Posts Tagged ‘Chuck Hayes’

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Arrested Development?

January 12, 2012  ·  12:08PM

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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — John Wall is struggling.

Maybe you’ve heard.

In addition to his shooting issues, he was taken to the shed Wednesday night in Chicago, not by Derrick Rose but John Lucas III, who had  25 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. No offense to JL3, but this was a new low for Wall, the former No. 1 pick who came into the league with “star” stamped on his forehead.

If it’s any consolation to Wall, he isn’t alone. A few other young-uns are finding it rough as they try to take that next step to being established and bona fide stars. And why is this? Maybe they played too many summer league games during the lockout.

Maybe they were overhyped.

Or maybe they just need time.

Whatever, here’s a sampling:

– DeMar DeRozan, 22 years old: Double D is shooting 41 percent and had three straight games where he didn’t get double figures. The Raptors were hoping he’d be at least a borderline All-Star this year, and he might still break out. But it’s coming very slowly at the moment for a guy with obvious skills. Here’s DeRozan on his issues, courtesy of Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun:

“I just got to play better,” DeRozan said after an 11 point game that saw him hit just one of his first 10 field goal attempts.

“I take a lot of the (blame) when we’re not doing as well because I got to step up and start being consistent on both ends of the floor.”

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Wizards, Kings Talk It Out

January 6, 2012  ·  12:41PM

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HANG TIME NEW JERSEY BUREAU – After 12 days of the 2011-12 NBA season, the Washington Wizards remain the only team without a win. In fact, the only other team with less than two wins is the New Jersey Nets, who came back from 21 points down to beat the Wizards on opening night.

The Wizards’ schedule has been tougher since then, with road games in Atlanta, Milwaukee and Orlando, and a home-and-home with the Celtics. But they’ve had little chance to win any of those five games.

Offense has been problem No. 1 for Washington. They rank dead last in the league, scoring an anemic 89.5 points per 100 possessions. They’ve also been an awful rebounding team, ranking 26th in defensive rebounding percentage, 28th in offensive rebounding percentage and 30th overall.

Things have been bad enough after an 0-6 start that veteran forward Maurice Evans felt the need to call a players-only meeting on Thursday.

“We have to be real with ourselves,” Evans said. “The sense of entitlement that’s here sometimes, I’ve never seen before.”

So the players hashed things out for 15-20 minutes or so, discussing leadership and players’ roles. Evans, who has seen a lot playing for seven teams over nine NBA seasons, felt teammates needed to be reminded that playing time is earned, not given.

“I almost got a sense of relief from the players that it was finally said,” Evans said. “It was almost like something that was taboo or Pandora’s box and no one’s never really touching or addressing the issue. It was just enough dancing around the issues, enough of going through the motions.

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Past, Present Staring Down Kings

December 20, 2011  ·  1:12PM

HANG TIME TEXAS, Y’ALL – These are busy, frantic times in the King-dom of Sacramento.

For a minute or two, try to forget all of the problems in trying to get a new arena and the rumors that the franchise is still headed to Anaheim. For now, there are other immediate concerns:

First off, how to replace forward/center Chuck Hayes, whose free agent contract was voided when a physical exam revealed a heart abnormality?

Matt Kawahara and Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee had the news:

A projected starter who signed a four-year, $21.3 million free-agent contract Dec. 9, Hayes was expected to play a key role in the Kings’ offense and serve as a physical, vocal presence on defense.

“We’re not going to be able to replace him,” Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie told The Bee on Monday afternoon. “He was one of the best defensive frontcourt players in the league and a really unique player we thought would facilitate some offense.

“We’ll take a look at what we can do, but it’s not going to be the same.”In a statement released Monday, Petrie said notifying Hayes of the failed physical was “one of the most heartbreaking moments of my professional or personal life.”

Hayes has undergone further testing on his heart, but specifics about his condition have not been released. Messages left for Hayes’ agent Monday were not returned.

Monday evening, Hayes posted to his Twitter account, “Thank you everyone for your prayers and support, taking the next step to get healthy and back on the court, much love.”

Perhaps fortunate for the Kings front office is the fact that one of their own, who played in Sacramento last season, is still out there on the free agent leftover pile.

As the Kings look for ways to replace Hayes, among the available free-agent big men is Samuel Dalembert, who played last season in Sacramento.Asked about the possibility of bringing back Dalembert, Petrie said: “We’ve stayed in touch with him periodically along the way. We’ll see what develops here in the next few days and go from there.”

While scrambling to fill cracks in the immediate future, the Kings would be wise to take time out to honor their past in the aftermath of Peja Stojakovic’s calling it a career by hanging his retired jersey from the rafters.

As Victor Contreras of the Bee points out, those 7 1/2 seasons that Peja spent in Sacramento were special and usually spent performing at a very high level.

He goes out as one of Sacramento’s all-time favorite Kings, a player whose No. 16 should hang from the Power Balance Pavilion rafters soon alongside the jerseys of former teammates Chris Webber (No. 4) and Vlade Divac (No. 21).

