operates as Scott
believes he can in the Princeton offense.
"Everything is all right, it's OK," Magloire said of his
acclimation. "There's lots of movement, which is good. It's
not stagnant.
"(It will help) from a standpoint of just being able to have
movement on the weak side when the ball does touch my hand,
to open up the weak side."
"It just opens up everything for him," Scott said. "The post,
the mid-post . . . it enables him almost to be one-on-one with
his guy at all times. I think it'll be a very big help."
Too, it will help Magloire -- and the Hornets -- that the personal
trainer saga that dominated the first week of training camp has
subsided to little more than a whisper.
The issue rightly has taken a back seat to basketball, which is
fine by everyone involved. Because all that will be remembered
from the upcoming season is how the Hornets play and, more
pointedly, how one of the team's two All-Stars responds to Scott,
his staff and the fact that his days of sneaking up on anyone
are gone.
Any cloaking that Magloire had disappeared last season, as he was
named an Eastern Conference Player of the Week in April,
conference Player of the Month for April and had the first 20-20
game (23 points and 21 rebounds against Toronto) for the Hornets
in more than seven years.
He countered that, likewise, the Hornets won't be surprised.
"We're ready," Magloire said. "We're not intimidated by any team."
Especially not if Big Cat raises his play a little more, same as he
has every other year.
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