In the Pistons' heyday of the mid-2000s, small forward Tayshaun Prince was the do-it-all player supporting Detroit's superstar trio of Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton. Then-Pistons coach Larry Brown often gave Prince the task of guarding the other team's best perimeter player and knew he could count on him for an understated-yet-key game-changing steal, block or basket.
Since moving to Charlotte, Brown seems to be employing a similar strategy with the young Bobcats, but on a smaller scale. While Stephen Jackson fills the role as the Bobcats' best scoring threat (a la Hamilton and Billups), it is Charlotte mainstay Gerald Wallace who is providing the glue in Charlotte's playoff dream.
After plucking Wallace from the Kings' roster in the club's expansion draft, Charlotte has watched the small forward go from simply a dunking phenom to a well-rounded player. The process hasn't been easy, though, as the Bobcats have had to endure Wallace's injury-marred seasons and obsession with the 3-point shot. Jackson, too, has had his share of burdens to bear. He almost immediately went from a little-used player in Sacramento to a go-to guy and often struggled to understand defenses.
Just two seasons ago, part-owner Michael Jordan was trying to trade Wallace. But Brown convinced Jordan to stick with the man nicknamed "Crash" and the payoff has been immense. As we've mentioned in this space before, Wallace is on pace to be one of the shortest players (he's all of 6-foot-7) to finish among the NBA leaders in rebounding (where he's currently ranked fifth and averaging 11.5 rpg).
His re-emergence as a scoring threat after a disappointing effort stats-wise last season is due mostly to his ability to crash the boards. He's second on the Bobcats in shots (12.7 per game), leads the team in offensive rebounding (2.2) and does most of his damage on tip-ins, follow dunks and one-on-one moves to the basket that he's developed over the years.
Wallace has already made a name for himself around the league for always playing hard and for the fearless way he attacks the rim as an offensive player and rebounder. With Charlotte in the midst of a six-game winning streak and the team vying for one of the top four seeds in the East, Wallace's all-around play has that playoff dream looking more and more like reality.
NBA.com's Five on the Rise is a weekly look at which young players (and resurgent veterans) have yet to reach stardom, have regained the form of their younger days and, most of all, have made the biggest impact for their team in the last week. These rankings are just one man's opinion and are released every Thursday during the season. If you have an issue with the names on this list, or have a question or comment for Jeff Case, send him an e-mail.
| G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 41 | 18.5 | 7.6 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.2 | .484 | .342 | .763 |
Much like Nate Robinson listed below, Brown made sure Monday wasn't all about the Sprite Slam Dunk contest. Brown got the good news on Monday that his dream of participating in the contest came true and then went out that evening and celebrated against the Magic. Brown put in one of his best performances of the season (and easily a career highlight) when he had 22 points and keyed an aggressive fourth-quarter run that helped L.A. turn a four-point fourth quarter deficit into not-as-close-as-it-looked 98-92 win. Coach Phil Jackson praised Brown in his postgame news conference for his hard work and dedication and Jackson has put his minutes where his mouth is. Brown is averaging 21.1 minutes per game this month and has played 20-plus minutes in seven of L.A.'s last 10 games. Granted, there are a few Laker blowouts sprinkled in that sample, but Brown -- as well as Jordan Farmar -- is finding himself playing more crucial minutes. The Lakers' second unit has at times this season not delivered, but Brown's high-energy play seems to always shine through no matter what L.A.'s other reserves are doing. As for the dunk contest? Brown is humbled to be a part of it, but is already getting dunking pointers from Kobe Bryant, who says Brown jumps higher than anyone on the team (including Bryant himself).
| G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 41 | 9.8 | 24.8 | 2.3 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 0.3 | .458 | .386 | .783 |
Nothing like facing Chris Paul to get a player back on track. Hill (and Tony Parker for that matter) struggled in a 92-86 loss to the less-heralded Grizzlies backcourt of Mike Conley and Jamaal Tinsley. The Grizz point guards combined for 14 points, four assists and two 3-pointers while Hill and Parker put up eight points, three assists and shot a combined 4-for-16. Hill more than made up for it against Paul, putting up a solid line of his own (16 points, six rebounds) while keeping Paul to 18 points. A solid night for Hill, but as has been the case for him all season, he made a solid mark with his defense as he drew a charge from Paul with 33 seconds left and San Antonio up 94-88. That foul was Paul's sixth and helped salt away the victory for the Spurs. Hill had a solid night, too, in a 105-98 loss to the Jazz that not only gave Utah a 4-0 sweep of the Spurs, but denied Tim Duncan a milestone. Although he fouled out against Utah, Hill put up a solid line and as Gregg Popovich has taken to resting Duncan on back-to-back nights, we're hoping to see more of Hill due to lineup adjustments Popovich might have to make.
