Collison’s Dedication, Track Record Impress Hornets
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Hornets.com
September 14, 2009
It’s mid-July in Las Vegas, and members of the New Orleans Hornets’ summer league team have finally been given a break from basketball activities. For the first time since the squad arrived in the desert 10 days earlier, there are no games to be played, no intense practices scheduled. In other words, it’s a perfect opportunity for players to sleep in and get some rest in their hotel rooms. Or, if they’re feeling more ambitious, it’s a chance for the many single, 20-somethings on the roster to take in some of the sights of Sin City, including the hotel pool downstairs.
New Orleans first-round draft pick Darren Collison had other ideas. Instead of relaxing at the team’s New York, New York hotel, the 6-foot point guard tracked down the Hornets’ assistant coaches. The many tourist attractions of Vegas could wait, because for the four-year UCLA product, it was more important that he stick to his daily workout regimen. He eventually spent the morning hours of a 100-degree Nevada day sweating in a gym, part of his preparation for his rookie NBA season.
“We only had one off day in Las Vegas, but he rounded up the coaching staff to get his workout in,” recalls Hornets senior director of player personnel Brian Hagen, who has scouted Collison extensively, both on and off the court. “He’s a relentless worker, which is sometimes hard to find. He has an incredible drive and work ethic, and the approach we think fits perfectly for what we need at that position.”
As Hagen had already learned from speaking at length with Collison’s previous coaches, the decision to not relax during a day off from basketball was nothing new for the player. After arriving at UCLA in 2005, Collison obtained the key to his old high school gymnasium in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. That way, whenever he made the 45-minute drive from Los Angeles to visit his parents on weekends during college, he could still work on his shooting and ballhandling skills.
‘Measured by winning’
To begin to understand the uniqueness of Collison’s college career, consider how rare it is for an elite player to spend four years in school. Of the 30 first-round picks taken in the 2009 NBA Draft, Collison was one of only six players to use up all of their NCAA eligibility. Few collegiate athletes in any sport enjoyed as much team success as Collison, with UCLA reaching the Final Four in each of his first three years. That begs the question: How did a player of his caliber and accomplishments not end up leaving school early for the riches of the NBA?
Collison did contemplate turning pro in the summer of 2007, following his breakthrough sophomore season. After taking over the starting point guard job in 2006-07 from ’06 NBA first-round draft choice Jordan Farmar, Collison made sure the Bruins didn’t skip a beat. He averaged 12.7 points, 5.7 assists and 2.2 steals, spearheading a second straight trip to the Final Four. At that point, Collison was already on Hornets scouts’ radar, but the front office believed that if Collison had entered the ’07 draft, he would’ve been taken prior to New Orleans’ pick at No. 13 (which the Hornets used to select Julian Wright). After weighing his options, though, Collison made a somewhat surprising decision, choosing to return to college despite being projected as a lottery pick.
“He had a great sophomore year, but he wanted to go back to school and do everything he could to help UCLA win a championship,” Hagen explains. “We asked him about why he didn’t come out. He said he felt like he had unfinished business, that he wanted to get his degree, and that he liked it at UCLA. And who can blame him? He ended up making it to three straight Final Fours there, which is unheard of in today’s NCAA.”
Throughout his UCLA tenure, Collison never was the flashiest talent, nor was he the most-discussed member of the star-studded Bruins. One of the nation’s best recruiting college programs of this decade, over the past four years alone, UCLA has produced Farmar, 2008 lottery picks Kevin Love (Minnesota) and Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City), 2009 first-rounder Jrue Holiday (Philadelphia), as well as competent role players including Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (Milwaukee), Arron Afflalo (Denver) and Ryan Hollins (Minnesota). All of those future NBAers played at least one season with Collison.
“One thing I looked at quite a bit was the impact he had on his teammates at UCLA,” said Hornets general manager Jeff Bower, who believes Collison helped several Bruins improve individually. “If you look at it, Westbrook in Oklahoma City had a very good rookie year (in 2008-09). Jrue Holiday was a top-10 talent and became an outstanding player. Both of those guys played off the ball at UCLA, because of the job Darren Collison did. (Collison) got them shots and distributed the ball. He has terrific playmaking ability. He has the attitude that we were looking to add, someone who knows how to play with others and be a great teammate.”
