A day of reflection

[Steskiles@aol.com]

Okay....I've had a day to cool down, take a step back and look at this draft
realistically.

First things first.....teams with the top five picks, as strange as it seems,
don't always look to fill a need.  It might make sense for Philly to take
Battie at #2 because they need a center.  BUT.....the mentality is often to
take the best player available.  In other words...ignore the obvious need and
strictly evaluate talent. Battie is not a better player than Mercer or Van
Horn, or mabye even Tim Thomas. Count on Philly to get creative with this
pick i.e. send Stackhouse or Coleman, or both to someone.  I'm sure they, as
us, are talking to the Spurs about getting the #1 pick.  And Philly has more
to offer than we do.   

It's hard to foresee Stack's future in Philly because Larry Brown might
convince him to stay.  Sure, Stack was a whiner last year, but look at their
ball-hogging point guard!  It's wrong to say Stack's a waste, because in the
Pitino system, I know Stack could flourish.  

Anyway, I'm just not sure Battie is a #3 pick, Pitino might opt to stockpile
with the best available players and then trade before the season! 

I know this message is dragging on...but one final reason for optimism for
whoever we draft: In his first year in the NBA, Pitino took a point guard
named Mark Jackson.  Jackson wasn't rated very highly and received a lot of
pre-season criticism from the New York press.  At the team's first meeting,
Pitino said, "I don't care about the players drafted before Mark, he WILL be
the NBA rookie of the year."  Everyone laughed and said Pitino was out of his
mind.  But guess what?  Jackson WAS the rookie of the year!

Yours on the rebuilding road, 
STEVE