Things I didn't see coming

[strangeweather]

Ian Thomsen, SI.com

Stevenson comes into his own
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...nnsi&type=lgns

The torrent of immature draft picks entering the NBA over the last decade has forced teams to recalibrate their timetables for developing young players. Exhibit A is Orlando Magic shooting guard DeShawn Stevenson.

Stevenson was 19 years old when the Utah Jazz made him the shortest -- at 6-foot-5 -- player ever picked in the first round directly out of high school. He never seemed to fit in with Hall of Fame-to-be elders Karl Malone, John Stockton and coach Jerry Sloan, and at the 2003-04 midseason trade deadline the Jazz sent him (along with a second-round pick) to Orlando for Gordan Giricek, a veteran expected to provide immediate help to Utah.

Now 24 and well into his sixth NBA season, Stevenson is behaving like a veteran who suddenly understands everything Sloan was trying to teach him. It took awhile, but the lessons have sunk in. "He was determined to show everybody he was a different player than he was in Utah, and that he was a different player than he was for us even a year ago," says assistant GM Otis Smith. "He always ends up guarding one of the best scorers on the other team, he's diving on the floor, he's doing all the little things you like to see guys do."

Stevenson is averaging career-highs of 12.6 points and 35.8 minutes while starting every game for Orlando this season. Though he initially had trouble finding his way in Utah, Stevenson is grateful that the Jazz served as his extended boot camp.

"I was a flashy high school player and I was going to a situation where you have to learn NBA basketball," said Stevenson.

Accustomed to playing at full speed, Stevenson found that the better he understood the game, the more the game slowed down for him. The result has been that he has become a reliable defender. "For me when I first came into the league, it was hard to come off screens because I kept getting screened over shots," Stevenson said. "Seeing Stockton go off screens and Bryon Russell, who was another very good defensive player -- they taught me to watch film and focus in and learn the little things."

Though the Magic (7-11) are skidding downhill fast, their issues will be easily rectified when Grant Hill returns from a sports hernia in the next week. In the meantime they continue to rely on Stevenson, who is attacking the basket in spite of a recent knee cartilage injury that may require surgery after the season, a setback that has also helped him grow."I used to come to games and sit down and talk to players -- kind of joke around," he says. "Now I don't have time for that. I've got to get treatment (from the athletic trainer for his knee). After I get treatment I get heat, and after I get heat I've got to go out and shoot. And after I'm done shooting I've got to go back and get ice. So it makes you more focused on the game and on your job."


Honestly, I'd forgotten the guy was still in the league.

[slayermin]

Stevenson got "BOWeNED" on Monday.

[Solid D]

The other night against the Spurs (before Bowen stepped on his foot) he was very active with his hands on the ball. He dug when the ball went to the post, he knocked the ball loose several times on the perimeter and he had a couple of nice steals.

[T Park]

Stevenson I thought was a of a player for Utah and was suprised when they traded him.

Anytime Orlando wants to give him up, give Presti Buford and associates a call.

[texbound]

their issues will be easily rectified when Grant Hill returns from a sports hernia in the next week.

Sure, Hill will be back for about a week, but then he'll develop some other type of ailment that will sideline him for another month. It will never end. His body has given up on him.