<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>With one simple question, he became "The AnsweringMachine." "Phil said it, but he said I said it first," Sasha Vujacic explained. "He was just checking me to see if I'd fall for it. But then (broadcaster) Joel Meyers started saying it, and it kind of caught on." So that's how Vujacic became "The Machine," not by self-appointment but by order of the Lakers' wacky prankster of a coach, Phil Jackson. Regardless, there's no uncertainty about the origin of something else concerning Vujacic. This is the season during which he became more of a Laker than ever. His team opens the postseason Sunday at Staples Center against Denver. The Nuggets have "The Answer," Allen Iverson. In Vujacic, the Lakers have only ananswer, but that's better than being a career question mark. After three uneven seasons, Vujacic has emerged as a legitimate outside shooting threat, the sort who soon could produce one of those last-second playoff bombs. You know the kind. Just think Robert Horry's freeze-frame moment against the Kings or Derek Fisher and .4 of a second left in San Antonio. Vujacic could be next, coming off a regular season during which he set pretty much every career-high, most significantly a 44 percent success rate on 3-point shots. This year marked quite a U-turn for Vujacic, who discovered last season how difficult it is to shoot a basketball one-eyed. His other pupil was constantly wondering toward Jackson. "Every time I made a mistake, I was on the bench right away," Vujacic recalled. "Coach was doing that mental practice he does with every player. He was preparing me for this season. It was part of the process to get me where I am today." Where he is now is in the middle of all sorts of things, some of them good and some of them… This is a player who once walked into Cleveland's timeout huddle and relayed part of the Cavaliers' plans to the Lakers bench. He can be a bit of a pest, this floppy-haired defender who has been known to flop the rest of himself, too. Vujacic prefers to play up tight, separated from his opponent by little more than his scent. "The excuse after my first year was I don't play defense," Vujacic said. "That was the rumor. So I decided I had to play more aggressively and not back down." His style can annoy, to be certain, as well as frustrate and madden. And that's just among the Lakers. A flustered Kobe Bryant once elbowed Vujacic while they were sitting on the bench. Andrew Bynum yelled at Vujacic for not passing him the ball, punctuating his observation with a very dirty word picked up by courtside microphones. Just last month, Jackson referred to Vujacic as "a hyper young man" and criticized his tendency to fire up shots that aren't to "a coach's liking and his teammates' liking." Imagine then what dealing with Vujacic is like for the other team. The Rockets' Rafer Alston once jawed with him. The Knicks' Renaldo Balkman skipped the words and just swung his elbow at Vujacic's face. And in an exchange to remember as this series begins, Denver's Carmelo Anthony was ejected in November after attempting to peel Vujacic's Adam's apple. But, honestly now, can one man really be this much of a pain in the fanny? One man called Sasha, for crying out loud? "Oh, yeah, I bug people," Vujacic said. "But in order to win you gotta be aggressive. I play against the best player in the NBA in practice every day and Kobe's aggressive against me. That's something I took from him." When he isn't as irritating as a wool jockstrap, Vujacic is engaging, an entertaining subject. He possesses a certain charm, an innocence almost, thanks in part to his near-command of the English language. In talking about the start of the playoffs for the Lakers, the Slovenian said, "We have a big goal in our heads right now." Speaking about the trap of entering a game and attempting to do too much too soon, he said, "I come in and try to do the home run." Asked about the trust he now feels from Jackson and his teammates, Vujacic explained simply, "It's beautiful." He is a hoops junkie, a player who General Manager Mitch Kupchak kids about having "a gym tan." In the offseason, it's not unusual for Vujacic to remain on the court until making 1,000 jumpers. That's great for August and September, but what matters now is Vujacic continuing to hit shots as April flips into May and, the Lakers hope, May into June. What really could matter is a moment coming soon, when the clock is all but drained, and his team desperately desires a jump shot. That's when the Lakers need "The Machine" to pick up. "It's cool, it's cool," Vujacic said of his nickname. "It makes me want to play up to a certain level. If I'm hearing it that means the team's having success and that's what's important. And the people seem to like it." Like any machine, everything will be just fine — as long as it keeps working.</div> http://www.ocregister.com/articles/vujacic...079-one-machine Machine Hope he steps up in the postseason like he has in the past. We'll need his shooting and his production off the bench
I hope he comes back too, but I would like to see him stop some bad (but minor) tendencies he has with trying to slash or hog on a fastbreak. I hope he comes back for less than 5 million; players like him get overvalued and have the MLE thrown at them these days.
44% from 3 point is a great percentage. It's better than any of Derek Fisher's career best, and tied with Robert Horry's best year.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ Apr 20 2008, 10:59 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>44% from 3 point is a great percentage. It's better than any of Derek Fisher's career best, and tied with Robert Horry's best year.</div> True but Horry didn't attempt that many three pointers that year. It's important to recognize both the total amount of shots taken as well as the percentage. (Offensively) Sasha's per possession-minute production is on par with both.
Well I'm sure that you can find lots of players that take that many shots and don't hit Vujacic's percentage. Of players that have taken 41 or more 3s over the season, Vujacic is 11th in 3 point FG%. Now understandably he draw the defense's focus like Bynum, Kobe, or Gasol do. However there are 60 other players who have taken more 3FGA than Vujacic. Only 3 have shot better than him. The 3 are: Nash, Peja, and Anthony Parker
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ Apr 20 2008, 11:15 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Well I'm sure that you can find lots of players that take that many shots and don't hit Vujacic's percentage. Of players that have taken 41 or more 3s over the season, Vujacic is 11th in 3 point FG%. Only Nash, Peja, and Anthony Parker have shot better than Vujacic and taken more 3 point attempts than him.</div> I wasn't putting down Sasha, more so commenting on Horry. Either way, the three of them are all still overall comparable offensively.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (notmuchgame @ Apr 20 2008, 10:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>not to mention Sasha now owns the Lakers record for 3pt % in a season..</div> Wow, really? My boy has come a long way..... ::tear::
