Pining Away : Frustrated at Not Getting Much Playing Time, Peeler May Start Looking Elsewhere

The beginning of the season, that was his chance. Eddie Jones, the starting shooting guard, was an unproven rookie and would have to face Joe Dumars and John Starks in the first five days of his NBA career. Besides, everyone knew the Lakers wanted to let the offense out after being stuck in second gear most of last season.

Then in mid-November, that had to be Anthony Peeler’s opportunity. Jones was sick. The offense was, too, managing only 102 points against the Clippers, a team surrendering about 106, and then 89 against the Knicks and 82 against Cleveland.

Last Wednesday, when the Dallas Mavericks came to the Forum, yeah, his time had finally arrived.

Coach Del Harris watched Peeler in practice a few days before and said, “He’s done a great job. It looks like his shot has come back to him, and it looks like he’s ready to go again.” Harris said he would try to find Peeler some playing time, then put him in as the first substitute in the game and played him nine minutes in that opening quarter . . . and never put him back in again.

It’s been that kind of season for Peeler. Those nine minutes? They are the most he has logged in seven outings.

Peeler has moved to Siberia without knowing it. The Lakers were stacked at shooting guard heading into training camp, so he realized he would have to compete for the starting job, especially with Jones. But there was no warning about being so far out of the rotation that a search-and-rescue team was needed to find him.

He had never been kept out of a game on a coach’s decision in his first two seasons as a pro, but through the first 12 games of 1994-95, a healthy Peeler has ridden the bench three times. He has played only 77 minutes, an average of 8.5 per game, the second-fewest on the team, ahead of only Anthony (Pig) Miller. In the last seven games, Peeler has played five, eight, nine, zero, three, four and one minutes. That’s rookie free-agent time.

“It’s like a living hell right now,” Peeler said. “I really want to play. There’s not much you can do on this level but just wait, keep your mouth quiet and keep trying to produce in practice. That’s what it’s all about.

“It’s like getting promoted to a new job, and then they say you don’t have it anymore. That’s how the situation is right now, where I’m like, ‘Wow, what can I do to get it back?’ You just got to keep the spirit with the team. I’m trying to think about wanting to win instead of worrying about Anthony Peeler getting playing time. It’s tough. I try to take my frustration out in practice. That’s how I’ve been getting by with it, I guess.”

That is why he was slightly content at the moment--because practice had just ended. Peeler’s bald head glistened with sweat, a sign of some activity--any activity.

Some days, he said, he doesn’t even want to come to practice because of the situation, but he goes. He doesn’t want to miss a chance to play. Mostly, though, he wonders if his chance will come.

“I’m not sure,” he said when asked if he thinks that opportunity will arrive. “But I hope it comes soon.”

And if not?

“We’ll see in a couple more weeks,” he said. “If something doesn’t happen from there, something else has got to occur because I really want to play in this league and I can’t play by sitting on the bench. Something has got to happen.”

But pressed if he believes that asking for a trade and moving on might be the best option, Peeler said, “I don’t have a choice but to try to look forward to going somewhere else. That’s just the job and that’s just how things happen. It’s a good team and I like the city and I like the fans, but if the opportunity is not there for me, then I’m going to have to go somewhere else. That’s the way it looks right now.”

His previous coach, Randy Pfund, would try to get Peeler into games. Two seasons ago, after the Lakers had used the 15th pick in the draft to take the Big Eight Conference player of the year from Missouri, Pfund felt caught between moving toward the future and showing loyalty to veteran Byron Scott as their relationship became more and more tenuous. But Peeler still averaged 21.5 minutes in 77 games.

In 1993-94, a stress fracture in the left leg and tendinitis in the right knee limited Peeler to 30 appearances, but Pfund started him in all 30. And when Magic Johnson took over as coach late in the season, he said Peeler was the best creator on the team and that his lengthy absences had left the Lakers struggling on offense.

Then Harris arrived and everything changed. In preseason play, the new coach said that Peeler’s making only 33% of his shots while bothered by a sprained wrist on his left hand--his shooting hand--was a big reason Jones had won the starting job. Now Peeler is at 22.9% (eight for 35) but Harris says Peeler’s shooting is not a factor.

“I know he can shoot the ball,” Harris said. “Anthony Peeler is a shooter. His shooting percentage right now is indicative of a wrist injury, nothing more. Coming off an injury like that, it could affect your confidence. It’s not like he had his hand cut off or something. This guy’s still a shooter and he’s going to be a shooter. That’s the last part I worry about Anthony, his shot.

“I want him to run the court and defend. Those areas don’t come quite as naturally to him. Those are the things he has to remind himself of, even though he is willing to do it.

“The problem for me has not been a fear of playing Anthony Peeler, in the last week or so. It was earlier because of the effects of the wrist injury. The problem is, who doesn’t play? You have guys who are playing pretty well.”

Indeed, Tony Smith playing well hasn’t helped Peeler. And the Lakers edged Cleveland last Friday with a three-guard lineup of Nick Van Exel, Sedale Threatt and Smith down the stretch, with Smith banking in the game-winning shot at the buzzer. But from starter to the second-fewest minutes on the team? That’s what Peeler doesn’t understand.

The flip side is that when the playing time was there, Peeler wasn’t. He played 16 minutes at New York in his debut, the team’s third game, making one of four shots. He played 16 minutes the next night at Minnesota, but missed all five of his shots. In the home opener against Denver, he played 15 minutes, but went four for 13 with five fouls in an overtime loss. That’s when the opportunities ended.