AccessMyLibrary provides FREE access to over 30 million articles from top publications available through your library.
Create a link to this page
Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:
Getting better all the time. (NBA Insider).(basketball)(Brief Article)
There's a difference between improving and putting up big numbers on a deflated roster. By that definition, Wally Szczerbiak is a much better player this season than last because he has carved out a bigger role on essentially the same team. Nick Van Exel, although he's averaging 6.3 points a game more than last season for the Nuggets, is getting those points because Antonio McDyess is out with a knee injury.
Using true improvement as a guide. here are five players other than Szczerbiak who have taken their games to another level.
1 Jermaine O'Neal, Pacers. He splits time at power forward and center, but the truth is O'Neal has the best combination of center skills the Eastern Conference has seen since Alonzo Mourning got sick and that other O'Neal left Orlando. His post moves rapidly are approaching unstoppable, and his scoring is up 6.2 points a game this season.
2 Steve Nash, Mavericks. Didn't Dallas bring in Tim Hardaway to give Nash a rest? Nash, who would have been high on this list a year ago after raising his scoring average from 8.6 to 15.6, is playing 3.3 more minutes a game this season than he did last year and has raised his ...