Big issue: Backup at Small Forward

Sac Bee

Ideally, he gets his points in smaller bursts of action. Ideally, he's so efficient that he can shave game minutes off his r?sum? without any noticeable decline in either production or team impact.

But you can't rest Peja Stojakovic if you don't know what happens when Stojakovic comes off the floor. And as of this minute, that is Rick Adelman's mystery to unravel.

There's actually no way to make the subject sexy, which means this must be training camp. But in the It'll-matter-a-helluva-lot-come-February category, we present the great Peja conversation.
Which is: After Stojakovic, whom?

You can ask it another way, since Adelman does: After Peja, what? What does the Kings' offense become, exactly?

"You look at all the different scenarios you can have," Adelman said after Monday's workout, the Kings' final practice before tonight's exhibition opener against Dallas. "If it's Francisco (Garc?a), then you're going to have a different type of team out there. If it's Corliss (Williamson) or Kenny (Thomas) - or Bonzi (Wells) - it's a different type of team."

Different, not always meaning better. Different, sometimes meaning, "So how do we make this work, again?"

"I'm not locking in to anything right now," Adelman said. "I do think we have some flexibility that we didn't have before."

Of course, flexibility and certainty are two different - but equally valuable - currencies in the NBA. Adelman has the one. Not all the way there yet on the other.

Entering this camp, the question of who would spell Stojakovic at small forward was perhaps the most obvious one after the Thomas-Shareef Abdur-Rahim decision at power forward. But the conversation at the four spot revolves exclusively around who gets the lion's share of the minutes. In the Peja discussion, the questions are more complex.

What does the offense look like when the small forward with the big perimeter game leaves the floor? Who gets those minutes?

Most significantly, if it's nobody about whom Adelman has a firm conviction or high confidence, does that mean we see Peja's legs fall off like wheels on a trashed car with a broken axle? Or does that kind of wear and tear just come with the territory?

"I'm used to it," Stojakovic said with a smile. "I'd rather be on the court than sitting, no doubt about that."

As his Kings tenure can attest, Adelman sure would rather Stojakovic be there as well. Last year, his seventh in the NBA, Stojakovic pounded the floor to the tune of 38.4 minutes per regular-season game and nearly 41 per playoff game.

But the man is no automaton. Last season, Stojakovic missed 16 games, some because of back spasms and a bunch because of hamstring issues. This just in: He wears down.

In camp, Stojakovic looks to be the picture of vitality; but it's a grind, the season. If Adelman dials up those kinds of minutes for his 28-year-old forward this time around, he does so at his - and the team's - peril.

For all the great debates that Stojakovic inspires among Kings fans (he's too soft; he's the centrifugal force of the franchise; he needed to be freed from Chris Webber; you can't lead if you don't rebound), the great no-brainer in the deal is the part about the Kings needing him in order to win. They absolutely do.

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