Hardwood Lessons: Marreese Speights

In mid October, Sixers’ rookie forward Marreese Speights had already joined his teammates on the court prior to the Sixers first home preseason game, where they worked with assistant coaches Jeff Ruland and Bernard Smith. First, post moves, then elbow jumpers and finally some sets of pick-and-rolls.

“Hold it, right?” Ruland said to Speights as he set a screen. “Set it and hold it.” Speights did so, then rolled toward the baseline.

“Hands up,” Ruland said evenly. “After you set it, hands up.”

It was clear that any lessons learned by Speights on this night would be taught largely in private, whether they came courtesy of the coaching staff or via Knicks forward Zach Randolph, somewhat less courteously.

By night’s end, it would appear that Speights, the first-round draft pick from the University of Florida, was better for the experience. The silver lining was hard to define when he first entered the game, with a little over six minutes left in the first half.

By then, awaiting Speights was Randolph, a 16 point-per-game scorer over his seven pro seasons. First chance he had, Randolph posted up on the left of the lane and hit a short jumper as the rookie fouled him, resulting in a three-point play. A little later, it was much the same: basket (this time on a reverse lay-up by Randolph), foul, three-point play.

But some hint of what Speights might have to offer came much later in the game. He slammed home a miss by Kareem Rush in the fourth quarter, than converted a three-point play of his own against the Knicks’ David Lee, an accomplished veteran and fellow Florida alum.

None of this could have come as a surprise to anyone, least of all Sixers Head Coach Maurice Cheeks, who before the game had said that while Speights is physically gifted, he must learn the pro game – how fast it is, how physical it is, how rookies never get the benefit of the doubt from referees.

“Nah, he doesn’t get any calls,” Cheeks had said. “He doesn’t get them in practice, and he certainly doesn’t get them in a game.”

Speights would be tagged with another foul on a fast-break conversion by New York’s Wilson Chandler. Chandler missed his free throw and ended the half with two points (on a baseline jumper), two rebounds and three personal fouls.

Speights finished the night with seven points and three boards in a run of just over 16 minutes. And he assured those watching most closely that he would hang in there, even when things weren’t going his way.

“I think he has a lot of grit,” Cheeks said. “I think he has a lot of fight in him, and I think that’s what’s going to sustain him throughout (his career in) the NBA.”

As Speights himself said as he sat before his locker, “I’m not intimidated. I just go out there and play the best I can play.”

He had come to the team with the 16th overall pick in the June NBA Draft, and he had come with some question marks - the biggest of which centered on whether he would work hard.

His coach at Florida (Billy Donovan) had told Philadelphia reporters the day after the draft that Speights had grown complacent early in his second year in Gainesville. This came after nailing a jumper over Ohio State’s Greg Oden and grabbing a couple rebounds while playing six minutes in the Gators’ victory over the Buckeyes in the NCAA Finals his freshman year. The accolades – notably, an appearance on the Naismith Award watch list – had come too soon.

But Donovan rode him, and Speights responded by averaging 14.5 points and 8.1 rebounds, while shooting 62.4 percent from the field, ninth-best in the nation. However, Sixers officials cautioned not to expect too much - that it would be unwise to believe he could make an immediate contribution.

President and General Manager Ed Stefanski said during Speights’ introductory news conference that he had made “a little pact” with the rookie. “I just want him to come here and work this summer and next year,” Stefanski said. “I want him after every game to come up and shake my hand and look me in the eye and say, ‘I gave you 110 percent.’”

Stefanski would later say that there was nothing unusual about him entering into such an agreement with a young player. He had done the same with rookies while serving as New Jersey Nets General Manager, he said, as well as his own sons when they played. And certainly Speights had no problem with such an arrangement. “It was good,” he said that day. “I agreed to it.”

Assistant Coach John Loyer, who ran the Sixers Summer League team in Las Vegas, found that the rookie was “wonderful to work with.” Speights, he said, was extremely coachable, very diligent about improving his conditioning and low-post skills. In summer league play, he showed every inch of his promise, averaging 18.2 points and 10.2 rebounds.

Next up was training camp, and the preseason. And if the Sixers veterans tested him every day in practice, they also nurtured him. “He’s very talented,” said veteran center Theo Ratliff. “He’s just got to learn the nuances of the game.”

So Ratliff (entering his 14th season) was among those who set out to mentor the rookie, knowing full well that he had once been in a similar position with Detroit back in 1995. Then, Ratliff said, guys like Otis Thorpe, Mark West, Terry Mills and Joe Dumars had brought him along. “Their job was telling me to slow down because I was at 200 mph with everything I did,” he recalled.

Most rookies (Speights included) need to slow down and get comfortable with a new system in a new league, but they need to learn to stand up for themselves. “I’ve got to just realize that everybody’s going to come at me because I’m a rookie so I have to go out there and play as hard as I can.”

As Loyer said, “He doesn’t back down from a challenge. He really competes. It doesn’t matter who it is out there; he’s going to go out and bang them just as much as they bang him.”

Doesn’t mean there won’t be the usual ups and downs, though.

“We talk to him about that every day,” Loyer said. “Every day’s a new day for him. If he was good the day before, he’s got to forget that and try to get a little bit better that day. If he didn’t have a good day the day before, forget about it and move on. He’s tried to do that.”

The lessons seem to be taking hold, come Zach Randolph or high water. “Whatever you do, you’ve just got to go hard,” Ratliff said. “Everything else is going to work itself out. As long as you’re going hard and playing hard, playing aggressive, everything always works out.”