| G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 37 | 36.6 | 20.4 | 9.3 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 1.4 | .506 | --- | .743 |
Every team needs it's "security blanket" player: the guy you can trust to keep the offense together when things get hectic. For the Clippers, that guy is clearly Kaman. While he was waiting for his sore back to heal up, the Clippers went from a four-game win streak and being in the midst of the Western Conference playoff chase to a four-game slide and battling the Kings for the Pacific Division cellar. Kaman abused the Heat's Jermaine O'Neal and Joel Anthony last week, racking up 22 points and 14 rebounds and hitting his usual variety of jump hooks and turnaround jumpers in the post. He followed that up with a Martin Luther King Day under-the-radar center matchup with Brook Lopez and was solid again with 22 points and three blocks. As we mentioned in this space last week, Kaman is clearly the Clips' go-to guy. The Clippers, for their part, were glad to see him back and know that they clearly perform better with Kaman operating from the low post than with him in a nice suit on the bench. "Even around .500 is good. He showed his value a little bit by being out as well," Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy told the Los Angeles Times. "People are looking at it the other way, 'What's his contribution to the team?' He brings that stability to our game that we can get it either through a post-up or a pick-and-roll with him."
| G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 41 | 37.1 | 20.8 | 11.5 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 0.4 | .507 | .235 | .809 |
"In this league, once something happens, it follows you. You do stuff when you're young, but I'm mature, I've got my family and I just focus on basketball." That quote comes from a great video feature on Randolph on the Grizzlies' Web site that chronicles how he's gone from a summer castoff to a likely All-Star. In his last five games, Randolph has shown exactly how much he's focusing on basketball as he is averaging 23 ppg, 11.6 rpg and shooting 51.7 percent as Memphis has gone 4-1. He was impressive a over the Spurs, going shot-for-shot with Tim Duncan. But he definitely helped his All-Star cause with his play against the Suns on Martin Luther King Day on TNT. He outplayed the Suns' entire front line and outperformed All-Star shoo-in Amar'e Stoudemire in the stat column, finishing with 27 points and 11 rebounds to Stoudemire's 12 points and nine rebounds. Randolph has clearly been revitalized by his move to Memphis; he's averaging 20-plus points and 10-plus rebounds the last two months, the first time he's done that since the 2006-07 season in New York. A tip of the hat to ESPN's TrueHoop blog, too, for this nugget: Randolph has been attempting just a fifth of the 3-pointers he shot a year ago. In the past three seasons, Randolph has taken 73, 97 and 80 3-point attempts; this season, he's taken just 17 (and made four). More importantly, Memphis' wins over Phoenix and San Antonio are perhaps the most significant wins in team history since the days of Pau Gasol and proof Randolph and the Grizz are quickly forcing opponents to start taking them seriously again.
| G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% |
| 39 | 41.6 | 18.6 | 11.3 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 1.2 | .478 | .351 | .766 |
Don't think of Wallace as just a one-trick pony. He is of course among the top five rebounders in the league, but he's a solid double-double threat every night. He has 22 double-doubles this season, which is more than Tim Duncan, Al Jefferson, Al Horford and his former teammate Emeka Okafor have this season. Always a sneaky and quick defender, Wallace ranks among the top 15 in the league in steals (66) and steals per game (1.69) and is among the league's most efficient players, boasting a 23.9 rating -- 14th in the league in that category. We were impressed by one stretch in Wednesday night's blowout win over the Heat. Despite Charlotte being up by 20-plus points midway through the third quarter, Wallace showed his trademark hustle in one impressive stretch. First, Wallace stripped the ball off Udonis Haslem after Haslem had gathered an offensive rebound, causing the ball to go out of bounds off his leg. Then, Wallace bailed out what was a mostly-failed Bobcats possession by taking a baseline pass from D.J. Augustin and slammed home a two-handed power jam over the Heat. That stretch helped quash what was a mini-run by Miami and lifted the Bobcats to a franchise record-tying sixth straight victory.
