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Suns' Improvement Hinges On
Offseason Work By Big Men
By Mike Tulumello, Tribune
East Valley Tribune
June 11, 2003
For the Suns to make big things happen next season, they'll need big improvement from their big players. In thinking big, we're not just talking about Amare Stoudemire, the newly crowned NBA rookie of the year, around whom much of the Suns' optimism for the next several years is based.
The Suns haven't given up on center Jake Tsakalidis, who will return for his fourth season (making him one of the team's senior players).
The club has a full range of activities planned for both big men this summer.
Stoudemire is among a number of Suns who will be working out under the supervision of a physical trainer in Los Angeles. He and "Big Jake" also are set to take part in the Suns' summer camp in mid-July and a subsequent summer league for young players in Utah.
Later on, they also might take part in a camp in Las Vegas run by Suns assistant coach Tim Grgurich and the well-known camp for big men run by hoops guru Pete Newell.
Because practice time is limited during the 82-game NBA grind, where rest often is more precious, the offseason is the time to improve.
And here is where the Suns' fortunes could be determined, particularly if Stoudemire can stay ahead of his presumed learning curve.
"He's got to develop a little more of an outside game . . . so he can be an inside-outside player," said club president Bryan Colangelo.
"Once he gets that Karl Malone jump shot down from 15 to 18 feet, he'll become virtually unstoppable."
Watching Stoudemire play this past season, Cotton Fitzsimmons — the Suns vice president and former NBA coach — had his own ideas of developing the 20-year-old's game.
"In the summer, I wouldn't let Amare do anything but go left.
"I would tell him, ‘You can't go right. You've got to go left every time.’ Because I don't care about winning games in the summer league. I care about him improving.
"If he would go to his left, he would go to the line two or three times more than he does in a game. And he would make the defenders have to play him honestly.
"Now, they don't."
Even so, Colangelo said, "He was an instant threat in the NBA," a rarity for rookies, let alone players coming directly from high school (a category where Stoudemire shattered previous top averages).
"When he becomes a multi-faceted threat, watch out."
As for Tsakalidis, many fans have started to figure the 7-foot Russian is a lost cause.
The Suns haven't reached that point at all. And yet, Colangelo acknowledges that this is the time for Big Jake to "seize the moment."
"He's a great kid with a good work ethic," Colangelo said. "But I'd like to see him be more passionate in approaching the game."
Tsakalidis played inconsistently last season, though — as he usually does — he showed enough flashes of outstanding play to tantalize the Suns. Then he developed a sore back and underwent an operation that took him out of action for two months.
When he played, he often appeared too slow to keep up with the racehorse Suns. He enjoyed one outstanding late-season game vs. Shaquille O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers, but he sat on the bench during the Suns' gutty playoff challenge of San Antonio.
To become a regular, Tsakalidis needs to develop a low-post game "that he can apply night in and night out," Colangelo said.
Tsakalidis has maintained that he would play better if he got more consistent minutes. But this is an old, circular argument, with management and coaches usually saying that time must be earned.
"He's got to understand that sometimes matchups determine playing time," Colangelo said. That said, "If he becomes an all-out threat . . . he's going to force (coach Frank Johnson) to use him and he's going to play a majority of minutes."
But first, Tsakalidis — who sometimes struggles with his conditioning — would be wise to work himself into the best shape of his life. That way, he can concentrate on improving his skills.
Not only that, "Better conditioning would allow him to make better defensive plays," Colangelo said. The Suns, as always, need an interior defender. Tsakalidis could still audition successfully for the role, if he's in shape.
Because he played so little down the stretch, the Suns figured he had plenty of gas left in the tank after season's end. So they had him working out at the Athletes' Performance Institute in Tempe and with Suns coaches.
He's been traveling in Europe, but the Suns hope he's back working out soon. Said Bill Pollak, Tsakalidis' agent, "This is the year he needs to step forward."
Because of the injury problems, "I feel bad about last season," Pollak said. "I feel like it was a lost year."
Big Jake is under contract for the upcoming season. The Suns can start thinking about signing him to a long-term deal, but Pollak suggests the Suns may first want to see what he does in the upcoming season.
The Suns can later make him a qualifying offer to protect his rights for the 2004-05 season.
Interestingly no mention of Little Jake.