On another college team with less offensive talent than UCLA, Collison likely would’ve produced more than the 11.5 points per game he averaged over his four seasons. But as Bower points out, individual statistics were secondary to the team success that the Bruins achieved.
“I think they measured his effectiveness by winning, (not stats),” Bower says, smiling. “He did a lot of winning at UCLA over the course of his career. His record as far as affecting wins and losses is outstanding.”
The 22-year-old also demonstrated over four NBA Summer League games that his scoring ability may be more NBA-ready than some draft analysts had believed. Collison averaged 18.5 points in Las Vegas, including racking up 18 points in the first half of a game vs. Minnesota and fellow first-round draft pick Jonny Flynn.
“He got (teammates) shots and distributed the ball in college, but he also showed scoring ability when it was needed,” Bower says. “He’s a true point guard who takes an assessment of the situation and delivers what the team needs.”
On the defensive end, Collison – whose parents were world-class sprinters – appeared to be one of the quickest players on the floor in Las Vegas. His agility made him a disruptive defender in college, something the Hornets expect to carry over to the pros. Collison averaged 1.9 steals after taking over the starting job at UCLA.
“He’s got all the traits that you need to be a good defensive player, including the understanding of the game and the willingness to do it,” Bower says. “He will have adjustments to make (in the NBA), but he has the foot speed and quickness a player needs on defense to be successful.”
Backing up CP3
There were many promising point guards selected during the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft. Several of the names, including Flynn, Sacramento’s Tyreke Evans, Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Milwaukee’s Brandon Jennings, have been touted as future stars, with the potential to make a significant impact immediately as rookies. Unlike those players, though, it’s doubtful Collison will be allotted enough minutes to put him in contention for Rookie of the Year or other accolades that are traditionally based on individual statistics. That’s a fact of life for whoever serves as the backup point guard behind Chris Paul. Minutes are simply not going to be in ample supply.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Collison won’t be a key to the Hornets’ success in 2009-10. For one thing, while Paul will likely always log significant minutes as one of the NBA’s best players, New Orleans head coach Byron Scott has been trying to decrease the two-time All-Star’s workload. Unfortunately, when CP3 went to the sideline during games last season, the drop-off in team performance was noticeable and costly. In several games, the Hornets built a healthy lead after the first quarter, only to see it quickly evaporate early in the second quarter with Paul resting. As a result, Paul played far more overall than the Hornets wanted him to, finishing 2008-09 with a career-high average of 38.5 minutes per game.
“What I would like (for Collison) is probably between 12 and 17 minutes a game,” Scott says, before grinning. “You know, if you left it up to Chris, (Collison) would probably play about eight minutes a game, because Chris would like to play about 40 minutes a game. But if we can get to where Chris can go full-out for (about) 32 minutes, that would be ideal.”
From Scott’s perspective, Collison’s quickness and ability to push the tempo are ideally suited to spearhead a change in philosophy by the Hornets’ bench. Although New Orleans generally has a reputation among national media members as a fast-breaking, up-tempo team, by virtually any measurement, the Hornets have not played that way. According to ESPN.com writer John Hollinger’s data that measures the pace at which NBA teams play, New Orleans was the third-slowest team in the league in 2008-09. Scott, who famously started in the backcourt with Magic Johnson for the championship, fast-breaking “Showtime” Lakers of the 1980s, believes the Hornets need to score more easy baskets, partly by emphasizing transition offense. At 95.8 points per game last season, New Orleans ranked 26th in the league.
“I felt like when CP goes out of the game, (the tempo) grinds to a halt, and we definitely did not want that,” Scott says of one of the team’s problems during the 2008-09 season. “If anything, we want the second unit to run up and down and play at an even faster pace. That was an area of concern. When you’re 28th in possessions per game, that almost means you have to score every time. Our offensive drop from two years ago to last year, (much of it) was because we had four or five fewer possessions a game. The only way you can get more possessions is to speed up the game. “I think that’s one of Darren’s greatest strengths, but also his basketball IQ, of knowing when to push the ball and when not to. He was definitely one of the three or four fastest players in college basketball last season, with and without the ball. That’s definitely one area where he can help us.”
