Re: Veterans leadership

[jmc@ptc.com (Jonathan McIntyre)]

Ritesh said:
>We lost Fox and Wesley to free agents, Mills to a trade, leaving us with Edney,
>Dee, Dana, who have more than 3years experience in the NBA. Who is exactly
>going to be our stabilizing veteran leader on the team?

Edney only has 2 years NBA experience.  You forgot Massenburg with 5 years 
and Ellison with 8 years experience.  Don't know how much of a leader either 
one is.  Pitino is such a strong leader, that it may not matter.  Also, 
McCarty has 4 years experience playing for Pitino, so in a way he could be 
a bit of a leader in dealing with this style of play.  I think each player 
could contribute their own insights and areas of experience to help each 
other out, provided Pitino gives them room to do it. 

Matt Chan said:
> Just think about this, we basically got Walter McCarthy, Dontae' Jones, 
> John Thomas, and Tyus Edney for Eric Williams.  Sounds preatty good to me..

My sentiments exactly!

Matt Keenan asked:
> Why does the NBA.com site for the Boston Celtics have a R Ben Pepper from
> Australia listed? Who is this guy anyways and why haven't I heard his name
> mentioned anywhere?  Can anybody answer this?

He was the Celtics second round draft pick.  Because he's from another 
country, the Celtics retain his rights indefinitely.  He could play for 
several years in Austrailia, developing his skills (he's only 22 and hasn't 
had a lot of experience, but shows tons of potential), and if he gets to 
a point where the Celtics think he could be a big time NBA center, they 
can bring him in and sign him, or maybe trade his rights to another team 
if the Celtics don't need a big man.  There's no mandatory 3-year contract 
for second round picks, so lots of teams use their second pick to draft 
foreign players showing promise for the future, then just wait on them. 

NBA.com shouldn't be listing him, as he isn't under contract, and hasn't 
even come into any Celtics camps.  Pitino has said they'll probably invite 
him to the 1998 rookie camp next summer for a first look at him. 

Jon Mc