Thread Tools

Display Modes

**Coatesvillain** · 01-05-2008, 08:17 AM

Quote:

LOS ANGELES - Andre Iguodala obviously had his reasons. He walked away from an offered contract extension worth about $57 million. He must have believed deeply in those reasons.

The 76ers' wing player, the centerpiece of his team's offense and probably its best defender, shares an agent with the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant, arguably the NBA's best player. As far back as last season's All-Star Game in Las Vegas, Bryant spoke glowingly of Iguodala and his potential.

Bryant, though, does not judge Iguodala's decision to become a restricted free agent this summer.

"It's a business, and, like any other business, you can believe that your value can be greater," Bryant said before the Lakers faced the Sixers last night at the Staples Center.

"I've talked to him . . . I said, 'You have to be able to prove that you can command that top dollar, that you can do what they said you can't do. Just go out and play. If there's a team out there that feels you can command that value, then you'll get it.'

"But you can't take [the situation] as something personal or let it distract you from working hard every single day. You have to come out and perform."

Iguodala has been able to do that most nights. He put up a season-high 30 points in Wednesday night's 110-107 loss to the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City. He has an ability to fill up most columns of the box score. At the same time, the Sixers entered last night's game with a 14-18 record; scouts, personnel specialists and general managers tend to be skeptical of impressive individual numbers with non-winning teams. But they also like players they think have an upside.

The Sixers and the Lakers meet only twice a season, but Bryant got a closer, more intense view of Iguodala while training with the U.S. National Team last summer. Iguodala was part of the select group of younger players who practiced with and scrimmaged against the team as it prepared for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

"He has a lot [of upside]," Bryant said. "Just on the surface, his athleticism stands out.

"In a league crowded with athletic players, he's at the top of the list with some others. I also like his ability to handle the ball at his size, to create opportunities for others and to defend. That's a combination that's tough to find in the league nowadays. He gets after it on the perimeter, he's a good post player, he creates for others; that's tough to find."

The Sixers, having acquired the expiring contract of Gordan Giricek from the Jazz in last weekend's deal for Kyle Korver, have about $10 million in salary-cap space to use this summer in free agency and the trade market. Whether they will make an offer similar to the last one to Iguodala is problematical; another team is unlikely to be in position - or willing - to offer him a lucrative enough package to cause the Sixers to decline to match it.

Still, Iguodala is not necessarily viewed as a projected franchise player on a contending team.

"He's got the talent to be that," Bryant said. "That's nothing but responding to the challenge of taking over your situation, believing 'The team wins and loses with me,' believing 'These are my decisions, these are my teammates and I have to try and make them better.'

"It's a mentality, although it's a little different for him because he had been playing with [the dominant] Allen Iverson. It's tough to kind of make that switch, to go into that mode. It's difficult."

LINK

A blurb later in the article mentions that BEEZ's boy Steven Smith was in attendance after playing in the NBDL. He's averaging 19.5 down there right now.

**BEEZ** · 01-15-2008, 07:50 PM

The thing is the skill set and talent level is potentially there, but he doesnt have it in him mentally to be that type of player, and thats ok.

Thread Tools Display Modes

Thread Tools

Display Modes