Ready now
Based on his 142-game college career – more NCAA games than any of the 59 other players selected in the 2009 NBA Draft – lack of experience shouldn’t be a factor for Collison as he deals with the adversity that virtually every NBA rookie faces. The Hornets like that in comparison to many of the other young players coming into the league, Collison has repeatedly shown the ability to succeed against elite competition and in pressure-packed environments.
“We had a large body of work we were able to look at,” Hagen says. “We saw him in a lot of big games, obviously. I also was able to watch him at UCLA practices and see how he led his team there. We try to dig as deep as we can dig on players. To a man, I couldn’t find anyone that said anything but positives about Darren, including the coaching staff at UCLA, academic people there, and people who’ve known him since high school.”
Scott: “We’re getting a point guard with some experience, a guy who’s a proven winner, playing at UCLA and getting to the Final Four three out of four years there. He’s a guy we know can come in and back up Chris. I knew from watching him play that he has leadership qualities that you like.”
During summer league, Collison appeared more NBA-ready than the vast majority of the rookies who made their unofficial pro debuts there. En route to averaging 18.5 points, he was consistently aggressive in beating his defender off the dribble and getting to the basket. As a result, he totaled 30 free throw attempts and went a scorching 29-for-30 from the stripe. For a player highly-regarded for his dedication to practice, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that Collison shot 89.7 percent from the foul line as a senior at UCLA (he was a career 84.6 percent foul shooter, improving his success rate every season).
Though he’s shown impressive accuracy on those 15-foot shots, Collison doesn’t appear to have an NBA-distance three-point range yet. During summer league, he only attempted six three-pointers, making one. He was a very solid three-point shooter in college from the shorter distance, though, including a junior season in which he connected on an impressive 52.5 percent (53-for-101) of his tries from the arc.
“He can make the mid-range shot and get to the basket,” Scott assesses. “He does the things he knows he can do well. He knows he’s not (an NBA) three-point shooter, so he doesn’t take a whole lot of them.”
Don’t be surprised if Collison tries to add that to his skill set in the near future, though, during some of his extended trips to the practice gym. He may not have “Peja Stojakovic range” on his jumper now, but that doesn’t mean he won’t work on becoming more proficient shooting further away from the basket.
“There are going to be a lot of trials and tribulations,” Collison says of what he expects during his rookie season. “Not a lot of players can come in right away and play as rookies. Not a lot of players can come in and run an offense. Point guard is probably one of the hardest positions (to learn), especially at this level. There are still a lot of things I need to learn. But the preparation is always going to be there.”
By: Jim Eichenhofer, Hornets.com
September 14, 2009
It’s mid-July in Las Vegas, and members of the New Orleans Hornets’ summer league team have finally been given a break from basketball activities. For the first time since the squad arrived in the desert 10 days earlier, there are no games to be played, no intense practices scheduled. In other words, it’s a perfect opportunity for players to sleep in and get some rest in their hotel rooms. Or, if they’re feeling more ambitious, it’s a chance for the many single, 20-somethings on the roster to take in some of the sights of Sin City, including the hotel pool downstairs.
New Orleans first-round draft pick Darren Collison had other ideas. Instead of relaxing at the team’s New York, New York hotel, the 6-foot point guard tracked down the Hornets’ assistant coaches. The many tourist attractions of Vegas could wait, because for the four-year UCLA product, it was more important that he stick to his daily workout regimen. He eventually spent the morning hours of a 100-degree Nevada day sweating in a gym, part of his preparation for his rookie NBA season.
“We only had one off day in Las Vegas, but he rounded up the coaching staff to get his workout in,” recalls Hornets senior director of player personnel Brian Hagen, who has scouted Collison extensively, both on and off the court. “He’s a relentless worker, which is sometimes hard to find. He has an incredible drive and work ethic, and the approach we think fits perfectly for what we need at that position.”
