Philadelphia 76ers Draft Athletic Swingman Rodney Carney
“Every other practice, we’d end up doing suicides, up and down,” said Carney. “I’d be ahead a lot.”
“Cal [University of Memphis head coach John Calipari] said, ‘everyone line up at the free- throw line, Rodney, you get on the baseline; see if you can catch them.’
“I caught them all the time.”
Carney can thank genetics for his advantage. His mother, DeAndra Carney was a terrific high school and college sprinter in her day. She held the world indoor record in the 60-yard dash, and her national indoor record for the 55 meters, 6.74 seconds, held up for 18 years. Her son, a former Indiana state high jump champion as a high school senior, also loves to play above the rim.
“I just like exciting the crowd,” he said. “I can do flashy dunks, but I prefer not to because what if I miss them or something. I get up, I can float in the air, I can do all the other stuff, but I just want to get the ball in the hole.”
76ers President/GM Billy King can already envision how that kind of athlete will help his team.
“Watching the playoffs, watching the game, you need athletes,” King said. “When you play New Jersey, they could put Vince [Carter] and Richard [Jefferson] out there. You’ve got to have guys that are athletic that can defend, that can run with these guys. So it gives us a lot of versatility.”
Combining his pure athleticism with the two A.I.’s might give the Sixers one of the most potent fast break in the league. That is something
Carney can already imagine.
“We complement each other,” he said of Iguodala. “Teams can’t just key on him anymore. I can high jump, too. I can get to the rim and finish over a lot of guys. I shoot real well; if I get my handle better, I can run the ‘2’ [shooting guard] a little.”
Calipari, also a former 76ers assistant under Larry Brown, agrees wholeheartedly.
“Physically, he won’t beat you up, but if he’s open he’ll make a three, and when they run they now have two wings to whom they can throw the ball at the rim. And he can be a great defender; he shut out J.J. Redick {guard drafted 11th by the Orlando Magic} for a 6-minute stretch when we played Duke.”
“I know [76ers forward Kyle] Korver is a really unusual three-point shooter, as good as it gets. Rodney’s not far below him, and can dunk to his armpit. I told [76ers head coach Maurice Cheeks], he should demand [Carney] be a great defender.”
Just how does Carney feel about defense?
“It excites me stopping a guy, contesting the guy and holding them under their average,” said Carney. “If a person averages 20 and I hold them to 10, that feels good. That’s a sense of accomplishment. In college, that’s what we had to do in order to get on the floor. If we let our man beat us, we were coming right out. It’s the same thing in the NBA. You can’t be a liability on defense and only play offense. I can get down there and guard a lot of bigger people – Tracy McGrady or maybe a 6-8 guy – I can guard those kind of guys. Either one is fine for me. I just want to get out there and play great defense and hopefully stay on the floor.”
And if he can stay on the floor?
“I told Billy {King} that they might have the most athletic 1{point guard}-2{shooting guard}-3{small forward} combination in the league.” Calipari said after the draft.
That would be something both Cheeks and King are looking forward to.
“If you look at the playoffs, you had a lot of players getting up and down the floor, defensive players, offensive players,” said Cheeks. “You had a lot of ways teams could go. I think with Rodney coming in we have different ways that we can go. It gives us different options when you have a player like him.”
“He has unbelievable quickness and speed – it’s going to be fun,” King said.
For the 76ers, this might just be full speed ahead.
