Early in the season a lot of people were predicting Drew Gooden would be Memphis? second consecutive rookie of the year.

Perhaps this had as much to do with Jerry West?s reputation for judging talent as it did with Gooden.

So how?s he doing?  Well, December wasn?t an up month for Gooden.

It concluded New Year?s eve with Gooden being pulled from the game after playing only three minutes of the second half against Boston.

And Gooden responded by going to the end of the bench and doing some serious pouting.  Teammates had to coax him to join the huddle.

Thursday afternoon Gooden and coach Hubie Brown talked through their differences, and Gooden was quite chastened.  

Ron Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal quotes Gooden as saying, ?It was wrong for me to do what I did.  That was my first time ever having that attitude with any of my coaches. So I want to apologize to the fans and my coach for my actions."

Difficulties started soon after Brown took over.  Former coach Sidney Lowe had pretty much consigned Gooden to the power forward position.  Then Brown moved him to small forward.  Gooden has struggled with the adjustment.

Gooden vowed to make serious improvements in the areas of concern with his game.

The problem, in a word, is defense.  The team expected Gooden to struggle defending quicker small forwards.  But he?s also been a liability within the Grizzlies' zone defense because of blown assignments and poor rotations.

He also committed 33 turnovers in 14 games last month. And he turned the ball over four or more times in four of those games.

Brown remains optimistic, saying, ?He's young. He's got great talent. It's up to us to get it out of him and make him a terrific player here in a couple of years.?

But right now he?s not likely to be rookie of the year.