As Hagen had already learned from speaking at length with Collison’s previous coaches, the decision to not relax during a day off from basketball was nothing new for the player. After arriving at UCLA in 2005, Collison obtained the key to his old high school gymnasium in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. That way, whenever he made the 45-minute drive from Los Angeles to visit his parents on weekends during college, he could still work on his shooting and ballhandling skills.
‘Measured by winning’
 
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Collison did contemplate turning pro in the summer of 2007, following his breakthrough sophomore season. After taking over the starting point guard job in 2006-07 from ’06 NBA first-round draft choice Jordan Farmar, Collison made sure the Bruins didn’t skip a beat. He averaged 12.7 points, 5.7 assists and 2.2 steals, spearheading a second straight trip to the Final Four. At that point, Collison was already on Hornets scouts’ radar, but the front office believed that if Collison had entered the ’07 draft, he would’ve been taken prior to New Orleans’ pick at No. 13 (which the Hornets used to select Julian Wright). After weighing his options, though, Collison made a somewhat surprising decision, choosing to return to college despite being projected as a lottery pick.
“He had a great sophomore year, but he wanted to go back to school and do everything he could to help UCLA win a championship,” Hagen explains. “We asked him about why he didn’t come out. He said he felt like he had unfinished business, that he wanted to get his degree, and that he liked it at UCLA. And who can blame him? He ended up making it to three straight Final Fours there, which is unheard of in today’s NCAA.”
Throughout his UCLA tenure, Collison never was the flashiest talent, nor was he the most-discussed member of the star-studded Bruins. One of the nation’s best recruiting college programs of this decade, over the past four years alone, UCLA has produced Farmar, 2008 lottery picks Kevin Love (Minnesota) and Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City), 2009 first-rounder Jrue Holiday (Philadelphia), as well as competent role players including Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (Milwaukee), Arron Afflalo (Denver) and Ryan Hollins (Minnesota). All of those future NBAers played at least one season with Collison.
“One thing I looked at quite a bit was the impact he had on his teammates at UCLA,” said Hornets general manager Jeff Bower, who believes Collison helped several Bruins improve individually. “If you look at it, Westbrook in Oklahoma City had a very good rookie year (in 2008-09). Jrue Holiday was a top-10 talent and became an outstanding player. Both of those guys played off the ball at UCLA, because of the job Darren Collison did. (Collison) got them shots and distributed the ball. He has terrific playmaking ability. He has the attitude that we were looking to add, someone who knows how to play with others and be a great teammate.”
On another college team with less offensive talent than UCLA, Collison likely would’ve produced more than the 11.5 points per game he averaged over his four seasons. But as Bower points out, individual statistics were secondary to the team success that the Bruins achieved.
“I think they measured his effectiveness by winning, (not stats),” Bower says, smiling. “He did a lot of winning at UCLA over the course of his career. His record as far as affecting wins and losses is outstanding.”
The 22-year-old also demonstrated over four NBA Summer League games that his scoring ability may be more NBA-ready than some draft analysts had believed. Collison averaged 18.5 points in Las Vegas, including racking up 18 points in the first half of a game vs. Minnesota and fellow first-round draft pick Jonny Flynn.
“He got (teammates) shots and distributed the ball in college, but he also showed scoring ability when it was needed,” Bower says. “He’s a true point guard who takes an assessment of the situation and delivers what the team needs.”
On the defensive end, Collison – whose parents were world-class sprinters – appeared to be one of the quickest players on the floor in Las Vegas. His agility made him a disruptive defender in college, something the Hornets expect to carry over to the pros. Collison averaged 1.9 steals after taking over the starting job at UCLA.
“He’s got all the traits that you need to be a good defensive player, including the understanding of the game and the willingness to do it,” Bower says. “He will have adjustments to make (in the NBA), but he has the foot speed and quickness a player needs on defense to be successful.”
Backing up CP3
 
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That doesn’t necessarily mean that Collison won’t be a key to the Hornets’ success in 2009-10. For one thing, while Paul will likely always log significant minutes as one of the NBA’s best players, New Orleans head coach Byron Scott has been trying to decrease the two-time All-Star’s workload. Unfortunately, when CP3 went to the sideline during games last season, the drop-off in team performance was noticeable and costly. In several games, the Hornets built a healthy lead after the first quarter, only to see it quickly evaporate early in the second quarter with Paul resting. As a result, Paul played far more overall than the Hornets wanted him to, finishing 2008-09 with a career-high average of 38.5 minutes per game.
