Re: Knight (was Re: Kemp/Baker/Brandon trade)

[Adam A Suchocki <Twilight@world.std.com>]

If knight is simply  an average center I will be happy, but i still have
serious doubts.  I'm hoping that come April everyone is telling me I was
wrong, but I'm very worried.  Moreso after reading all of the pre-season
magazines.  Right now we really don't have the three headed (or more
center) that would make Knight more effective.

We have Knight, a tall skinny powerforward who is a good weak side
rebounder, decent at running the court, and a good mid range jump shooter.
He is not good at blocking out, post up offense, low post defense, or long
range shooting.  He is fairly good at rotating on defense, and he is a
good man on the fast break.  He should be a back up power forward on a
good team, or a desperation starting power forward on a weaker team.  He
should not play the majority of his minutes at center in the NBA.  He
hustles like crazy on offense.

We also have Andrew Declerc.  To be honest, I love this guys hustle and
nose for rebounds.  In a lot of ways he is the sort of player Knight
isn't.  He is a banger, plays position offense and defense, and blocks out
well.  He is a very weak shooter from outside of 5 feet, and doesn't
really have a low post game.  He is a little on the small side for a power
forward, and might not even be an inch taller than Antoine Walker.  He is
a power forward who should not be playing center, but as a power forward,
he ran off a string of double/dooubles in Golden State.  He is a very good
back-up power forward.

You could count Pervis Ellison as a center, and he is by far the closest
thing the Celtics have to an NBA center (and even he is more a forward
than a center).  Of course Pervis' history is known to all, and if you
believe the papers, the team is desperate to get rid of him and might even
waive him.

 Next we have your choice of either Antoine Walker or Tony
Massenburg
at Center.  Both are natural forwards slighly over 6'9.  Neither are wide
bodies, and both are seeverely overmatched even at limited minutes at
Center.

I don't think we can get any minutes at center from Mills, Minor, Bowen,
Edney, Brown, Barros, Mercer, or Billups.

A contending team might play Knight for 5-10 minutes a game at center if
they had a better option to back up the power forward and no one else to
play center.  DeClerq is areach for even back up duty at center (but
again, a good back-up at power forward).  Ellison hasn't been able to play
even spot duty over the last year.  Massenburg should not be playing
center, and Walker shouldn't either.  We just do not have a center
rotation, which will probably mean Knight will have to play 30 minutes + a
night at center, and I don't think he is capable of that.

On that same line, I'm really worried about the teams lack of low post
game.  We only have one player (Walker) who can score in the low post with
a defender on him.  I believe in the running game, but every team needs to
be able to pound it down low at times, and Boston seems incapable of that
right now.  I really wish we had made a move for McDeyus.  I think our
draft picks would be a lot more valuable than Phoenix'.

Anyway, I hope I'm wrong, but the shortcomings on this team seem to be
overwhelming in the short term.  In a few years Billups and Mercer may be
stars, but right now they are a couple of kids still learning the game.  I
can't think of any team that has ever thrived with 3 key players 21  years
or younger.  I'm willing to be patient, but I still wish we could have
made better personel moves this offseason(Dean Garret, kept Fox and
Wesley, kept Williams or packaged him + first round picks for McDeyus, Bo
Outlaw, a little patience + Radja's money could have gone a long way.)

Adam

 On Wed, 1 Oct 1997, Kevin W. Smith wrote:

> > 
> > On top o this, his best games aren't any more impressive than Brett
> > Szabo's best games (statisticly at least).  I hope he works out, but I
> > really feel he is the Jim McIlvaine/John Koncack of 1997.
> > 
> > Adam
> 
> I think that Knight will end up somewhere between these extreme 
> predictions of bust and rising All Star.
> 
> He isn't being asked to be the "man".  He's the main head on a multi headed
> center rotation, but that's it.  Maybe he doesn't matchup well with 
> the all star centers of the league, but he can probably handle the Ervin
> Johnson's, the Jayson Williams' (plays out of position), and even 
> the Mutombo's (great defense, no offense  - in this case keep Knight at
> the 3 point line to draw him out).  
> 
> Recently the C's play the big centers and they have career games, but the
> games are close, because no matter what, it's tough for one man to beat you.
> Hakeem had 53 points in a losing effort against the C's (two years ago?).
> (I never count last year - they were trying to lose)
> 
> What really keeps Knight from being McIlvaine 98, is his contract isn't
> that big a deal.  It's long term, but it is around market value and I don't
> think he's untradeable at that price ( like Dee and Dana).  That's when big
> contracts are a problem, when no team would touch them for that price.
> 
> Kevin Smith
> Celtics/Nuggets fan
> 
>