Tyson Chandler shoots! He scores?
Well, not actually. Though it mostly was a precaution, Chandler sat out the Hornets’ exhibition game Friday night against the Lakers with a sprained ankle.
But in the pregame warmups, Chandler settled along the baseline and shot jumpers. He moved into the post and turned. Was that a baby hook?
“Coach said, `I want you to shoot the ball,'” the former Bull offered gleefully as he soaked his ankle and munched on a postgame sushi snack. “He said, `I don’t care if you miss your first 10. You keep shooting.'”
He’s content with the trade that sent him from Chicago to the Hornets, where he’s coached by Byron Scott.
“I could not think of being in a better situation,” he said. “I have great players around me. I have a great coach talking to me all the time, constantly teaching me. I feel reborn, like I’m learning every day.
“When I show up, I’m happy. I’m like, `Coach, teach me some stuff.’ You’re eager to learn when your coach is saying, `When you get the ball in the post, don’t pass it back out.'”
He’s not lacking confidence.
“I definitely feel I got lost in this league,” said Chandler, 24. “[I was passed] by a lot of players I’m better than. It’s not necessarily going to be this year, though it could be, but I’ll be the player I know and everyone else knows I was supposed to be.”
Is this just the usual positive spin from a traded player? It’s hard to know for sure, but it appears that Chandler is OK with the deal that sent him to New Orleans/Oklahoma City for P.J. Brown and J.R. Smith.
The Bulls–and most of their fans–are OK with it too.
Chandler at center was supposed to be a shot blocker and defensive force, the Bulls’ version of Bill Russell. He wasn’t. Now, however, the Bulls have Ben Wallace, the league’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year and one of the league’s premier shot blockers. Not bad.
“It probably was the perfect time for him and the Bulls to part ways,” Scott said. “He probably was in a bit of a rut and here he gets a fresh start, a chance to start over. He’s happy and he’s excited.
“The No. 1 thing is his attitude and work ethic. He wants to be a great player and he works at it every day.”
Yes, he was referring to our Tyson Chandler.
Time was ripe
It was time. Chandler had to go, even if five years from now it might not look like a great deal. But it’s time for the Bulls to make a legitimate run at contending, and it wasn’t going to happen with Chandler, who admits he regressed in a lost 2005-06 season he called his worst.
The change of scenery also was something of a symbolic act.
Chandler was the last remnant from the Jerry Krause crazy quilt rebuilding plan. Chandler was to be part of the former GM’s restoration of the Bulls. Being acquired for future All-Star and Olympian Elton Brand wasn’t a good start. Coach Tim Floyd rejected him, and then the coach he most admired and became close to, Bill Cartwright, was tossed aside.
Chandler floundered. Athletic but relatively unskilled, he didn’t fit with the new John Paxson-Scott Skiles regime.
He was a 7-foot-1-inch high school phenom who was a product of the entitlement environment the AAU leagues foster and the NBA now is trying to offset. He was a big man in a game being geared for smaller players, a softer heart facing a firmer coaching touch.
His scoring and free-throw shooting last season sank to career lows. He made the fewest blocks for a full season since his rookie year. Only the volume of boos for his play from the United Center crowds rose.
“I was progressing every year until last year,” Chandler said. “I felt like it was me against everybody. I began to get distant with a lot of people. I felt, `OK, this is the way it’s going to be. I have to get myself out of this.’
“I expected to be gone. When they were talking about me coming back [at my season-ending exit meeting], it was a surprise. I expected to be out of there because of the year [I had]. I wasn’t getting along with the coach. That was obvious. I wasn’t playing well. I’m like, `What’s the purpose of me being here?’ That was in my head.”
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There was a lot indeed in Chandler’s head, and he says it’s finally clearing.
His smile, cold as a Chicago winter last season, has regained its warmth. Assistant coach Darrell Walker says Chandler has taken an active locker-room role as a leader, mentoring the young players on the rising Hornets.
His conditioning was excellent when camp started, and before suffering the mild sprain last week, Chandler actually started shooting the ball. He even was hitting more than courtside fans.
“When we saw him, when we watched tape before the trade, he didn’t even look at the basket,” Scott said. “We’re trying to break that habit. We’re working with him every day in post moves. With his length and athleticism he can be a force down there.”
Unfulfilled promise
The Bulls once thought so too. Chandler and Eddy Curry were–well, we all know the story–twin 7-footers, Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O’Neal. Instead, they were more like Brad Sellers and Wallace Bryant. There was a new head coach every 18 months or so, Curry got traded, then a new demanding coach in Skiles and last season a big, pressure-filled contract for Chandler to live up to.
It’s something of an NBA tradition to fault your former coach when you get traded or he gets fired. Ben Wallace kicked it off this season in an ESPN interview about Detroit’s Flip Saunders.
Chandler doesn’t exactly point to Skiles, but their differences created an undercurrent that roiled the team last season.
The former talks about a lack of opportunities on offense, but anyone who saw him knew that was best for the team. A Chicago friend said he recently asked Krause what it was he saw in Chandler. Krause replied that Chandler could shoot. Well, not that anyone could see. Chandler says he just needed some support.
“When you know you’re not going to get the ball, you kind of go through the motions,” Chandler said without rancor. “You say to yourself, `What am I doing this for?’ Then you start believing it yourself. Like, `Damn, I can’t score. What happened?’ It got so I didn’t want to go into games at home. I felt like I was letting the city down. I loved Chicago. I made so many friends. I loved my teammates (two of whom are with him now, Jannero Pargo and Linton Johnson).
“I felt like I wasn’t getting a fair shake. All that is forgotten now, but it is in the back of my head. So I’ll never let that happen again. It will make me a much better player in the long run. It will all make me work that much harder. Now things are going the way they should have all along.”
The Bulls look like a team that will win more than 50 games with an All-Star center in Wallace. The Hornets like their playoff chances with a young, big front line that could be a threat for years. Call it a happy beginning for both.
Chandler by the numbers
Chandler’s career numbers for the Bulls before being traded to the Hornets during the off-season.
During the preseason, Chandler is averaging 4.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in three games with New Orleans.
%%
SEASON G MPG FG% FT% PPG RPG BPG
2001-02 71 19.6 .497 .604 6.1 4.8 1.3
2002-03 75 24.4 .531 .608 9.2 1.4 1.4
2003-04 35 22.3 .424 .669 6.1 7.7 1.2
2004-05 80 27.4 .494 .673 8.0 9.7 1.8
2005-06 79 26.8 .565 .503 5.3 9.0 1.3
TOTALS 340 24.4 .511 .615 7.1 7.7 1.4
Source: NBA.com
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