Stojakovic was the stubbly, baby-faced assassin on the Kings’ original Fab Five. Webber was the muscle inside, Jason Williams thrilled crowds with no-look passes, Divac played point-center, and Doug Christie supplied the defense.

But it was Stojakovic who killed teams from beyond the arc. He was in constant motion, flowing along the baseline like a shark, scoring on back-door feeds and hitting threes from the corner.

Worth remembering also? Peja’s fourth place finish in the 2003-04 MVP voting (24.2 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 48% 3-point shooting) was just as high as Webber ever finished in his best season of 2000-01 (27.1 ppg, 11.1 rpg, 4.2).

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Dalembert, Others Await Teams’ Call

December 20, 2011  ·  9:37AM

HANG TIME TEXAS, Y’ALL – Though time is growing late as the Christmas Day tipoff draws near, our friend Chris Sheridan at Sheridan Hoops says there are still several free agents available that should have been signed by now, with Kings shotblocker supreme Samuel Dalembert heading the list.

Lest we all forget, Dalembert was somewhat linked to landing in Miami with the Heat early in the free-agency game. That has since changed as he recently told Fox Sports Florida’s Chris Tomasson that taking the Heat’s $5 million exception “would be tough.” Houston has emerged as a suitor of late, but where Dalembert and several other talented-but-still unemployed free agents end up is a mystery:

Samuel Dalembert should have been signed by now. A shot-blocking and rebounding specialist, the 7-footer would figure to be in his demand simply because capable 7-footers are always seemingly in high demand.

Dalembert had been in negotiations with the Houston Rockets, who have been trying to dig out of the rubble caused when commissioner David Stern dynamited their trade with the Hornets and Lakers, ruining their plans to field a front line of Pau Gasol and Nene.

But now that the news is out that the Kings have voided the contract of free agent signee Chuck Hayes because of a heart abnormality, it makes all that much more sense for Dalembert to re-sign with the Kings, whose owners vowed to keep him at the conclusion of last season.

Yet Dalembert remains idle, as is Kris Humphries, who averaged a double-double for New Jersey last season before marrying and then breaking up with Kim Kardashian.

Meanwhile, the Grizzlies made an offer to Bobcats forward Dante Cunningham when they got news that Darrell Arthur would be lost for the season due to a torn Achilles’ tendon.

In the wake of the Kings voiding the four-year, $21-million contract to Chuck Hayes after a physical found a heart irregularlity, don’t think for a minute that his former team in Houston won’t be interested. One thing the Rockets never doubted was Hayes’ heart.

Is there yet an NBA team that can make the right offer to get Andrei Kirilenko to return from his native Russia?

And what about Gilbert Arenas? Isn’t there somebody still willing to roll the dice?

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Unmade Deal Most Unfair To Rockets

December 11, 2011  ·  2:38PM

 

HOUSTON – Here are three things that we know for sure:

– The Hornets will eventually trade Chris Paul somewhere and move on with a rebuilding plan.

– The Lakers will continue being the Lakers, which means they’ll eventually find their way into the running for Paul or Dwight Howard or another high-profile free agent who’ll vault them back into championship contention.

– The Rockets have been kicked in the teeth.

In war, it is often called “collateral damage,” a euphemistic label that does nothing to lessen the pain.

While commissioner David Stern may have had the best interest of the Hornets (he says) in mind and may have been reacting to an outcry from a faction of owners about allowing the Lakers to reload (he denies), at this point the only party to have tangibly suffered is the Rockets, who were caught in the middle.

The Rockets do not have Pau Gasol as the centerpiece of bold makeover plan. They do not the salary cap room to make a max offer to free agent Nene. They do not have last year’s starting center, Chuck Hayes, who bolted to Sacramento during the confusion. And they go back to work in training camp with two players – Kevin Martin and Luis Scola – who know they were not part of the plan for this season.

First-year coach Kevin McHale is in a difficult situation trying to put it all together on the court. But his task is nothing compared to that of general manager Daryl Morey, who has to try to mend fences in his locker room.

Whether the moves to bolster their front line would have lifted the Rockets into the upper reaches of the Western Conference standings or fallen flat is irrelevant. All that matters is that by jumping into the mud puddle and vetoing the original three-team deal, Stern spattered the Rockets badly, tied their hands through the rest of the free-agent process and might have wrecked their season.

Morey has every reason to feel betrayed by the league and Rockets owner Leslie Alexander has every right to go full-Krakatoa on Stern with an eruption that should peel the paint off the walls of the league office.

Call it collateral damage or just a bloody mess in Houston.

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Blogtable: Knocking on playoffs door

April 6, 2011  ·  11:42AM

Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Which team that won’t be in the playoffs this season is closest to making the postseason on a consistent basis? And which team is furthest away?

