Rashard Lewis About to Break Out
Fantasy owners are drooling over the prospect of an improved Rashard Lewis. (Last night at the Dime office, when he slid to the middle of the first round of the three-man keeper league draft, a chorus of ‘Yes, great pick!’ sounded.) But for Rashard to ‘break out,’ he doesn’t necessarily need to put up bigger numbers - he just needs to do what he does on a more consistent basis.
While Hedo Turkoglu settles back into being the guy that he used to be after last year’s bonkers contract season (you heard it here first!), the pressure will be on Rashard to live up to his deal. And now that he’s familiar with the way things run in Orlando, he’ll be able to live up to expectations this time around for a couple of reasons:
* First, he realizes that Stan Van Gundy is the NBA’s version of Uncle Leo on Seinfeld. He’s got a bad mustache, is ridiculously loud pretty much all the time, and occasionally yells for no reason. Last year, Lewis was blindsided by this. Now he’s used to it.
“When we first heard that voice, it was like, ‘This guy screams too much and it’s starting to get on my nerves.’ I didn’t know if I could take it too much and I wanted to scream back at him,” Lewis said. “But that’s just the way he coaches the game. He talks loud, he coaches loud and he’s trying to get his point across.”
* Second, Van Gundy has actually rubbed off on him. I’m not sure whether this is a good thing or not quite yet, but at least it will help Rashard fit in. Though he’s is an incredibly soft-spoken dude, Lewis won’t be afraid to get in his teammates’ faces if he thinks it will help to make them better.
“I’m not afraid to curse out Jameer, Dwight and Turk if they need it because I’m trying to make them better.”
That might be a bit of a drastic turnaround. But it’s a turnaround nonetheless.
Source: Florida Today
October 16th, 2008 at 8:24 am
YOUNGFED says:
He better watch his mouf against Dwight, before he “SupaMan Dat Oohhh!!” lmao
October 16th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Tha Boddy says:
I’d love to see some V.S. columns in the DIMEmag world that would get some topic response i’ll even do the first one
Battle of the PG’s
Ford Vs Rondo
Battle of the SG’s
Kobe Bryant vs D-Wake
Battle of the SF’s
C.Butler vs Rashard Lewis
and so forth
October 16th, 2008 at 8:46 am
bsteezy3 says:
First, I’m tired of hearing “fantasy projection” stats. This is getting ridiculous.
Second, I’ll humor you Tha Boddy:
Ford vs. Rondo–with PGs you have to decide what you want: a playmaker, or a scoring threat. I like Rondo running the plays and scoring off of defense and fast breaks, but not necessarily trying to score. TJ Ford likes scoring…I’ll go with Rondo (since he’s on a team of scorers).
Kobe vs. D-Wade–my friends and I debate this all the time. Personally I like Kobe better right now. I have a bias towards proven veterans. Right Kobe is the closest to Jordan; D-Wade is right behind him. ONe on one, I think Kobe would beat Wade though, so I’m picking Kobe.
C.Butler vs Rashard Lewis–I like Rashard Better (cuz I’m a Magic fan), but I think Butler is the better all-around player. Butler was killin’ it while Arenas was hurt. I’m gonna go with him there.
While we’re at it, how about an old school one: LeBron vs. Pippen…
October 16th, 2008 at 8:50 am
ian says:
he should be the godam MVP of the league with the amount of money he makes
hedo was so much more better than lew last year for a fraction of the price
i hope orlando suffer for all of his contract, it’ll teach teams not to be so STUPID
i mean come on….rahard lewis=over a 100 mill get the F outta here
screw otis smith and the magic…idiots
October 16th, 2008 at 9:29 am
josh tha roc says:
hedo didnt get a contract….so he is again in a contract yr. he aint fallin off.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:30 am
timmy says:
Hedo not having tha same year as last.. we heard it here first?? Dime your slipping…
October 16th, 2008 at 9:33 am
smity far away says:
interesting…
October 16th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Coop says:
Ian, yes they overpaid but they filled a need; a volume-scoring wing man. They needed someone to take the pressure off dwight for years to come. Hedo wasnt, and isnt, that guy because he’s a Contract Year Weasel.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Tyrone says:
Ain’t no doubt that Rashard is overrated y’all. Sure the cat can get mad ‘n nasty buckets, but he ain’t able to do other shit - cat can’t rebound or dish dimes when compared to other small forwards y’all.
True thugs never lie.
Tyrone
October 16th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Dagomar says:
So Turk will regress and Lewis will get better because . . . of what, exactly? Because Rashard can curse now? C’mon . . . .
