NBA Preseason 2014: Players with Most to Prove During Exhibition Slate
The NBA preseason often gets lost in the fall sports shuffle with college football and the NFL in full swing and the MLB playoffs just getting started.
For those sports fans who are solely focused on the roundball exploits of their favorite hardwood heroes, the preseason offers a first glimpse at how each team is coming together. Perhaps more importantly, it offers certain players the opportunity to prove something to themselves and their team without a great deal of media attention.
There are individual preseason narratives that are hugely important but whose endings may eventually be considered foregone conclusions by the beginning of the regular season.
Let's take a look at three players who, for reasons ranging from injury concerns to worthiness as a starting-caliber player, have the most to prove to fans during the October exhibition contests.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, G/F, Milwaukee Bucks
Giannis Antetokounmpo had a fine rookie campaign for the Milwaukee Bucks. He averaged 6.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 24.6 minutes per game. The team will be looking for him to improve on those numbers—as a 6'11" point guard.
Head coach Jason Kidd, a legendary point guard in his own right but of the relatively normal 6'4" variety, is behind the push to make Antetokounmpo a matchup nightmare for backcourts around the league.
"We've seen it in practice," Kidd said, via Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee). "When you see a player's comfort level with the ball — no matter what size — we wanted to see it in game action. We slowly have started letting him have the ball and running the offense."
Basketball Insiders' Alex Kennedy likens the idea to a video-game creation come to life:
Gardner noted the plans are already in the works, as Antetokounmpo played the role of floor general for 32 minutes in the Bucks' contest Monday against the Utah Jazz.
Antetokounmpo's sunbeam personality, compelling background and supreme athleticism have already made him one of the most talked-about players in the league. Moving him to point guard will surely make him one of the most highly scrutinized players in the preseason.
It's an incredible amount of pressure to heap on a 19-year-old. Should Antetokounmpo fail to play point guard sufficiently, Kidd will have to rethink his strategy and possibly enter the season with an unclear idea of how to best utilize his roster. Point guards Brandon Knight and Kendall Marshall are serviceable, but Knight often looks to score first, and Marshall lacks speed and athleticism.
The Bucks will count on rookie forward Jabari Parker to score early and often this season, and the offense will need to flow smoothly for him to do so. One area where Antetokounmpo will have to grow more comfortable is shooting from outside. While he shot a respectable 34.7 percent from beyond the arc last season, 57.4 percent of his shots came from within 10 feet of the basket, per Basketball-Reference.com.
The preseason serves as the laboratory for this high-risk, high-reward roundball experiment, making Antetokounmpo one of the most compelling figures in the buildup to the regular season.
Anthony Bennett, F, Minnesota Timberwolves
Anthony Bennett's horrid overall play as a rookie has him on the fast track to becoming an NBA punchline.
The No. 1 overall pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2013 went from a piece of the puzzle in Ohio to essentially a throw-in player in the blockbuster trade that brought Kevin Love to the Cavs and sent Bennett and fellow Canadian No. 1 pick Anthony Wiggins to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He appeared out of shape and uncomfortable in his position for long stretches of his rookie season, often taking ill-advised shots from outside and failing to make up for his lack of offensive production with solid defensive play at the other end of the court.
| 52 | 0 | 12.8 | 4.2 | 3.0 | 0.3 | .356 |
The Timberwolves, at the genesis of the post-Kevin Love era, provide a blank canvas for Bennett to find a fresh start. There will be plenty of camp and preseason competition for him, however. The Wolves feature the likes of Wiggins, Corey Brewer, Thaddeus Young, Shabazz Muhammad and Chase Budinger potentially vying for time at one of the two forward positions, if not both.
Bennett, to his credit, appears to have taken the criticisms seriously and worked out with mysterious trainer Frank Matrisciano in the offseason, per Kent Youngblood of The Star Tribune (Minneapolis).
"It’s crazy, some of the things he told us to do,” Bennett said, per Youngblood. “But once you push through it, the sky’s the limit."
Matrisciano himself praised Bennett, Muhammad and center Rony Turiaf for sticking with his intense workouts.
"All three of them smashed it,” he said, via Youngblood. “Just killed it."
The preseason will be Bennett's first opportunity to prove that his new body will lead to better overall production. There is an opportunity for him to back up Young at power forward and secure the crucial minutes he needs to jump-start his development. The Wolves are a young team looking for a new sense of direction, and Bennett will need to hit the ground running if he is to stave off the bust label affixed to him from essentially the first month of NBA action as a rookie.
Kobe Bryant, SG, Los Angeles Lakers
It may seem strange to say that a player entering his 19th season with five NBA championships, 16 All-Star nominations, two NBA Finals MVPs and two Olympic gold medals has something to prove, but we all know that's not the way Bryant looks at things. Bryant believes he has something to prove to himself, his teammates, NBA fans and the rest of the league.
One of the greatest players of all time working to end things on his own terms is indeed worthy of consideration. In some strange way, part of his reputation as an indomitable, mind-over-matter maven is at stake.
If the amount of attention paid to Bryant's first practices back is any indication, the preseason will indeed be considered an early indication of the legendary guard's viability as an elite wing player. Head coach Byron Scott delivered a lengthy take on Bryant's form in practice, via ESPNLosAngeles.com's Arash Markazi:
"Kobe looked good. The first drill, the 10 minutes you could see the guys were in shape. Kobe looked good. Steve was in great shape. Both of those guys did about three-fourths of the practice. I basically had to ask Kobe to shut it down. We got another one tomorrow. He went through one more drill and then shut it down. He felt he felt great and could have done more but right now it's a progression of just going a little bit today.
"
Bryant had plenty to say about his return, but this statement was perhaps the most telling, via Markazi: "If I can prove to myself that I can do this I can prove it to everybody else as well."
Lakers swingman Nick Young's torn thumb ligament, which could keep him out for at least eight weeks, per his agent Mark Bartelstein, via Markazi, raises the stakes here.
Bryant needs to prove now that he can still play at a high level, not only to give the Lakers a chance of a half-decent season but to stabilize the backcourt and hopefully make up for at least some of the scoring output the Lakers will be missing without Swaggy P (17.9 points per game last season) on the hardwood.
The Lakers will be looking for Bryant to hit the ground running at the start of the 2014-15 campaign and will need him to show flashes of his old self during the preseason.
