http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings
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Mark Kreidler: Ostertag: Rare failure for successful system
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, March 15, 2005
And so now Rick Adelman proceeds to the next phase of
Operation Accessibility, which, as it turns out, is the
one right before moving on to jabbing No. 2 pencils directly
into one's eye sockets.
For as long as he has been around Sacramento, Adelman
has been the man running on the freedom ticket. He's
the coach whose system is said to work because so many
different types of NBA players can come in and find a
way to fit, and are given the broad latitude to do so.
And now all of that needs to prove true, and immediately.
And it has to work for just about everybody else on the
Kings' roster, since it already has found its staggering
exception to the rule in Greg Ostertag.
Wait: Was it just last week we pondered the possibility
of a deep playoff push for the lads Maloof?
Missed it by that much.
Monday was the day for somberly reckoning with the big
stuff around the place once known as Camp Happy Happy
Joy Joy.
Chris Webber is Philadelphia's hard case now. Brad Miller
just layup-drilled his way into injury infamy. Brian Skinner,
Corliss Williamson and Kenny Thomas have become not only
Sacramento's surrogate big men, but also the last best hope
for this team pulling itself together in time to crash the
playoffs and make any sort of noise.
And over to one side sits Ostertag, all 7 feet and 2 inches
of him, mostly useless, mostly idling and almost completely
off the coach's radar.
There are reasons, and we can get into them, but the bottom
line is that at the precise moment when a system's success
would have brought the big man to the fore to offset the
crippling loss of Miller in the offense, Ostertag has moved
to the back of the line.
"I don't have time. I can't have the patience to wait to see
if he comes through," Adelman said of Ostertag at the team's
practice facility. As Adelman spoke, Ostertag stood a few feet
away, telling reporters that he blamed himself for thinking
that he would use game minutes to play himself back into shape
after breaking his right hand during the preseason.
As it turns out, there are virtually no game minutes to be had,
and Ostertag, by his own reckoning, remains well behind his
normal conditioning level, which wasn't exactly Karl Malone-sharp
to begin with. Adelman is blunt: The other guys are better,
albeit undeniably shorter.
"If you play Greg, then you're taking time away from Kenny
and Corliss and Darius (Songaila) and Brian, who may be more
effective for you all the way around, and that's where I'm at
right now," Adelman said. "I'm going to play the people who
give us the best chance to win."
The funny, likeable Ostertag represents a failure on every
front - player, coach, design, acquisition, everything. One
colossal bust. And it's only stunning considering the history,
which suggests that the Kings have outperformed most of the
NBA over the years in terms of what they get out of the talent
they bring in.
Webber's immediate struggles in Philly may not last (or, shoot,
they could last forever), but there's no question that he
absolutely thrived - for as long as he was healthy - in Adelman's
free-form system in Sacramento. It was the same system, in
which Adelman allows his players to improvise and find a
running rhythm together, that made Jason Williams an NBA
phenomenon and flogged life into a dying franchise at Arco
Arena.
Vlade Divac had the best years of his career playing for
Adelman. Bobby Jackson became a Sixth Man of the Year playing
for Adelman. Jim Jackson revived his professional life there.
Peja Stojakovic, Vernon Maxwell, Anthony Peeler -- it's no
secret. Players generally like the system and generally like
the man who runs it, which may explain why so many of them
(Jon Barry, Scot Pollard, Doug Christie, on and on) do great
things in Sacramento and then struggle to recapture that magic
when they go elsewhere.
"He's really patient - really patient - and really laid-back,
" said Skinner, who has gone from deep on the bench in Philadelphia
to a front-line starter under Adelman. "Players just respect him."
Skinner compared Adelman's standing in the locker room to a
coach he played for briefly in Toronto, Lenny Wilkens. Kind
words, but Adelman right now is a man in the closest thing
to a crisis that a winning coach can be.
Ostertag's season-long absence of impact meant Miller had
to stay healthy. It wasn't that Ostertag could do what Miller
does, but that a big body is a big body. Even in the revamped
Western Conference, with its emphasis on sleek, athletic
forwards, a big man who can alter a game is gold bullion.
Miller's injury might have been the time for Ostertag to
step forward, but he's just not capable. Adelman says Ostertag
never did adjust to the system, in which centers and power
forwards are so crucial to the offensive flow. If so, it's a
fairly shocking swing and miss by executive Geoff Petrie, who
doesn't miss often on talent fits.
Result: No 'Tag, and no true center through which to run even
part of the offense. So now it is Adelman adjusting on the fly,
trying belatedly to shift that responsibility to Mike Bibby
and Cuttino Mobley.
"And even Peja's going to have to step up, because the other
(new) guys aren't comfortable doing it," Adelman said.
They need to get comfortable soon. All of which is to say that
the celebrated Adelman system, once again, is on trial for its
life.
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