October 16th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Dagomar says:
And that “true thugs never lie” thing is somehow getting into my head, every time I spoke with someone yesterday I wanted to close what I was saying with “true thugs never lie.”
October 16th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Settler says:
As someone posted above, Hedo’s technically in his contract season this year since he can opt out after this season. I don’t buy that his year was a fluke. Remember, as a young player, he showed a lot of talent in Sacramento coming off the bench for a powerhouse team. With natural progression, he projected to be the player he was last season, a solid above average starter. It just took him much longer than anyone anticipated, so long there were no believers left when it occurred. I think what helped him was finding his niche play, the pick and roll. It gave him a go-to set. Across the board, none of his shooting numbers look unsustainable or out line with his previous career norms. He simply played more minutes, got more opportunities with the ball and was utilized in a way he hadn’t been before.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:05 am
YOUNGFED says:
When’s Austin coming back cause yall been talking reckless Dime since he’s been M.I.A.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Coop says:
Actually Tyrone, Mr Thug, Lewis is an average rebounder for his position. It’s his defence that makes him overpaid imo
October 16th, 2008 at 10:57 am
English Off The Glass says:
Tyrone if you say mad n’ nasty or sick ‘n nasty or dope dimes one more time i am going to kill a kitten.
please find a thesaurus.
No, it’s a book, not a dinosaur.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Sweet English says:
and to everyone who keeps going at Dime Staff for saying stuff that is (widely) disagreable, you gotta remember that this is simply a basketball site run by fans, and fans have differing opinions.
Secondly, if they were always 100% accurate and always wrote articles simply agreing with the general concencus and opinion, then that wouldnt make for much debate would it, what would be the point of them writing about opinions which are the same as ours?
Everyone would just nod there head in agreement. It would be boring;
Dime headline ‘Did anyone else notice how much Kobe helps out the Lakers?’
Dime headline ‘Goodness me, Micheal Jordan was a talented chap wasn’t he?’
Dime headline ‘Knicks Suck’
see? if they don’t try and stir up debate, none of us would write here.
Except Tyrone. He would still find a scentence to say sick n’ nasty, and if we were talkin about Greg Oden would still somehow believe he dishes dope dimes.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Drink the Haterade (KB24 Chip 09) says:
Cause True Thugs never lie. They just talk about cats getting sick n’ nasty buckets on basketball blogs.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:43 am
RENO says:
SORRY DIME… I don’t even come here for basketball news no more. I just wanna see what Tyrone has to say… Then get my laugh on at everybody killing him for it.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Sweet English says:
But what if cats arent actually getting sick n’ nasty buckets? or dishing/dropping dope dimes? I for one have never seen cats (or for that matter any kind of domesticated animal) partaking in any type of ball game. does that mean that he is actually lying?
wait i lie.
I saw a video of a horse playing soccer once. Oh how i laughed.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Thats my boy Blue says:
Whos your team Tyrone?
Tyrone’s so good we named a part of Ireland after him. FACT. Check it up.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Sweet English says:
And i saw a squirrel water-skiing.
But thats more of a pastime than a sport.
BTW if anyone can get me a video of Tyrone playing basketball with ACTUAL cats, i will pay good money. especially if Tyrone is on the bench while the moggys get sick n’ nasty buckets and drop dope dimes.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Big V says:
I thought you guys meant “break out” as in leave.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
ian says:
coop point taken
they filled a need, unfortunately the magic will not go ANYWHERE near the finals untl dwight becomes a bit more shaqqish
so why not wait a couple lame years and wait for some of the big guns to hit the free agency…guys like rudy gay, hell if they had of waited they might of been able to sign iggy this year
and lets not forget raw lews age…hes what comin on 30, and he does need athleticsm, so if he hits a wall hard, o dear
and from what iv heard…the sonics were only willing to go up to 80 million for him, no one else had ANY room for him whatsoever on their caps, so for the magic to just offer him 35 million or so dollars more for no reason is just…i cant even describe it
IH
October 16th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Coop says:
Where were you guys 3 weeks ago when I first called this fool out? haha
’bout time!
October 16th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Coop says:
Ian,
True true. The magic have a history of doing that. Maybe they dont know how to read agents’ poker faces.
Lew isn’t super-athletic so i dont think he’ll ever fall off hard to be honest. You raise a good point in terms of cost and waiting for other talent. I cant recall if they gave up the cash for Lew prior to Howard’s extention. If they did then that would make sense. If not then yeah I cant see why they didn’t think to wait for Iggy.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Ashlov says:
Rashard Lewis couldn’t break out of a wet paper bag. I call another underachieving and overpaid season.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
jackass says:
damn tyrone you gonna just let them talk like that??? true thugz don’t do that shit homie.