The tale of the Denver Nuggets’ two rookies is about as different as it can be when it comes to personality.
Jalen Rose is the bold and the brash, a rookie fettered with high expectations as the No. 13 pick and former ringleader of Michigan’s Fab Five. Reggie Slater is much quieter — a Cinderfella kind of guy who made the squad as an undrafted forward. He keeps surprising the team with what he has to offer.
Both are highly confident players who have had minimal opportunity to show what type of NBA players they eventually will be.
Coach Gene Littles says the two are like night and day. “Here’s a guy like Jalen with the biggest ego I’ve ever seen, and here’s Slater, if he has one, you never know it,” Littles said. “He’s a real low-key guy. He will say little subtle things like, “Put me in. I’ll get it done.’ And he’s always smiling. He’s the kind of guy you want to play because he’s doesn’t say much, but works so hard in practice, and he’s hungry.”
Both players are at the bottom of the stack at their positions. Rose is the third point guard behind Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and Robert Pack. Slater plays behind forwards Brian Williams, Rodney Rogers, Tommy Hammonds and often Cliff Levingston.
Rose still hasn’t proved he can shoot from the perimeter with consistency, the knock on him coming out of college. And like most rookies, he hasn’t learned the nuances of NBA defense. But he has shown himself to be the team’s best passer.
In the 15.5 spot minutes he’s been averaging a game, however, Rose can’t show too much of anything. That can be frustrating for a player who spent his college days running the show, the ball always in his hands.
“It’s been a tough rookie year for him so far,” Littles said. “I tell him his day will come when he’ll play that spot and play it consistently.”
Rose keeps an upbeat attitude. And he hasn’t tempered his trash talking to his teammates, though the talk is by no means mean-spirited.
When he teases teammate Dikembe Mutombo with, “Don’t hit ‘im in the hands,” it truthfully reflects the center’s difficulty handling line-drive passes.
“I’m going to always say what’s on my mind,” said Rose, who also takes extra time to work with Mutombo on catching passes. “Speaking my mind makes me feel better, whether we lost by 40 or won by five.”
The talk is part of what motivates Rose, and he has needed all his motivational tools to cope with Denver’s 20-24 record.
“A player has to keep his confidence high and sometimes be willing to swallow his ego and be willing, whether we win or lose, whether he played 15 minutes or 35 minutes, to come back and find a way to motivate yourself in practice the next day to get better,” he said. “I try to stay upbeat and patient and at the same time keep my pride.”
Through the spot time, the point guard controversy, the resignation of Dan Issel and the eight-of-10 losing streak under Gene Littles, Rose has averaged 2.7 assists and 8.3 points on 41 percent shooting. He’s shown a knack from long range, hitting 33 percent.
“He possesses what a lot of players never have and you can’t teach: the court awareness and the ability to get the ball to the open man,” Littles said.
In the breakdown that gripped the Nuggets in the season’s first half, Rose displayed a team-first, winning-is-all-that-matters attitude.
“I’m smart and I have a voice,” Rose said. “People perceive that in different ways, but as they get to know me, they realize I’m for the team, because I don’t play selfish, and I don’t think about just Jalen Rose getting headlines.”
“If he gets consistent minutes,” Littles said, “you’ll see Jalen surface as a much better player than he’s shown.”
The other rookie, Slater, averages only nine minutes. Bushels of games go by in which he doesn’t play at all.
But when he has played, he’s shown himself to be one of the team’s most reliable post-up players and an improved free-throw shooter at 72.7 percent.
“I like him for his ability to post, to go one-on-one in the post against anybody,” Littles said. “I don’t think anybody can guard him one-on-one his size.”
His defense in the post and off the screen and roll is weak. “He’s had a tough time improving on his weaknesses because he doesn’t get to play,” Littles said. “But the fans love him. He’s like the underdog.
“When he gets in the game, you can see the energy. He makes the big dunk, takes three guys to the hole and the fans love that. He makes things happen.”
Though Slater is a rookie, he spent two seasons playing in Europe after graduating from Wyoming, which lends him an air of maturity.
“I’m mature as far as coming of age as a man,” said Slater, who welcomed baby daughter Aleyah earlier this year. “I’m married. I have responsibilities. I don’t think I go out there and do goofy stuff kids usually do.”
The NBA is everything Slater dreamed of.
“The very first year I came out of college (and attended Detroit’s rookie camp) I thought the NBA would be something fun; fun to have the great athletes around you and be playing ball with great ball players. That’s what it is.
“It’s not fun right now because we’re at a hard part of the road, but I’m sure we’re going to get out of this slump and positive things will happen.”
Rose agrees. “At this point we can either do two things: tank the season and hope next year hurry up and comes or go out there and play like each game means something, like each game is our last.
“I think the second choice is what’s going to happen.”
