Changing of the guard in Indiana?
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- More and more, it's looking as if Reggie
Miller's team belongs to Jalen Rose.
No one has logged more seasons, games or points in a Pacers
uniform than Miller, still the mainstay of the team's old guard.
But now Rose is the player who gets the ball when it counts.
|  | | Rose will be a free agent after the season |
He also might be the one -- more than anyone else -- who can lead
Indiana to its first Eastern Conference title and perhaps to an NBA
championship.
"Anytime you're getting a consistent opportunity, it allows you
to go out and play your best every night," said Rose, a reserve
his first three years with the Pacers. "I had good seasons coming
off the bench. I'm just a different animal this season.
"With opportunity comes change. Fortunately for me, my change
was for the better."
The 6-foot-8 Rose had played mainly at guard before replacing
Chris Mullin at small forward. The move paid off all year.
"He's a scorer," coach Larry Bird said. "He feels he can
score on anybody, and he's starting to be patient with the ball on
the wings, letting things develop. That's why he's in there."
But Rose might not be around with Indiana after the playoffs,
which the team begins Sunday against the Milwaukee Bucks. Along
with several other Pacers, he'll be a free agent.
Indiana will surely miss Rose if they don't re-sign him.
He scored 19 points in the regular-season finale Wednesday, a
111-92 victory over Atlanta that pushed Rose past Miller for the
team lead at 18.2 points a game. Miller, who finished at 18.1, had
led the Pacers in scoring each of the past 10 seasons.
"I've always had a good feel for Jalen," Bird said. "When he
was in college, I always liked him. Now he's starting to emerge as
the type of player I thought he could be."
Rose, son of former NBA guard Jimmy Walker, was a member of
Michigan's Fab Five NCAA runner-up team as a freshman in 1992 and
again the following year. He left college after his junior season
and was a first-round draft pick by Denver, but he never felt
comfortable with the Nuggets.
After his second season, he was traded to Indiana as part of a
package that sent Mark Jackson to Denver.
"I didn't play with the same enthusiasm and emotion that I'm
accustomed to playing with," Rose said of his two years in Denver.
"I don't know if it's because we never found the chemistry or I
was a young player. ... I don't know what it was."
Jackson returned to the Pacers in another trade at midseason in
1996-97 and has started at point guard alongside Miller ever since.
Rose, meanwhile, languished on Indiana's bench.
Former coach Larry Brown clearly wasn't happy with him.
"He might be able to do it offensively, but defensively ... he
has no clue," Brown said at the time. "His idea of guarding
people is a little different than mine right now."
Rose averaged 7.3 points a game his first season with Indiana.
When Bird became coach the next season, Rose's playing time and his
confidence soared as the Pacers set a franchise record with 58
victories and reached the conference finals.
Rose continued improving last year and averaged 11.1 -- tops
among the reserves -- as the Pacers again advanced to the Eastern
Conference finals. This season, he averaged 15.2 through January
and 21.9 in the 37 games since then.
"All season long, he's been solid. He's a true scoring guy,"
Jackson said. "He responds to pressure. He's a joy to watch on the
floor. ... When he's out there looking to make things happen, he's
Superboy."
Rose, a lefty who's one of the league's toughest players to
defend, scored a career-high 35 points against Houston last month
and tied Miller for the team lead with 34 games of at least 20
points.
Hawks coach Lenny Wilkens said it often takes a few years for a
player to adjust to the NBA.
"We knew his upside was tremendous, and he is showing that,"
Wilkens said. "He's playing with a lot of confidence and doing the
things he's capable of doing."
Atlanta's Lorenzen Wright said Rose's outside jump shot is what
makes guarding him so tough.
"It's consistent. It's freeing him up," Wright said. "He's
quick enough to go by you when you get up on him. That's what hurts
players."
Pacers center Rik Smits said Miller and Rose are both scorers
but that "Jalen is a different kind of player."
"He mixes it up more," Smits said. "He's got a little bit
more bulk inside than Reggie.
"He's definitely somebody that has really helped us this year.
I think he's going to be the difference in the playoffs."
And Rose doesn't mind if his success overshadows Miller.
"That's what this is all about," he said. "You don't get to
this level by not trying to push yourself and see what you're
really made of."
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