“What I would like (for Collison) is probably between 12 and 17 minutes a game,” Scott says, before grinning. “You know, if you left it up to Chris, (Collison) would probably play about eight minutes a game, because Chris would like to play about 40 minutes a game. But if we can get to where Chris can go full-out for (about) 32 minutes, that would be ideal.”
From Scott’s perspective, Collison’s quickness and ability to push the tempo are ideally suited to spearhead a change in philosophy by the Hornets’ bench. Although New Orleans generally has a reputation among national media members as a fast-breaking, up-tempo team, by virtually any measurement, the Hornets have not played that way. According to ESPN.com writer John Hollinger’s data that measures the pace at which NBA teams play, New Orleans was the third-slowest team in the league in 2008-09. Scott, who famously started in the backcourt with Magic Johnson for the championship, fast-breaking “Showtime” Lakers of the 1980s, believes the Hornets need to score more easy baskets, partly by emphasizing transition offense. At 95.8 points per game last season, New Orleans ranked 26th in the league.
“I felt like when CP goes out of the game, (the tempo) grinds to a halt, and we definitely did not want that,” Scott says of one of the team’s problems during the 2008-09 season. “If anything, we want the second unit to run up and down and play at an even faster pace. That was an area of concern. When you’re 28th in possessions per game, that almost means you have to score every time. Our offensive drop from two years ago to last year, (much of it) was because we had four or five fewer possessions a game. The only way you can get more possessions is to speed up the game. “I think that’s one of Darren’s greatest strengths, but also his basketball IQ, of knowing when to push the ball and when not to. He was definitely one of the three or four fastest players in college basketball last season, with and without the ball. That’s definitely one area where he can help us.”
Ready now
Based on his 142-game college career – more NCAA games than any of the 59 other players selected in the 2009 NBA Draft – lack of experience shouldn’t be a factor for Collison as he deals with the adversity that virtually every NBA rookie faces. The Hornets like that in comparison to many of the other young players coming into the league, Collison has repeatedly shown the ability to succeed against elite competition and in pressure-packed environments.
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Scott: “We’re getting a point guard with some experience, a guy who’s a proven winner, playing at UCLA and getting to the Final Four three out of four years there. He’s a guy we know can come in and back up Chris. I knew from watching him play that he has leadership qualities that you like.”
During summer league, Collison appeared more NBA-ready than the vast majority of the rookies who made their unofficial pro debuts there. En route to averaging 18.5 points, he was consistently aggressive in beating his defender off the dribble and getting to the basket. As a result, he totaled 30 free throw attempts and went a scorching 29-for-30 from the stripe. For a player highly-regarded for his dedication to practice, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that Collison shot 89.7 percent from the foul line as a senior at UCLA (he was a career 84.6 percent foul shooter, improving his success rate every season).
Though he’s shown impressive accuracy on those 15-foot shots, Collison doesn’t appear to have an NBA-distance three-point range yet. During summer league, he only attempted six three-pointers, making one. He was a very solid three-point shooter in college from the shorter distance, though, including a junior season in which he connected on an impressive 52.5 percent (53-for-101) of his tries from the arc.
“He can make the mid-range shot and get to the basket,” Scott assesses. “He does the things he knows he can do well. He knows he’s not (an NBA) three-point shooter, so he doesn’t take a whole lot of them.”
Don’t be surprised if Collison tries to add that to his skill set in the near future, though, during some of his extended trips to the practice gym. He may not have “Peja Stojakovic range” on his jumper now, but that doesn’t mean he won’t work on becoming more proficient shooting further away from the basket.
“There are going to be a lot of trials and tribulations,” Collison says of what he expects during his rookie season. “Not a lot of players can come in right away and play as rookies. Not a lot of players can come in and run an offense. Point guard is probably one of the hardest positions (to learn), especially at this level. There are still a lot of things I need to learn. But the preparation is always going to be there.”
