Position: point guard
Height: 6-1
Weight: 168
College: Georgia Tech
Born: October 9, 1970
Opening day (2002) age: 32
Drafted: 1991, first round, pick two, New Jersey
NBA exerience: Eleven years (zero with Sonics)
Hand: Left
Acquired: Traded by Boston Celtics on July 22, 2002 with guard Joseph Forte and center Vitaly Potapenko for guard Shammond Williams and forward Vin Baker.
Contract status: Signed through 2002-03 season
2001-02 in Review: During the summer of 2001, the Boston Celtics could not give Kenny Anderson away -- not that they didn't try, offering not one but two first-round picks to any team that would take the remaining two years of Anderson's behemoth contract off their hands. But with no better alternatives, Anderson still began the season as Boston's starting point guard after a training camp filled with promises of how he would accept his role this season and become a pass-first point guard. Those promises are easily made, but more difficult to keep; Anderson surprised and impressed everyone by fulfilling them. With Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker rightfully taking most of the Celtics' shots, Anderson scored 9.6 points per game -- more than he had in an injury-riddled 2000-01 season, but still well of his career average of 14.0 ppg. He made up for it with his steady playmaking, improving his assists to 5.3 per game and posting the second-best assist/turnover ratio of his career, 3.39. Anderson was also improved defensively. In the post-season, Anderson particularly shined as Boston advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals thanks in large part to their advantage at the point guard position over first Philadelphia's Eric Snow and Detroit's Chucky Atkins. Against the Pistons in particular, Anderson proved to be the third scoring threat that Boston so desperately needed all year, averaging 13.8 points during the five-game series.
Previous NBA Career: Part of the line of great New York high school guards, Anderson starred at Georgia Tech before entering the NBA Draft and being selected early by the New Jersey Nets with the second pick of the 1991 Draft. After a year on the bench behind Mookie Blaylock, Anderson took over the starting job and teamed with Derrick Coleman as young All-Stars who led the Nets back to the playoffs under then-coach Chuck Daley. But in 1994-95, everything started coming apart, with Anderson's leadership questioned as the Nets fell back to the bottom of the barrel. A season later, with Anderson in a contract year, he was dealt in late February to Charlotte for Kendall Gill and Khalid Reeves. Anderson seemed revitalized by the deal, dramatically improving his shooting percentage. That play motivated the Portland Trail Blazers to ink Anderson to replace departed starter Rod Strickland. Fitting in quickly, Anderson had arguably the best season of his career, scoring 17.1 points on 53% effective shooting. He had fallen well of that pace next season, however, and the Blazers saw an opportunity to upgrade their situation at the point, dealing Anderson to Toronto as the centerpiece of a six-player deal that brought Damon Stoudamire home to Portland. Anderson was furious about being traded to an also-ran team north of the border and refused to report. The Raptors were forced to move him again quickly, this time to Boston in a seven-player deal headlined by Chauncey Billups. Anderson fit in well with a young Celtic team in need of leadership, helping improve the play of Walker when healthy. He was plagued by injury again the next season, missing 17 of the lockout's 50 games as the Celtics struggled. 1999-2000 was Anderson's best season in Boston, as he averaged 14.0 points and 5.1 assists per game and started all 82 games. But the 2000-01 season was an unqualified disaster; Anderson missed 49 games. When he was healthy, he was nothing short of awful, averaging 7.5 points -- his first time in single-digits since his rookie season -- and shooting just 39%.
Shooting/Scoring: Even during his heyday with the New Jersey Nets, Anderson was not a great percentage shooter. His career shooting percentage, after all, is just 42.0%. By that standard, his 43.6% last season was actually quite impressive. However, it was an empty field-goal percentage -- the three-point ability Anderson once possessed (he's made as many as 132 three-pointers during his 1996-97 season) is almost entirely gone and he rarely gets to the free-throw line. Last season, Anderson tried only 33 threes and made just nine. During his best seasons, he attempted about seven free throws per 48 minutes, but last year Anderson averaged 2.6. That's indicative of the fact that at this stage of his career Anderson does not drive the lane very much. His best offensive weapon during the playoffs proved to be the pick-and-roll, run particularly well with Rodney Rogers' three-point shooting ability. Anderson's mid-range game is effective from 15-18 feet, which is where he was hitting jumpers when not watched closely through on-ball screens. Anderson is a good but not great free-throw shooter.
Grade: C-
Floor Game: Although Anderson put up big assist numbers in New Jersey -- as many as 9.6 per game in 1993-94 -- he was considered a bit of a "ballhog" in those days. Though his assist/minute rate is far lower now, as Walker and Pierce generally dominated the ball, Anderson also had the lowest turnover/minute rate of his career last season. This led to a 3.39 assist/turnover ratio, one of the better ones in the league. Anderson adopted the 'steady hand' approach at the point last season, meaning he made the simple pass instead of the difficult one and played it conservatively.
Grade: B+
Rebounding: One of the areas in which Anderson improved last season was rebounding, posting his best board rate in five years. He was amongst the upper tier of point guards in this category. Throughout his career, Anderson has been a much better defensive rebounder than offensive rebounder.
Grade: C
Defense: At 6-1, Anderson has always been smallish for a starting point. When his quickness started to go, this compounded his defensive difficulties, making him a fairly serious liability previous to last season. However, he bought into coach Jim O'Brien's and assistant coach Dick Harter's emphasis on defense and was much-improved last season. Anderson's still going to get posted by bigger points like Jason Kidd and Baron Davis, but he battled much better last year and didn't give as much ground on the perimeter. He also was a greater thief last season; his 2.8 steals per 48 ranked him in the league's top ten amongst regular players.
Grade: B-
Intangibles: During his early years, Anderson was considered one of the Nets' stable of bad boys along with Coleman and Chris Morris. He did little to help his reputation as one of the "Jail Blazers" of the mid-90's and really came off poorly when he refused to report to Toronto. Then during the lockout, he was infamously quoted about having to sacrifice by giving up some of his luxury cars, an insulting comment to fans. He repaired his repuation last season by willingly accepting his role. But there are serious questions about how Anderson will react to being traded to Seattle and likely being forced to the bench.
Grade: C-
Overall: Though Kenny Anderson bounced back last season and his play was a critical part of Boston's success, he still did not fit into the team's long-term plans. With one year and $9 million left on his contract, Anderson became a valuable commodity for teams looking to create cap space for the 2003 free agent frenzy. One of them was the Seattle SuperSonics, looking to unload the prohibitive four years and $56.5 million left on their albatross contract to big man Vin Baker. On July 22, the teams agreed to a deal sending Anderson, center Vitaly Potapenko, and guard Joseph Forte to Seattle for Baker and guard Shammond Williams. Though the media has characterized the deal as giving the Sonics two starting point guards (along with perennial All-Star Gary Payton), resurgent season or not, Anderson is probably at the stage of his career where he might be heading to the bench. If he is a starter, Anderson is probably in the league's bottom third. And while others have suggested that Anderson's acquisition might be a precursor to a deal involving him or Payton, this logic does not hold. To the contrary, the Sonics have desired a veteran backup for Payton since Nate McMillan retired after the 1997-98 season. Coach Nate McMillan indicated during the post-trade press conference that Anderson would have a chance to win a starting job alongside Payton during training camp, but in all likelihood he will back up both guard positions next season while playing about 25 minutes a night.
Grade: C+