David Aldridge: Closest: Clippers. They just need to stay together and stay healthy. Furthest: Timberwolves. They’re so young, and the West is still so tough. They have to get better than Houston, Golden State and Utah just to get in the playoff conversation. Tall order.

Steve Aschburner: Houston has a few pieces in place – Luis Scola, Kyle Lowry, Chuck Hayes as a flex-all defender, new guy Patrick Patterson – and a bunch of draft picks to plug holes affordably in the next few years. The Rockets’ strong play makes you wonder if Rick Adelman might stick around after all, since the re-build in the post-Ming era might not be such a massive undertaking. Then there are the Timberwolves, who must feel like they’re looking through the wrong end of the telescope at the prospect of playoff participation. Too much disarray and more likely to come next season, when time really does run out on the current front office/coach combo.

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Blogtable: Exceeding expectations

March 30, 2011  ·  11:11AM

Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Let’s go the other way: Which player has most wildly outpaced your preseason expectations of him?

David Aldridge: Cousin LaMarcus, of course! I knew he could score from the perimeter, but he’s become a terrific post-up player as well. And he’s miles better at the defensive end this year. Really improved his game and put that team on his back.

Steve Aschburner: I could say Grant Hill, based on my bad assumption that he invariably would tail off at age 38 – and certainly not become an All-Defensive Team candidate. I could say Amar’e Stoudemire, because I didn’t expect him to embrace the spotlight, pressure and leadership chores in New York so adeptly. But the only acceptable answer here is New Jersey’s Kris Humphries. In his seventh NBA season, at age 26, with his fourth team, Humphries has more than doubled his career scoring (4.7 ppg) and rebounding (3.5 rpg) numbers, up to 10.0 ppg and 10.3 rpg now. He has 28 double-doubles vs. a total of eight in his first six seasons. And in the grandest overachievement of all, he’s squiring around Kim Kardashian. Now that’s “wildly outpacing” expectations.

Fran Blinebury: After his first two seasons in the league, everybody figured that Kevin Love was going to be a solid player with a successful career.  But I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t expecting him to take a Bob Beamon-like leap into the Moses Malone stratosphere with 53 consecutive double-doubles and to surpass Dwight Howard as the NBA’s top rebounder. (more…)

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The Race For No. 8: Western Conference

March 24, 2011  ·  11:22AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – March Madness?

You want March Madness, try being the Hang Time Grizzlies this month. Try losing Rudy Gay for the rest of the season to a shoulder injury,  playing a vicious late-season schedule and having the Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns chasing you with their playoff lives on the line, too.

The pressure would be enough to drive a weaker team mad.

The Grizzlies, however, have bowed up to the challenge … their win over the Celtics in Boston last night being the latest example of the rock-solid resolve that has marked this season for Lionel Hollins and his team.

They are in the midst of trashing that myth that regular season games don’t mean anything in the NBA. That’s never been true. And it certainly doesn’t ring true for an outfit like the Grizzlies,who are hunting their first postseason berth since the 2005-06 season.

So what if all you get is an all-expenses-paid trip to San Antonio for a first-round playoff date against the league’s best team (in the standings)? This is one of those instances where the journey is just as important as the destination, where the fiber of each man — and the team as a whole — will be tested along the way.

The Race For No. 8 always separates the (playoff) contenders from the pretenders, and that’s never been more true than it is this season in the Western Conference.

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The “Magic” of Chuck Hayes

March 24, 2011  ·  8:06AM

HOUSTON – Where were you when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon? When the Berlin Wall fell? When Chuck Hayes turned into Magic Johnson right before our very eyes?

The history books are full of indelible moments, but there are surely few more improbable ones than the Rockets’ 6-foot-6 center ringing up the first triple-double of his career — 13 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists — in Wednesday night’s win over Golden State.

For six seasons, he’s been the defensive anchor, the one who does all of the dirty work and is often the smallest starting center in the NBA. And here he was exploding like the Fourth of July.

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Lowry Fuels Rockets’ Playoff Push

March 21, 2011  ·  10:39AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – In the interest of full disclosure, we should begin by saying we were skeptics when the Houston Rockets decided to hand Kyle Lowry the keys to the franchise and trade away Aaron Brooks.

It’s not that we aren’t fans of Lowry’s daredevil style and fearless approach to any and every challenge that stands in his way. Truth be told, that’s what we love about his game, that and the fact that he looks like your prototypical NFL free safety in a basketball uniform.

But we just weren’t sure if he was right fit for the Rockets.

It’s a good thing general manager Daryl Morey is the man in charge of making Houston’s decisions, because he understood what this team needed and didn’t waste time acting on it.

For all the things Brooks gave the Rockets — a scoring threat with seemingly unlimited range, a swashbuckling young point guard who made up for a lack of size with a huge heart and competitive drive to spare — he was never the take-charge floor leader the Rockets needed.

Lowry is and shows it off on a nightly basis these days (triple doubles, and his Western Conference Player of the Week honor that was just announced today).

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