The Next Five
G: Nate Robinson, Knicks -- Stop us if you've heard this one before: Robinson comes in off bench, goes on a scoring bing and sparks New York to a comeback win. The familiar tale (which Robinson fulfilled in a thrilling New Year's Day win over the Hawks) came true again in a MLK Day win over the Pistons. He played 33 minutes off the bench, scoring 27 points and nailed five 3-pointers as New York snapped out of a second-half daze. Oh, lest we forget, this performance also came on the day he was named to the Sprite Slam Dunk contest. The reigning slam dunk champ showed off his skills with an amazing dunk off an alley-oop pass from Chris Duhon. Robinson, as he's said several times throughout his career, wants to be known as more than just a big dunker in a small package. "I'm an all-around player," he said. "My teammates and my coach told me that I had to be aggressive, that's just who I am. They said in the last couple of games I hadn't been that aggressive."
G: Rafer Alston, Heat -- Roughly a year ago, Alston was splitting the point guard duties with Aaron Brooks in Houston. Since then, Alston has gone from Houston to Orlando to New Jersey and now, Miami. He had a solid night against one of his old teams last week (17 points, four rebounds, two assists) as the Heat notched a nice road win in Houston. More impressive than his stats was his defense on Brooks, as he held the Rockets' starting point guard to 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting and forced him into four turnovers. Brooks, who played two seasons with Alston, said he still keeps in contact with his former backcourt mate and appreciates the lessons he learned from Alston over the years. "One thing about (Alston) is he went hard every day. Practice was just like the game to him. He took everything so personal," Brooks told the Houston Chronicle. "We really battled in practice. He hated to lose, even in practice. It did make me better. I had to play through his fouls back them. It made me stronger."
F: Craig Smith, Clippers -- Rasual Butler had 33 points and Eric Gordon had 28 points as the Clippers narrowly lost to the Cavs at Staples Center, but Smith deserves a little praise in the near-upset win. He had 16 points and six rebounds and did a decent job of filling in while the frontline took a hit due to Chris Kaman's sore back. The appropriately-nicknamed Rhino had 18 points in 18 minutes of action against the lowly Nets in a Martin Luther King Day win and has is becoming more of a factor in the Clippers' rotation. He's fourth on the team in efficency rating (16.9) but the always-physical Smith is also one of the team leaders in fouls, something likely keeping him from having a bigger impact in L.A.
F: Drew Gooden, Mavs -- Gooden was a late-summer addition in the Mavs' offseason retooling and struggled to make shots early despite shooting a respectable 48.1 percent in November and 45.6 percent in December. He's actually shooting a worse percentage in January (44.1), but has made his mark off the bench. Last week, he once again shined in a reserve role as Dallas got a big win in Boston and held off Washington on the road. Gooden took advantage of the weakened Celtics frontline with 10 points and four rebounds. He played even better against the Wizards, recording 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists and made a solid mark on defense, clogging up the middle and coming away with a pair of blocks and three steals in the Mavs' close win. Entering this season, Gooden had started 396 of a possible 510 games. In Dallas, though, he's only started 10 of 36 games and is embracing his role as an energizing player off the bench. "I love the way he's taken the challenge of coming off the bench," coach Rick Carlisle told the Dallas Morning News. "He and I have talked about the challenge of being an energizer, a rebounder, a defender off the bench. It's a different type of challenge for him. He's worked at it hard and he's had some real impact games for us."
C: Ben Wallace, Pistons -- While it's hardly been a return to the good old days for the Pistons, the return of Wallace has sparked memories of his peak years in Detroit. We've kept a peripheral eye on Wallace, watching in amazement as his 35-year-old frame rumbles up and down the court, producing more productive nights than not. He's second on the Pistons in minutes played (trailing only 23-year-old point guard Rodney Stuckey) and is 16th in the league in rebounding. Last week was another "classic" Wallace game as he pulled down 21 boards in a win over the Hornets and two nights later, had 16 points and 14 boards in a loss to the Knicks. Wallace also had a nice game defensively against the Celtics and teamed with Jason Maxiell to make Rasheed Wallace's return to Detroit a forgettable one. "He's 35 years old doing big-time things," Charlie Villanueva told the Detroit Free-Press. "He's playing like he's 25. Grabbing all these rebounds and playing with a lot of energy. He still has a lot more years in this league."
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